Oxford Democrat., 1920-06-01
AMONG THE FARMERS.
"sPEED THE PLow."
The Farmers Bow.

The Farmers Boy.
Il A great deal has been said about th
farmers boy. He has been maligned q
+ ungrateful-more than ready to skip on
I and leave the old folks at home; but |
he is, there must be some reason. Some
thing must be wrong with agriculture |
1t cannot keep the boys ON the farm. /
great many reasons have been assigned
long hours and small pay for one thing
and isolation for another. One ca
scarcely blame boy for the first. If b
can earn more money with fewer hour
at some other calling. be would be
candidate for Pownal II he did not en-
brace the opportunity; and as for isola
ton, 1t can make variety Of things ou
of boy.
1t sets him thinking for one thing-h
can't help thinking there is 90 little els
he can do-and thinker either goes Il
the insane asylum or becomes q Cheerful
cynic. Kipling probably was not fa
wrong when he said:
ut 10 not learning, grace nor gear,
Nor easy meat and drink,
But bitter pinch of pain and fear
That makes creation think"
So when boy gets out in the hot May
sun and follows the oxen up and down
the ten acre lot, both knee deep in dust,
wades until the sweat of toll saturatss
his blue chambray shirt, likewise bis
blue jean trousers, and the dust stirred
by the oxen and blown by the wind, set.
ties, sticks and penetrates these gar.
ments until he looks and feels like the
rest of the dirt on the farm, when the
oxen walk 30 slow and the dinner comes
so much slower, then he thinks, and we
bave it on no less an authority than the
poet Longfellow,
"That the thoughts of youth
Are long, long thoughts"
He longs, all right,-longs to walk
through the forest of pine and oak which
encircles the field, or over the mouu-
tains may be, to where he hears the
steam whistles blow or machinery hum,
to where there are boys like himself, and
girls unlike himself, to where there are
jazz bands which stir the blood and the
feet of each. In short to where there is
wealth and enjoyment.
he is not altogether to blame for this,
for his father, II he is like other farm
ers, has told him repeatedly there Is
neither the one nor the other on q farm;
that it 10 q long day of hard work, and
it wealth Is sought, one must sell every.
thing salable, feed the cattle what can
not be sold, and eat what the cattle can't
eat.
One can readily see the prospect Is not
alluring; but out In the world. by some
hook or crook, because a boy is smart
or unscrupulous, or both, he can sue.
ceed; that is, he can get money, which
is taken as an evidence of success.
Money can do many things, for 1t seems,
''The earth is built upon this plan;
A man first makes some money.
Then the money makes the man."
For this reason the farmers boy is
anxious to try his hand. Can you blame
him? Well, the world may be benefited
because be goes out. All advancement
comes from below. If q man be king be
cannot 60 any higher. The only thing
that comes after kingdom is st. Helena,
Doom or Sheol. So the boy who
dreamed on the farm may become the
benefactor of the world; but there are
not many whose dreams come true.
Some one has said success claims only
two per cent. of the population. The
Bible says tall men are lisrs;" so one
can hope this some one Is one of the
liars; but 1t Is fact, nevertheless, that
failures are the great majority. There
are good many comedies in this world
and just as many tragedies; for each is
simply view of the same thing from
q different angle. A mans futile pur.
suit after success or happiness may be q
comedy TO an onlooker but 1t lie always
q tragedy to the pursuer.
So the majority of farm boys are
doomed to disappointment like the
majority of other boys; and there is
likely to come time when he will appre
ciate the solitude of the ten-acre lot sur.
rounded by the forest or the noun
tains-some place where he can go and
brood. Brooding, or self pity, which is
likely to be the same thing, is said to be
and a sin; but as the Bible
says We can't help being sinners, there
does not seem to be much use In trying
to be anything else.
Thus, at last, he comes home, or wants
to, for that fioal act when
"sans teeth. sans eyes, sans taste, sans every.
thing"
be is carried to the bush covered family
lot to sleep with his fathers, where the
dogwood blooms white in spring, and
the sumsc bows red with grief in the
fall, and the deodsrs which some kindly
bird planted years ago sigh In the win
ter rains and sob out that Biblical verse
which never seems to be any good in the
religious world except to be pointed out
as the shortest verse in holy writ, but
which may carry something Of sympa.
thy,
"Jesus weptl
Jesus weptr'