276 NEBRASKA STATE llOKTUMLTUKAL SOCIETY 



were larger than men from other farming districts. These conditions 

 developed mental characteristics as well as physical. Tlie slave owner 

 tended to become an autocrat whose will was law, and who, like Julius 

 Caesar, when asked for a reason for his conduct, said, "My reason is in 

 my will." 



The tendency of the New England type was not to subdue men and 

 enslave them, but to conquer the forces of nature and harness them for 

 the work of life. They therefore tended more to science, invention, and 

 mechanics. 



The whites who occupied the mountain regions of the South were 

 unlike either. They occupied land where much labor was necessary to 

 produce a meager subsistence; where the accumulation of wealth was 

 impossible; where a large area was necessary for even a sparse popula- 

 tion; where even the bare necessities of life were difficult to obtain; 

 where the wage worker was in competition with the slave. Under such 

 conditions there could be no schools, churches, libraries, music or art 

 except the cheapest and most primitive kinds, and the result is the type 

 called "the poor white trash." Under the new order this type is being 

 gradually changed and the traditional Arkansas traveler and the Arkansas 

 hog are passing, and a new Arkansas is being born and is destined to 

 astonish the world. 



LIFE OF MODIFICATIONS. 



Everything that enters into our lives tends to modify them. The 

 average farmer is a drudge, and, living as he does, he can not be other 

 than he is. His wife is a slave to a farm program that makes her 

 prematurely old or perhaps brings her to a premature grave. There is 

 little of social pleasure and little time for reading, recreation, and music. 

 The children obtain glimpses of city life, have visions of society, wealth, 

 fame, and are restless with the slow plodding and continuous grind of 

 farm life. T^isy leave for the city, to discover later that much they saw 

 was a mirage, deceptive and alluring, but nevertheless fascinating to a 

 soul hungry for society, as a body is thirsty for water. Yet those who 

 live in this social atmosphere are abnormally developed. They are nervous 

 and irritable. They live on abnormal stimulants, either mental or phyi- 

 cal. They live without labor on the labor of others. They spend 

 lavishly what they do not earn. .They have never learned lessons of 

 industry or economy. They know not the value of time or money. They 

 are as much underworked as the average farmer's family is overworked 

 Neither of these extremes is desirable. 



ORCHARD LIFE A MEDIUM. 



It now seems that the orchards of the Northwest will furnish new 

 conditions and build a new type of civilization. Tlioy will produce 

 enough so that there will be considerable accumulation of wealth. This 

 will enable the farmer to have good horses, good buggies or automobiles, 

 good roads, good schools, good churchet:, books, furniture, pictures, music 



