Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 317 



prepared everything, set it on the fireless range and then attended 

 to other duties until 12 o'clock. When her spouse arrived she 

 pointed to the cold range and said, "My dear, I decided today to 

 prove to you that this stove will not cook without fuel." So get a 

 fireless cooker, provide an oil or gasoline stove and then defy your 

 wives to give you bad dinners. Another comfort is a screened 

 porch, which makes a pleasant summer dining room and sitting 

 room. It costs little compared to the pleasure that it gives, and 

 these things are not beyond the reach of the modest income. 



The human animal is a social being which demands the com- 

 panionship of its kind. Diversion is necessary to the physical, 

 mental and moral welfare of humanity. Monotony dulls the intel- 

 lect and makes sluggish the vital forces, and the tendency of the 

 strenuous demands of farm tasks is to make "Jack a dull boy.*' 

 Hence, there should be some form of social amusement to counteract 

 this influence. Distances and lack of time prevent much inter- 

 change of visits, and the roads are often bad. We must, however, 

 more and more centralize our divisions, making the school and 

 church the focus, and combining our social interests and establish- 

 ing a good fellowship and neighborly co-operation. Literary clubs 

 fed by the traveling libraries, home economic clubs, where house- 

 wives can exchange experiences and solve domestic problems, and 

 rural life clubs where the whole family finds a place. Let these 

 clubs have annual or semiannual picnics or open meetings with all 

 the good cheer country people so well understand, and where is 

 "joy unconfined" and the relaxation may tide over many a weary 

 day. I should not mind an occasional moving picture, provided it 

 had the elevating tendency. Travel pictures always interest, even 

 the ubiquitous tramp who steals yards of bologna sausage, which 

 in, turn trip up passerbys, who join the policeman in the chase 

 of their victim who finally runs off in the automobile of a million- 

 aire. It creates a laugh, relaxes muscles and brain and we know 

 "a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest of men." 



Let us hasten the day of good goods, the community school and 

 church. The world has come to the rural dweller through the tele- 

 phone and rural delivery and he gets out to the world by means of 

 the automobile and interurban railway. There is no dress distinc- 

 tion, and no longer is "reuben" the butt of the city wit. The 

 farmer is fast coming into his own and finding his rightful place 

 among those who have achieved success. 



