STATE CONVENTION—FARM LIFE. 
245 
ment; while Harper’s and Scribner’s will add rich stores of 
knowledge. Papers will come weekly with their instructive teach¬ 
ings. Poetry and music, the language of the skies must be there, 
and far back in the country, earnest, faithful workers may rear the 
beautiful temple of home, that dearest, most sacred thing on 
earth; where dwells that etherial something that is felt and seen, 
which wealth cannot purchase nor privation destroy. 
Whether we think of it or not, the whole labor of life, the ob¬ 
ject for which men toil, for which governments are founded and 
sustained, discoveries and improvements made, is to secure to the 
people better and happier homes; and whether we know it or not, 
the most fruitful source of all the much talked of hardship and 
privation of farm life is the partial or total disregard of the pleas¬ 
ures of home; putting off till some future time all the simple 
luxuries, the tasteful adorning that makes country life so charm¬ 
ing, saying there is no time or place on a farm for tasteful appa¬ 
rel or nicely prepared food, or sociability, or refinement, or intel¬ 
lectual pleasures. It is this, more than hard work, that saddens 
and discourages, and makes the heart sick with hope deferred. 
It is human to think we are fettered by circumstances; that we 
have no opportunity; that if we had influential friends,’ a good 
location, or money to make money with, we could do something. 
But there should be no waiting for these desirable conditions. 
Opportunities must be made and success will come to him or her 
who makes them. They were only men and women who won it 
in the past, or are seeking it with persistent industry in the pres¬ 
ent, and we of the farm should never be content with anything 
less than the best that can be done in the circumstances and the 
situation. We may not make money like railroad kings, but we 
may have cultivated farms, beautiful homes and happy firesides. 
There is work, much and varied work, to be done by the intel¬ 
ligent farmer and hi3 family. The thoughtful brain must plan 
for improvements, sales, profits, and losses, while the active 
hand guides the plow and gathers in the harvest; but in the 
great march of progress, a grand army of workers will come up 
from forest and prairie, from hill side and valley; every interest 
of the farm will receive due attention; wrong will be righted; 
hardships will be lessened; pleasures will be increased, until to 
