The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1916-02-10

this plan our money would come back
to us in the form of minds and hands
trained in our own schools, to take up
the tasks and problems of the parents.
They will come to you, like bread upon
the water, after many days; equipped
to carry on our work and solve the
problems we could not solve because
of lack of opportunity. It will bring
to us the glow of pride as we sit in
the evening of life, to see our life's
aims and hopes carried on after we
have done our part. The saddest things
that come to any man or woman arc
our parting days. The times when we
say goodbye to friends, parents and
family ties. The time when our vision
begins to fade, our foot to falter, our
hands to tremble, as again and again
they rest lovingly upon the task we
took up in our younger days, when life
meant hope, vision, and the great be-
You'd. Yet now, as the evening shades
are falling, as own strength is failing
fast day by day, our tasks become
little harder. We are going to say
goodbye; we are going to feed the old
horse for the last time; he calls as
you enter his stall; he rubs his nose
contentedly on your shoulder. He OBJ
serves your every move; he knows there
is lump in your throat as you hurry
by; he remembers you didn It pat him
as you used to do. Horse, though he
be, with finess of feeling, the last
look is foreborn; he turns his head
away, he knows the teardrops trickl,
down your furrowed cheek, Che knows.)
We've been SO long together. We only
need nod and glance. We under
stand, you and I. You re having
hard time to say adieu. III make it
easier. The old horse turns away. You
hurry by. You say, ~ can't do it now;
I'll feed the cows and pigs and slip in
when he's DOING" You lay aside your
plough and hoe; you bolt up doors and
ledgers. You pause moment in the
twilight. You peer beyond the glim-
mer of the fading hopes, and dumbly
morrow 'll-tomorrow to-
morrow Well-Yes--tomorrow -
sell. Yes-no-my men,
ory's failing me. morrow-I-I-
Mandy, did l tell We l gave the pigs
the swill. My heads buzzin so. I'l
tell Mandy. l can't jist can tt
waz jist DOING. Mandy, waz l mumbl-
ing like. l thought 1 saw stranger
comm in at the gate to take away old
Dobin. Didn t see him, Mandys Say
we didn ~ IT'S but little pen pic
ture, but yet how true. We become
rooted and grow with the years, part,
as it were, of our farms, our herds, our
place of business, our profession. On
ly we can know the feeling that comes
and clutches the heart, as we 60 to
see for the last time the still incom-
pleted structure we reared with such
loving touches, such high hopes, yet
now the children are gone; they could
not catch our visions. They will not
finish the task our hands can no longer
carve; we're old, our strength is nearly
gone. Tomorrow we only whisper the
word. Tomorrow stranger will sit
where we once sat, but he will not see
the vision that came to us so long ago.
Our work must remain unfinished.
America IS greatest problem today is
none other than the one knocking at
your door at this time. The turning of
the tide of boys and girls back from
the schools and colleges to the homes
Of their fathers for the carrying Oh of
the old farm, the old business, the old
profession. A renewing of the vision
of the fathers, taking-up of the work
of the parents and carrying it on and
up from the foundation we have laid
to completed buildings.
This same plat of ground would fit in
well by adding little additional
ground to establish an agricultural col
lege as final step in our school system:
by taking this step we could look for
a state and national appropriation to
aid in carrying on the work. In this,
an agricultural community, it's the
natural steps to take. With the schools
and their farm clubs, all working to-
wards the goal of the year, not gradua
ton day, but fair time. With the
county fair and its results the test, the
taxpayer will ask as a return for money
paid to the support of schools, and
with the support of the schools will
come the personal pride of the parents
If such an object could be worked out,
leading up to the establishment Of an
school, with a county agri
culturalist to aid the farmers to better
fhiuus vnur work wonld receive tho