482 
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
ling as he goes to his rough but honest toil, might give an answer 
to this problem of existence. 
It is not fortune, position, or learning that makes life worth 
while; it is the doing of noble deeds, steadily, faithfully, not for sel¬ 
fish gain or applause, but that one’s own life and the life of his fel¬ 
lows may be sweetened and uplifted. If life means little to any¬ 
one, it is because he is doing little. To the world’s busy workers 
in all honorable fields it is full, pure and glad. It is work that gives 
meaning to cities as to individuals—indeed, it is their only justifica¬ 
tion. We should be foolish in the extreme to huddle together and 
deprive ourselves of air and sunlight, were it not that we can do 
more by combination. Work is then the source as well as the soil 
of the city. “ The surrounding is born out of the doing.” 
While riding on the cars past some lonely farm-house, or linger¬ 
ing for a moment in some quiet village, especially a peculiarly 
western village, with its shanties clustered about the depot, have 
you never wondered how the dwellers in these secluded spots found 
life endurable, much more, enjoyable? And have you never caught 
yourself looking down upon such as chanced to stray near with a 
mingled feeling of pity and patronage which a survey of their con¬ 
tented faces did not in the least warrant? But if business or pleas¬ 
ure has called you to one of the least promising of these towns, 
and you have been welcomed to the home-life of some simple cot¬ 
tager, you must have found that the cares of the family and the 
interests of the community give significance to life here as else¬ 
where. 
To no other class in society has life so little meaning as to young 
women of leisure. Reared in the narrow belief that labor is de¬ 
grading, they sit down in idleness, grow morbid and are consumed 
with ennui , while devoted friends wonder that they are not supreme¬ 
ly happy. That they are not is sufficient proof that freedom from 
care is not, as many suppose, the one thing essential to enjoyment. 
Many an active, high-spirited girl, for want of proper employment, 
grows into a sharp, discontented woman. Her native energy, turned 
to no useful purpose, reacts upon herself and blasts the life it was 
meant to bless. Happily the day is fast passing for woman, as it 
long ago passed for man, when idleness is respectable. A. woman 
is no longer ostracized if it be whispered that she earns her daily 
bread. 
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