1382 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
. HOPE FARM NOTES 
I liavc just rffcivcd tlie fullowiiig letter 
from a soldior now “with the colors.” lie 
is not in France, but down near the bor¬ 
der. keeping an eye on the ix’ople acro.ss 
the Hio (Irande: 
“I have jn«t finished readiiiK .several 
coides of 'I'liK K. N.-Y. which were f(jr- 
warded to me from my home in New Jer- 
.sey. I have always enjoyed readiiiK the 
jiaper, but e.specially valued your ‘Hope 
J‘'arm Notes.’ Imagine my disapiioint- 
ment. tlien. when tlie notes in all these 
issues dealt with practical farm itroblems 
lather than with the discussion of some 
tojiic from a ‘fireside viewiioint,’ an you 
so often favor us with. May I suRKcst 
that you r«;serve that particular section (»f 
the paper for a general disemssion <)f farm 
prohlerns and farm life, rather than to a 
di.scussifin of some jiarticulai' jiractical 
pivtblemV I am myself a farm-bred boy. 
While on the farm we g<“t so much ‘farm¬ 
ing’ that we enjoy a little of the ideal 
once a week.” n. E. 
Not long ago I had two letters almo.st 
together. One man said this Hope Farm 
man is a very good farmer, but that he 
made a gi'eat mistake' when he branched 
off into sentiment or unpractical issues. 
I surely think this man’s judgment re¬ 
garding the fir.st |»roi)osition would not 
stand analysis. If you could get an hon¬ 
est ojiinion from Thomas and IMiilip, niy 
belief is they would say that they do the 
work and I tell about it. The other man 
said In* concluded I was a iiCKir farmer, 
but tluit In* liked to have me discuss other 
related things because he had fouinl these* 
things were the great n*fuge for those 
who realized that their farming was more 
or less of a failure! 
>|( * >|( Ik >}( 
That is a good way of putting it, but 
you will see that iieopb* differ in their 
way of vit'wing things. 'i'ln*r<* is one* ex¬ 
treme type* e)f pe>e»i»le* wine re'garel farming 
as nedhing but hard, grinding labeir, with 
no eibject or outcome e*xce*itt putting eine 
dedlar upon another. 'I’ln*y make farming 
a business which surely ceune*« in be*fe)re* 
pleasure* and crowds it out. The.se folks 
want nothing of jeoetry eer re)mance or 
sentiment in their live*s, and when they 
read or study they want nothing but 
se)und. practical facts. My observatie>n i.s 
that these i)e*e)ple enjeiy their live*s ujt tei 
the point where it becomes api»arent te) 
them that their jeowers are falling. Then 
the practical, meeney-making habit eef ex¬ 
istence fails to satisfy and they mu.st 
finish life sour and unhapiiy and unsatis- 
fie'el. I.oeik areuind yeeu anel see how many 
men and women over .50 you know who 
keej) on growing and keejr sweet and 
wholesome! This young soldier who 
writes me from Texas w’ill never be satis¬ 
fied with the mere bread and meat of life. 
He has seen something of the world, and 
it h!»i^ br(»‘ul('n(*d him and madt* him realize 
that the hunger of the heart and mind 
must be satisfied as well as the hunger of 
the body. 
Ik Ik << Ik 
Then we have another tyj)e of i)eople 
who run to tin* other extreme. They are 
not practical enough, but live in a land of 
dreams where no one knows the true 
value of a dollar or the moral obligations 
of a debt. I know people who borrow 
money. y(*t n(*v<*r att<*mi)t to i»ay Ilnur 
debts, but si)end such money as they get 
hold of for books or lectures or otln*r 
things which satisfy the mind or intellect. 
Not being ln*ld down by the practical side 
of the dollar, such jn'ople are rarely able 
to put their knowledge to any true* u.se. 
Of course, the man without any family or 
social obligations might live such a selfish 
life without gre;it injury to the public. 
When such a man undertakes to bring ui) 
a family, he cannot feed them on clouds 
or clothe them in vi.sions. TTsually the 
man <if visions thinks his lu-actical, pro¬ 
saic neighbor is selfish because he narrows 
his life down to the measure, of a dollar. 
Tin* fact is, they are Imth .selfi.sh—one 
denying his family and his own life the 
finer things of humanity, the other deny¬ 
ing. in like mann(*r, the very foundation 
things of orderly and honest life. In the 
big Rural family we have all these tyi)es, 
from tin* Shy lock and skinflint 1o the 
“ci'ank” and rajnbow-eater. We have all 
grad(*«, and the wiser idan is to give tln*m 
all a corner where they may feel at home. 
41 Hi i|c >l< « 
During the recent campaign for Liberty 
bonds and war work all these types of hu¬ 
manity were repres<*nted. Some of what 
I call “rainbow-eaters” put down their 
names for good-sized amounts, and then, 
of course, could not pay. They nn'ant 
Avell. but lacked the ca.sh. Yet their 
names on the paper induced others to give 
inoi'e than they otherwi.se would have 
done. Thosff of you who have read “A 
Fertain Rich Man” remember the impe¬ 
cunious old Colonel who headed a char¬ 
itable list for .'(i.’jO. lie was not financial¬ 
ly good for r»() cents, but when contribu¬ 
tions were slow he rubbed out his first 
amount and made it $100! Then this 
national appeal came to many i)ractical 
men whose lives had been .sjtent struggling 
with debt and mortgage jind who had 
never realized wdiat it means to put a 
dollar on the altar of their country. I 
shall always think that the way these 
hard-working practical men finally opened 
their pock<*tl)ooks and gav<* to tin* R(‘d 
Cross or bought a Liberty bond wa.s not 
only the finest but the most hopeful thing 
this nation has seen since the (’ivil War. 
It wa.s in its way like opening a door in 
the dead wall of a narrow life, for only 
through a .sacrifice of the things which 
.seem to mean mo.st to us can the mind of 
man be broadened and filh*d with true pa¬ 
triotism. It is only through this broaden¬ 
ing and filling of the mind that our plain 
people can hope to go through this great 
peace reconstruction and gain what is 
jiKstly due them. I can tell you that this 
war has biought h<»me to both the “rain¬ 
bow-eater” and the jjractical man the need 
of a more biilanced life. I might lelate 
many instances to prove that statement. 
In one ca.se a farmer felt that he had 
r(*ach(*d the age for “retiring.” His only 
son married a girl who knew little about 
farm life. She was a bright, capable 
young woman—the boy met her at col¬ 
lege. They were both ambitious iuid true, 
but neither could be contc*nt to live just 
as the old folks had done. Father had 
bis farm paid for and sonn* little money 
invested in good securities. He want(*d 
the y<Ming peojde to begin where In* did— 
with mithing. and work the farm on .shares 
at “old-fa.shioned farming.” Both of these 
young p<*ople were ca])able of making 
twice a« much jis this would bring them 
at other work. ’Phey want<*d to live on a 
farm, but had no land to start with. 
What they suggested was for father 
to take part of his invested money and 
buy an up-to-date outfit of tools and stock 
and let them farm on a more modern plan. 
That is the little draniii which tears at 
the heartstrings of many a farm family. 
When yo\i come to think about it, this is 
entirely natui'al—both for the young j)eo- 
l)le to have hroad ideas of life and for 
father t< h«‘sitat<* and finally to decide 
against the change. 
♦ ♦ >!■ >> >l< 
Then came the war. and the boy was 
drafted. Mary, the yemng w'ife, stayed at 
the farm with the old folks, though she 
long(*d to be at the front as a nurse or 
helpi'r. There were lonely days on that 
fai'in. Father could not get the nced(*d 
help and he grew discouraged. He growled 
at the (Jovernment, at the w'ar, and was 
fast developing into a sour and <lisap- 
pointed critic of the world in general. He 
vow<*d he would sell the .sh(*(*p and the cat¬ 
tle—fine herds which he had spent years 
in developing—move to town and give up 
trying to do anything to heli) the country. 
Since the country had taken his boy he 
would give it nothing hack. Oh, there 
\Ver«* it good many men who felt like that, 
but most of them, finally aroused, shook 
olT their despair and entered the service! 
Out* night fiither .sat by the fire with his 
head bent down as you hiive seen de¬ 
spondent men sit and brood. Mother sat 
nciir, knitting a pair of stockings for the 
bo.v. Mary finished her work and came 
with a book to rciul a little before she 
began her .s(*wing. It was ii copy of Ten¬ 
nyson and she op(*n(*d it at that noble 
po«‘m “THysses.” I presume mo.st of you 
b:iv(* read it : whether you have or not, get 
the book and read it over. Mary read it 
aloud—the heartache and longing of the 
king, home.sick at home, unhappy in his 
lif«i <»f ease, eager in his old agi; to get 
back into the old adventurous life, anx¬ 
ious to “di(! in the harness.” 
I 
“There gleam the dark broad seas. My 
marin(*rs. 
Souls that have toiled and wTought, and 
thought w'ith me 
j „j.,, 
Death clos(*s all, hut .something ere the end 
Some work of noble note, may yet be done 
Not unbecoming men that strove with 
gods 
>j< i> iji ii< 
We are not now that strength w'hich in 
old diiys 
Moved (‘artli and heaven ; that Avhich we 
are w<‘ are; 
<*'!(* e<iual t(*m|H*r of lH*roic hearts. 
Made weak by time and fate, but strong 
in will 
To strive, to .seek, to find, and not to 
yield.” 
Hf iji an ^ ^ 
Mary read this .slowly, thinking as she 
read, of the soldier “Somewhere in 
h’rance.” As she read there seemed a 
new presence in thiit lonely farmhouse. 
Mother stopped knitting and sat listening 
with shining eyes. 
“You and I are old . . . and not to 
yield.” 
As father listened his head came up 
from his breast and when she fini.shed he 
held out his hand for the book. 
“Let me read that again !” 
"<* sat there for an hour reading that 
noble t>oein over and over until it came to 
be a part of him. He .saw it all. He 
saw what it meant to that old king to 
rust away 
“Little remains but every hour i.s saved 
From that eternal silence.” • 
He. in his humble way, was like that 
old king. His farm, the .sheep and cattle, 
the faithful hors«*s. wer(* like the mar¬ 
iners to whom this he.'irtsick old king wa.s 
sjieaking. 'Phere came to his heart the 
same longing to keep moving and die in 
the hariK'ss—to “do his bit” for the boy 
and for tin* country. When he put the 
bo<d< down he said : 
“I understand that if it is poetry. 
Mary. I wish you would write Rilly and 
tell him I’ll keep this farm going till he 
<romes back, and then we’ll make it 
jump!” n. w. c. 
December 14, 191.S 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 333 W. 30 T'H STREET, NEW YORK 
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