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VOL. III. 



SPE.IXGFIELD, N0YE:MBER, 1858. 



NO. 11. 



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PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



IBailliaclie & Baker, 

 Journal Buildings, - - Springfield, Illinois. 



-«•»- 



S. FRANCIS, Editor. 



<•> 



TERMS OF SCBSCHIl'TION. 



One copy, one year, in advance $1 00 



Five copies, " '• 3 75 



Ten " and one to the person getting uj) club 7 50 



Fifteen copies and over , 62}^ cents each, and one to person 

 getting up club. 



CASH KATES OP ADVEKTI81N0 : 



One dollar peraiiuaro often lines, each insertion. 



For the Illinois Farmer. 



A nome Wanted by Every Miin. 

 The desire of getting; a liorae in the 

 country, at some future time, is proba- 

 bly the most common that a business 

 man covets. In the din of the city or 

 town, on the broad sea, at the mechanic's 

 bench, in the buzzing manufactory, the 

 conccpticns of men as to the disposal of 

 their later years, tend oftenor in this 

 direction than in any other. The poetic 

 sentiment in man, existing often under 

 very rough exteriors, finds its appropri- 

 ate food in the naturalness of the coun- 

 try: the religious sensibilities, if they 

 have less artificial aid and have more of 

 the benefit derived from the illustration 

 of nature ; the quietness of the country 

 is altogether alluring to one's sober 

 days ; the expanse that it aff'ords is the 

 symbol of freedom ; it forms a surer 

 competence, "\vc are satisfied, in the 

 long run, than any other ; and incom- 

 petence fares as well, if not better, there 

 than elsewhere. But does actual farm- 

 ing-life reach the high ideal here assum- 

 ed for it ? Go into the country and 

 you will say nay — nay — at every turn. 

 You are altogether disappointed ; the 

 illusion has vanished ; the man's work 



visible is preposterously out of keeping 

 with the beauty and order of nature. 



It may be that you are in contact 

 with a pioneer, struggling population ; 

 but be tluit as it may, if a man has time 

 to hoc and dig and plow, to exist at all, 

 he has time to make his own abode com- 

 fortable ; his own doors inviting ; to 

 manifest some neatness ; to methodize 

 his labors ; to put his barn in some or- 

 der — to hare an indoor sitting-room, 

 where the family can congregate, free 

 from the odors of cooking, the para- 

 phernalia of a chamber. If he has it 

 not, let him build one with the first 

 boards he can lay his hands upon, paper 

 it inexpensively, hang pictures about its 

 walls, put flowers upon its tables, decor- 

 ate it with the commonest things, ever 

 the best, and occupy it, not occasionally, 

 but let the family be frequently found 

 tliere, as in a refuge where care may be 

 laid aside, and the social qualities be 

 nurtured and strenoithened. 



Habits thus begun, under straitened 

 circumstances, will be the inception of 

 an improvement that will not end simply 

 in moral and mental results ; but will 

 aid practical effort, give a meaning to 

 industrv that it never before had; for 

 there can be no collusion between culti- 

 vation of character and the efforts of la- 

 bor. How man}'' men, from their daily 

 toil, at nitrht enter their kitchen and no 

 where else. It may be that they have a 

 parlor, but with their years and increas- 

 ing means have not acquired those tastes 

 that enable them to enjoy it ; sit down 

 without proper change of shoes, ablution 

 or raiment, unsocial as sucli manners 

 ever must be, and then go to sleep like 

 the beasts that perish, perhaps in the 

 same room. Let such men, if over- 

 worked or l\itigued, -wash thoir feet, 

 their legs, above the knees, their face 



and neck and hands, and see wdiat a 

 transformation it will make; how their 

 weariness will subside and renovation 

 succeed ; how their evening may then 

 be spent to some purpose, some social 

 advancement ; how it will sooth them 

 during the hours of night. No doctor's 

 prescription is equal to the simple ap- 

 pliances of nature. 



Of neglected households, in what are 

 they better than the Hottentots of south 

 Africa? What end has life to them? 

 Their enjoyments of the lowest kind, 

 their aspirations low ; they die some 

 day as the fool dieth, without having 

 even possessed those enjoyments that 

 their heart has craved, and have lost 

 this world, the beautiful natural scenery 

 amid which they were placed, nor gain- 

 ed from it one solid satisfaction, a sin- 

 gle practical benefit, or acquired that 

 subdued character, those simpler wants 

 that are in harmony with its contempla- 

 tion. The wife and mother in these 

 homes jfeads a wretched existence j her 

 fidelity may commend itself to her con- 

 science, but it has been a woeful per- 

 version of the high trust committed to 

 her ; a sad example to her children, and 

 no law of our being is better established 

 than this, that from coarse parents will 

 proceed coarse children, and physiolo- 

 gists believe that the bodily structure 

 obeys the same condition and deteriora- 

 tes in symmetry with neglect of general 

 culture. And improvement in rural 

 life does not involve expense. We have 

 not in our mind a city drawing-room — 

 if poverty exist let things be as neat 

 and orderly as poverty can make them. 

 The most scrutinizing eye will pass over 

 these imperfections ; let every thing be 

 good or fair of its kind. If a Virginia 

 fence sui-round the premises, the rails 

 at least should be in thoir place ; the 



