McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1916-05-26

New York, let him come but not for
years yet.
Worse than low prices for crops,
droughts, floods or insect pests, is the
picking up and leaving of the Drawn
and sinew, the best men and Women,
from a country community. There
are lots of well-to-do people in and
around Selmer. Look at the Adams,
Alexander, Alternately, Gall the AS
this time, but there are others) and
other families, who have stuck to
their home town and prospered. They
have more money than thousands of
just as smart people who came here
to get rich, and what is far better,
they know what to do with it. Glenn
Lea might have had Fifth avenue
mansion, half-dozen autos, French
chauffeur and an office on Wall street
with millions in the City National
Bank if he had come here forty years
ago; but Glen knows what is good
for him, and is wise in sticking to
the good old soil of McNairy, where
his smiling fields and his granting
herds OF Berkshire pigs are source
Of real pleasure to him, an example
to his neighbors and an actual unit in
the nations wealth and strength.
P. Il. Thrasher might have been hailed
as Colonel, and sat on the board of
aldermen, and helped show up graft;
ye editor might have presided over
the destinies of the hourly Pink
Sereamer", but he prefers to shed
gentle joy each week to his old
neighbors and friends by disseminat-
ing the local news and giving me room
to spread myself at will in these long
winded articles from the great, wick
ed, splendid city; and our friend
Thrasher is happier and better off in
McNairy, where his sterling example
will have perhaps even more lasting
effect, and where he is not bothered
with rotten Tammany politics.
/ wrote the young man something
like this: The great electric lights
on Broadway attract multitudes of
insects, which fall dead at the foot of
the dazzling glow. New York wants
you for what you can give it; but
cares nothing else about you. Stay
where you are now happy and secure;
marry one whom you have long known,
and safe in the love OF one good wom-
an Zone is plenty, rejoice with the
wife Of thy youth, and train up your
children as you were trained. to love
God and your neighbor. Help build
up your home county and town; they
need you; New York does not. Above
all, keep the dew Of youth in your
heart. God pity the McNairy boy
who is not thrilled when the young
leaves come out in the tree tops, when
the birds sing, and the little rills go
curling their prattling waters toward
the creeks, and the may-apples begin
to spread their little green tents in
the bottoms, and the red-buds light
their cool torches on the hills; who
does not love the smell of the. soil as
it turns before the plow-share with a
homely perfume that is more precious
in itspromise Of fruitage than a whole
perfume factory here; who does not
yearn at the close Of an earnest days
work for a plunge in the creek under
the hazel, and alder bushes, and in
whose heart there is not thankfulness
that he can rise with the sun in the
morning and pillow, hoe and harvest
for his own meat and bread. And
sweeter that meat and that bread (to
say nothing Of that golden butter,
creamy clabber and all sorts of good
things from the GARDEN that is pre-.
pared and set before him by loving
hands, than all the foreign delicacies
that will be served up tonight at
Rector's and Delmonico's in this place
of jaded appettes and broken con-
science BY walters from France and
Greece.
1t is no exaggeration to say that
year in and year out. the average
farmer in McNairy will have
more actual wealth than the same
man or woman in this city.
Yesterday | saw thousands of store
clerks going home, on Thirty-Third
street. Their pale faces and abstract
ed looks did not tell of happiness,
health or contentment. As looked
at them, I thought of my mothers