THE FARMER AND HTS FELLOWS. 97 



ment in the seventeenth century, wliich, mainly through the 

 New EngUind settlement, has left its impress on all America. 

 At the present time large numbers of the most excellent 

 })eo])le we have are profoundly convinced of the essential im- 

 morality both of card playing and dancing. Some churches 

 make it a matter of discipline; some wink at it, and some see 

 nothing wrong in it. 



On the other hand, many estimable people, doubtless com- 

 prising the majority of the community, believe dancing in 

 itself to be an agreeable and innocent amusement, and that 

 the evil consists in the promiscuous entertainments, conducted 

 in public places and open to all, which are common in rural 

 districts. As to '"'card playing" they claim that it is an 

 absolutely innocent recreation, which has proved its accepta- 

 bility for ages, and in all countries, and deny absolutely that 

 it has any tendency whatever to lead to "gambling," or that 

 in fact it ever does so lead. It may not seem clear to all what 

 this has to do with the economic relations of the farmer to 

 his fellows, but the fact is that in many rural districts this 

 question of dancing and card playing lies at the root of rural 

 (iiscontent. It did so in the neighborhood where I was 

 brought up. The people of most sterling worth set their 

 faces strongly against these amusements, which the rougher 

 element freely indulged in. The more headstrong of the 

 youth of the better families tended to break loose from home 

 restraints and associate themselves with the rough element, to 

 the unquestioned deterioration of their morals. 



Youth craves amusement and will have it. Age really 

 requires it more than youth. The trouble with rural society 

 is not the modesty of its pecuniary rewards, but the grinding, 

 cheerless habit of life, which, by the way, is more marked in 

 the American farmers than in any other people in the world. 

 The youth do not drift to the cities so much with the idea of 

 making more money as of having a better time. The remedy 

 for much of the farmers' discontent is more abundant social 

 intercourse, in which it is extremely desirable that parents 

 and children should participate together. 



The difficulties in the way of this seem almost insurmount- 

 7 



