allow his mental faculties to become rusty 
from disuse, any more than he can afford 
to allow his farm tools to lie idle and un¬ 
cared for. Well informed minds and active 
brains are needed on the farm today, per¬ 
haps more than ever before. It is not 
enough for us to know how to plant and 
harvest. We want to know what the world 
is producing and consuming; what is the 
demand and supply; what natural advan¬ 
tages and resources our own and other sec¬ 
tions of the country possess, that we may 
more profitably employ our land and labor. 
And there are numberless other things that 
we want, and must know if we hold our 
own in these wide-awake times. 
In order to accomplish these things we 
must give ourselves an opportunity to see 
what is going on around us; and to read, 
study and think. What man can exercise 
his mind to any advantage when he is 
ground down to hard manual labor fourteen 
hours of every twenty-four. He is too tired 
to read or think, after the performance of 
eucli excessive labor, and it is to be but little 
wondered at that he grows dull and apa¬ 
thetic, losing his interest in every thing 
but the few acres that he tills. 
Muscle is an important faction in the 
cultivation of the soil but to a large extent 
it may be supplanted, if not superseded by 
brains. By the aid of our late inventions, 
the puny child may now accomplish the 
work that once required the labor of many 
strong men. A little thought and planning 
will very materially abridge the work upon 
every farm. 
It is a pleasure to think, and it is no less a 
pleasure to express your thought. The inter¬ 
change of thought is profitable as well as 
pleasurable. Contact with other men who 
have had widely different experiences must 
be productive of new ideas, with which 
there is little danger of our becoming over¬ 
stocked. 
It is unjust and cruel to deprive our fami¬ 
lies of all social and intellectual priveleges. 
Even if we ourselves are willing to be ground 
down and held to one uneventful routine of 
labor, we hava no right to condemn our 
children to the same fate. 
Let us give them a chance; we shall nev¬ 
er lose by it even in the point of dollars and 
cents. Hard, incessant labor, with but little 
recreation or change, is driving more boys 
from the farm than all other causes put 
together. Overworked farmers wives are 
vastly more plentiful than they need be. 
They, too, want rest and change of scene. 
Don’t postpone the reformation until you 
are better able, for you are but throwing 
away the means for attaining that desired 
condition, Commence now. 
Model Communities. 
Among the noteworthy signs of the times 
is the effort that is making to improve the 
material condition of cities and towns. 
Every one has heard of Pullman City, near 
Chicago, and now the newspapers tell the 
story of Faribault, the model town of Min¬ 
nesota. It is named after an Indian agent, 
a wise and good man, whose works live 
after him. Although it has but seven thous¬ 
and inhabitants, it is noted for its schools 
and benevolent corporations. The three 
educational institutions of the Episcopalians 
in Minnesota are located there, also three 
admirable State institutions, one for the 
blind, another for the deaf and dumb, and 
a third for imbeciles. The little town wisely 
gave several hundred acres of land to these 
institutions, and what is the same as a mag¬ 
nificent park free to all is the result. There 
is quite an emulation among certain towns 
as to which shall become the most beautiful 
t 
in future years, and this noble rivalry 
should be continued. It should be consider¬ 
ed a disgrace to live in a neighborhood which 
is unwholesome and unsightly. —DemoresVs 
Monthly. 
“Honesty is the best policy.” This is a 
truthful but a much abused saying. It glides 
very smoothly over the lips of the rogue, to 
induce his better neighbors to lay down 
their proper weapons of self-protection. 
—“Yes,” she said to her escort as they 
glided around the rink, “I do so love roller 
skating. While you are sailing around, your 
soul seems floating away toward heaven, 
and—” Just at that moment both of her 
foies floated away towards heaven and the 
rest of her smote the earthly floor with a 
mighty smite .—Syracuse Herald. 
