Year: 1877

Mini, a contributor to the Indiana


Farmer, in writing on this subject,


says:


was talking to farmers daugh-
ter the other day. aad we naturally.
it seemed, dropped into complain
inge, and each revealed the fact that
she was discontented. 1 ask her
what she intended to do for a living.
and she answered, 20, don't know,
[ want to get away and make money
somehow. fl could go to school
little more could teach, but they
can't spare me-" | knew that all
her life had been one round of cook
ing, and milking and churning; of
washing, and scrubbing and ironing.
knew that her father was wealthy
farmer, a granger, and q leading
church member. He has q good
farm and a cosy barn-such a cosy
barn-and money in band. And
when looked at the ugly old farm
house, with its black doors. and
small windows it's calves. and pigs
and chickens, running in undisturb-
ed tranquility over the yard, l did
not wonder that she found it unat-
tractive, and that she wanted to


get away" The finer sensibilities
of her woman nature were awaken
ing, and they called for something
better. I, for one, do not blame the
farmers daughters for being dissat-
isfed. know how much they have
10 make them so.


When will these farmers learn
that the ''life is more than meat, and
the body than raiment?' When
will they cease considering it a waste
of time to send their children to
school, or waste of money to pay
for books or magazines? Why will
they spend their money giving the
heather a chance to be lost when
their daughters are absolutely suf-
fering for something to read? They
toll and sweat, wasting the souls
best earnings in providing for the
poor, fraii body, that, were it not
that it is the temple OF the soul,
would be worth no more to us than
piece of wood or q stone. They
reverse the p ositions and make the
rightful master servant. Their time
is wholly occu pied in providing for
the temporal wa nts.


Holland tells US that farmers are
afraid to be educated, or refined, or
to cultivate the beauties of nature,
lest they be thought "stuek up"
He says that their finer nature, be-
ing neglected. becomes sluggish and
dormant. When they go to sleep
they merely "go to roost," when
they eat they stuck away grub !"
that they surprise the ir backs with
Gle an Shirts and when they marry
they ''hitch on" In all this we re-
cognize more of truth than poetry.
Perhaps it is true the world is what
we make it; but the sad part of this
truth is, that some Of us cannot make
it what it ought to be, or what we
wish it to be. IF the natures that
are given us with the exis tence that
is thrust upon us are sluggish and
stolid, we must suffer the consequen-
ees throughout time and eternity.
No matter how much we may do to
eradicate the baser p art, we can new
er attain the higher tandard we
might have reached it loving aud
considerate parents had helped to
prepare the way for us.


We hear a great deal about the
dignity and nobility of labor; we
see the truth of this in the results Of
the lives of such men as Hugh Miller
Agassiz and our old time patriots.
But labor having no good end in
view; labor that is not a means of
attaining some higher good; labor
that is merely muscular expansion
and contraction for the sake Of MAX
ing and keeping money, is only a
method Of soul-murder. We need
never be afraid of labor, provid ed
we work in the right spirit. Anna
Dickinson used to clean street cross
ings to earn money to pay for
books.