v,^ 



^^1) THE GENESEE FARJIER. 



HOMES FOR THE POOR. 



BY L. T. C. E., OF ONOXDAGA HILL, >', Y. 



Permit me, through your pages, to call the attention of wealthy and philanthropic 

 ao-riculturista to the importance of providing houK-s for the poor, particularly that class 

 employed as farm laborers. A large portion of this class of our nihabitants liave never 

 Ind and never wiU have without a little assistance, a home ot their own; and many ot 

 them depend upon shifting their quarters as regularly as the spring returns. _i he idea 

 of ever ownino- a home seems to them an impossibility ; yet there are few families whose 

 urmecessar!/ expenses, in the course of four or five years, do not amount to more than 

 sufficient to purchase a home that would make thein as comturt^ible as the owner ot 

 thousands. A man who never expects to earn taster than he spends, will have kit little 

 calculation or economy ; hence it is that those persons who live m dailywant ot the 

 necessaries of life, usually spend more time and money at parades, exhibitions, and lor 

 all sorts of sight-seeing, than those who have comfoivtable fortunes. This miserable 

 h-^bit of continually shiftino- quarters doubtless begets those thriftless, untidj-^ and not 

 unfrequently dishonest habits, which are almost invariably found connected with extreme 

 novertv. But instead of wondering at these traits of character, when connected with 

 physical and intellectual destitution, we should wonder at the exception. He who has 

 nothincr of his own, will not be likely to be very conscientious with regard to what 

 beloncrs to another ; and it is useless to expect a man to have the same care tor neatness 

 or economy while residing on the premises of some wealthy landlonl-which he is to 

 OCCUPY but for a year or two, or perhaps at the option or caprice of the ownei—as he 

 Zm have if the^premlses were his own ; or that he will have the same inducement 

 for becoming an honest, industrious, and reputable citizen, that he would have if he 

 CKpected to become a permanent resident. Give a man a snug little cottage, wi h but 

 am acre of ground well stored with fruit, with his cow, pig, and poultry, and he will have 

 no more disposition to encroach upon his neighbors than if he were woilh ten imes 

 that amount;-he has /«. rights; he will consequently respect the rights of others 

 And if he were obliged to pay his own school bills and his share of taxes, however small 

 they mioht be, his children would he more likely to be sent to school, and kq.t trom 

 breakin J windows and committing other depredations upon public property. I do no 

 make this survgestion as grudging any amount that may be expended for the real beneht 

 of the poor, but because whatever is free is generally considered ot litt.e value 



But the greatest evil resulting from this unsettled mode of living is the influence it 

 has in forming the character and habits of children. They are naturally fond of novelty, 

 and moving into a new neighborhood soon becomes with them a very important desid- 

 eratum ; they have never had a home long enough to become attached to one; they 

 Lve nothing to leave or lose ; and every change, even for the worse, will at least gratity 

 their curiosity. If they are naturally active and intelligent, they early acquire an uneasy 

 raving disposition, which unfits them for perseverance in any pursuit; they get an idea 

 that "the world owes them a living," which they intend to have tor the least labor. 

 Some of them will no doubt make very expert gamblers, ju^;lers, mesmerizers, spirit- 

 knockers, and not a few will become inebriates and felons. It they are dull and lazy, 

 they become tavern-loungers and vagrants, till necessity forces them to seek an asylum 

 in a poor-hou.-e; and a majority of the persons who have once resorted to a poor-house 

 for relief imbibe a fondness for that mode of life, (which requires ittle exertion and no 

 calculation or forethouoht.) and become attached to the society which such an asylum 

 always affords, and ready on the slightest pretence to seek admission agam withm its 

 walls I have known veteran paupers who boasted of having been in every, or nearly 

 every, poor-house in the State. Their children in turn become paupers; and in this 

 way pauperism will continue to increase ad infinitum. j r 



