VOL. LIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, DECEMBER 10, 1904.
NO. 50.
Written for the Indiana Farmer:
For Some Men to Read.
By Hilda Richmond.
A shrewd store keeper in* a small city
was talking not long ago about the rush
to cities from farms and he said years
of observation led him to believe that the
men. in the family rarely wanted to live
in town. It is the women and children
who become dissatisfied and want to move
in his opinion.
"It seems to be a masculine trait to
blame the poor women with everything,
said a lady in the group before the merchant got any further with his views. "I
think it is a shame that everything is
heaped on their shoulders."
"But wait a moment," he insisted, "I
am only getting a start. The women
are not to blame ia this case. It is
one of the few exceptions to the general
rule, fbr, as the old lady said when some
one told her !her son had lost his place
for misdemeanor, 'there's alius a woman
at the bottom of a man's troubles." If
your own sex talk like that what can you
expect of the men? But to go back to
the ciginal proposition. The entire subject of remaining on the farm might be
solved if the husband and father was only
willing to dress a little better when he
■j-otk-oq ta town  witli  his family."
"You are right," put in another merchant. "Every day of my life I see
well dressed ladies on the street with the
slouchiest looking men imaginable. I
know one man in the country on a fine
farm with a bank account I would be delighted to possess who boasts that he
hasn't had on a collar in ten years. The
ether day when I was sick a rich farmer
came to the house to see about a new engine I had ordered for him and my wife
_oai!y spoiled the sale by taking him for
a tramp. She lost her toreath for five
minutes when I told her he could buy
and sell me out half a dozen times, but as
soon as she recovered she said, "well, I
don't care if he can. You've never worn a
shirt as dirty as that since I've had you."
"I know lots of well dressed people 'n
thu country," remarked a lady warmly.
"They nre refined and cleanly as well as
prosperous."
"Certainly, but those are not the people
we are discussing," said the first speaker.
"Do any of your refined, cleanly women
with refined, cleanly husbands want to
move to town?"
"No," admitted the lady. "They seem
perfectly  contented  where   they   are."
"You see that's just what I said. A
woman who has to persuade nnd argue
and shed tears before she can get her
husband into a clean suit before they
start away from home is not likely to be
happy. In a short time she begins to
sigh for town where it is not necessary
to hitch up a horse every time she wants
to go somewhere, and where she can attend concerts and lectures by herself, and
I  don't blame  her. Talk  about  mar-
fjrs! I know a few of them for they
come to my store to wait for husbands
every week. I think any woman who
dresses herself neatly and then must ride
with her husband to town in his dirty
working clothes is a martyr if she doesn't
whine about it. I've heard them tell time
and again how busy the men were and
how they didn't have time to even change
shoes before coming to town."
"We have a friend in the country who
never comes to see us because her hus-
■>and will not dress decently," said the
second   merchant.      "She  is   the  soul   of
hospitality, and during her early married
like often entertained guests, but she has
given up having company entirely. If
anyone comes she is polite and kindly,
but she never invites people.        I have
can easily be done in town but not in the
country," explained  the  merchant.
The next time you go to town look
about you and see if this conversation does
not describe the situation quite accurate-
Sluiskin or Paradise Falls, Washington.
been there when her husband sat down in
his shirt sleeves, which is proper on • a
blistering hot day if the sleeves are clean,
because he said it was too much bother
to change. She, poor woman, would
willingly wash half a flozen extra garments for the pleasure of seeing her husband well dressed, but he is too careless and indifferent to realize what she
suffers."
"Taking him to town would not help
matters," objected a lady. "He would
be just as careless tiiere."
"But a clever woman may invite her
friends in for the evening and serve fruit
or light refreshments in town, while her
husband loafs in some store. I am not
saying that is tlie ideal way to do, but
I know many families where the mother
schemes with her children to entertain
their young friends on the evenings when
the  father is  away  from  home. This
ly. You   will  find   ten  poorly   dressed
men to one untidy woman every time.
If you do not know their financial standing ask the merchants with whom they
deal and you will discover that most of
them can afford tailor made suits if they
wish. The   man   who   dresses   neatly,
takes his family to church and entertainments and in every way conducts himself
as a gentleman, rarely listens to arguments in favor of a residence in town
from his wife and daughters. It is not
necessary to conform to the latest style
to be well clothed, for many men in the
country wear their best suits five years
and always look well. If a man wants
to be clean and tidy he will have little
trouble in keeping himself so when he
drives to town or church with his family,
and he will be more than repaid for his
efforts b.v the appreciation of his wife
and daughters.
RETARDING OLD AGE.
It was stated in a former article that
the essential underlying fact in the physical changes peculiar to old age is tho encroachment of one set of cells—the common elements—upon the territory belonging to another set—the noble elements.
This encroachment weakens all thie
functions, reduces the power of assimilation, stiffens the arteries so that the
blood charged with supplies for broken-
down parts finds less ready access to the
organs nnd tissues, and lowers vital resistance. The fibrous structures having,
in their overgrown state, no proper function to perform, degenerate and give way
to deposits of earthy matter, and so man
tends to return to the dust from which he
was formed. How, then, to prevent this
fibrous growth, or rather retard it, is the
problem of the physician.
The great physical difference between
the living machine and one made of inert
matter is that the living machine wears
out with non-use while the other wears
out with use. Friction eats away the
bearings of the steel structure, and finally
the worn-out parts must be replaced by
others. Use wears away the cells of the
animal machine, it is true, but repair
from within keeps pace with wear, and
in early lifo outstrips it, so that the body
grows and increases in strength. When
two cells .ire used up in the functions of
the machine, three are called into activity to replace them.
If, then, we would keep the "noble"
elements of the body in condition to perform their duty well and to resist the encroachments of the "common" elements,
we must exercise them. This does not
mean that the man of fifty must keep up
the athletic pursuits he followed at twenty, or that the man of seventy must toil
with his brain as he did at forty. The
inevitable lias begun; the muscles and the
brain are less sturdy than they were, and
can do less; but they Btill can do much,
and must not be allowed to degenerate
by non-use.
The man who retires from business at
the beginning of old age and suddenly
exchanges an active life for one of sloth,
commits a fatal blunder. If he lays down-
the burden of business he must take up
some otlier less exacting occupation to
keep from rusting.
Exercise, mental occupation, fresh air,
moderate eating and avoidance of excesses of all kinds, either of activity or of
idleness—there are the brakes on tho
wheel of time which prevent a precipitate rush into old age.—Youth's Companion.
DISFRANCHISEMENT   WILL   ONLY
MAKE TROUBLE.
So far as the negro is concerned to disfranchise him will not settle the negro
question. It will do anything else better than that. For it will make trouble,
and   no   end   of   it. It  will   certainly
make trouble if lie rise in the human
scale in spite of the wrong done him.
Does any one thin that he will ever cease
to strive for the restoration of his rights
as an American citizen, and all of his
riglus, if he is in character, property,
and intoMiienco? To think the contrary
is to think an absurdity. But if he
fall in the human scale in consequence of
the wrong j.one him, he will surely dra?
the   South   down   with. him. For   he
and the South are bound, the one to the
other, by a ligament as vital as that
which bound together for good or bad,
for life or death, the Siamese twins.—
Archibald H. Gimke, in the July Atlantic.