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The Rural Science Series
Edited by L. H. BAILEY

FARM BOYS AND GIRLS

The Rural Science Series

Plate I.

Fig. 1.—At least once each day the busy farm father may think of a way to combine his work with the children’s play.

FARM BOYS AND GIRLS
BY
WILLIAM A. McKEEVER

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY
KANSAS STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1913

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1912,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1912. Reprinted
August, 1912; January, June, 1913.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

DEDICATED
TO THE SERVICE OF THE
TEN MILLION BOYS AND GIRLS
WHO ARE ENROLLED IN
THE RURAL SCHOOLS
OF AMERICA

PREFACE

In the preparation of this book I have had in mind two classes of readers; namely, the rural parents and the many persons who are interested in carrying forward the rural work discussed in the several chapters. It has been my aim to give as much specific aid and direction as possible. The first two chapters constitute a mere outline of some of the fundamental principles of child development. It would be fortunate if the reader who is unfamiliar with such principles could have a course of reading in the volumes that treat them extensively. Nearly every suggestion given in the main body of the book is based on what has already either been undertaken with a degree of success or planned for in some rural community.

I am very greatly indebted to the following persons and firms for their kindness and generosity in lending pictures and cuts for illustrating the book: E. T. Fairchild, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Topeka, Kansas; J. W. Crabtree, Principal State Normal School, River Falls, Wisconsin; George W. Brown, Superintendent of Edgar County, Paris, Illinois; O. J. Kern, Superintendent of Winnebago County, Rockford, Illinois; Miss Jessie Fields, Superintendent of Page County, Clarinda, Iowa; A. D. Holloway, General Secretary, County Y.M.C.A., Marysville, Kansas; Dr. Myron T. Scudder, of Rutgers College; Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, New York; Rural Manhood, New York City; The Farmer’s Voice, Chicago, Illinois; The American Agriculturist, New York City; The Oklahoma Farmer, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; The Inland Farmer, Lexington, Kentucky; The Farmer’s Advocate, Winnipeg, Canada.

My thanks are also due Successful Farming, of Des Moines, Iowa, for permission to use excerpts from President Kirk’s article on the model school, and portions of a series of brief articles written for the same magazine by myself.

The references given at the close of the chapters have been selected with considerable care. It will be found in nearly every case that they give helpful and more extended discussions of the several topics treated in the preceding chapter.

WILLIAM A. McKEEVER.

Manhattan, Kansas.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

FARM BOYS AND GIRLS

CHAPTER I
BUILDING A GOOD LIFE

If you were about to begin the construction of a dwelling house, what questions would most likely be uppermost in your mind? If this house were intended for your own use, you would doubtless consider among other important matters those of comfort, convenience of arrangement, attractiveness of appearance, strength, and durableness. The great variety of dwellings to be seen on every hand is outwardly expressive of the great variety of ideals in the minds of the people who construct them. No matter what means there may be available for the purpose, it may be said that he who builds a house thereby illustrates in concrete form his inner character.

With practically the same quality of materials, one man will construct a house apparently with the thought that its chief purpose is to be looked at. Much work and expense will be put upon outer show and embellishment, while in its inner arrangements it may be exceedingly cramped and thoughtlessly put together. Another will erect his building with a thought of placing it on the market. Cheap workmanship, weak and faulty joinings, and the like, will be concealed by some thin covering meant to last until a profitable sale has been made and some innocent purchaser caught with a mere shell of a house in his possession. Occasionally, however, there is found a man whose plans conform to such ideals as those first named.

What is a good life?

As with the construction of a house, so it is in some measure with the building of a character. Some lives apparently are constructed to look at; that is, with the thought that outer adornment and a mere appearance of worth and beauty constitute the essential qualities. Other lives are, in a sense, made to sell. Not infrequently parents are found developing their boys and girls as if the chief purpose were to place them somewhere or other in the best possible money market. A life is worth only as much as it will bring in dollars and cents, is apparently the predominating thought of such persons. And then, occasionally, a life is built to live in; that is, with the idea that intrinsic worth constitutes the essential nature of the ideal character.

But what is a good life? And why is not this precisely the question for all parents to ask themselves at the time they begin the development of the lives of their own boys and girls? Assuming a fairly sound physical and mental inheritance on the part of the child and the given environment as the raw materials of construction, what ideals should parents have uppermost in mind before undertaking the tremendously important and interesting duties of constructing worthy manhood and womanhood out of the inherent natures of their children?

1. Good health.—It is a difficult task to develop a sound, efficient life without the fundamental quality of good health. So it may be well to remind parents of this fact and to urge them especially to avoid in the lives of the children, first, the beginnings of those lighter ailments which frequently grow into menacing habits—for example, the diseases that become chronic as a result of unnecessary exposure to the weather—and second, those various contagious diseases which so often permanently deplete the health of children, such as scarlet fever and whooping cough. It is now held by medical authority that every reasonable effort should be made to prevent children from taking such infectious ailments—that the so-called diseases of children can and should be practically all avoided.

2. Usefulness.—The newer ideals of character-building call for the early training of all children as if they were to enter permanently upon some bread-winning pursuit. Such training is a most direct means of culture and refinement, provided it be correlated with the proper amount of book learning and play and recreation. Such uniform and character-building discipline tends to preserve the solidarity of the race, and to acquaint all the young with the thoughts and feeling of the great productive classes. It may be this is now regarded as both a direct means of culture and of leading the young mind into an intimate acquaintance with the lives of the masses. Such training is regarded also as one of the best means of preserving our social democracy. Therefore, although on account of inherited wealth the child may apparently be destined for a life of comparative ease, even then there is every justification for teaching him early how to work as if he must do so to earn his own living. Much more will be said about this point later.

3. Moral strength.—In the construction of a good life, moral strength must be estimated as one of the important foundation stones. But this quality is not so much a gift of nature or an inheritance as it is an acquisition. It cannot be bought or acquired through merely hearing about it, but it must come as a result of a large number of experiences of trial and error. The child acquires moral self-reliance from the practice of overcoming temptation in proportion to his strength, the test being made heavier as fast as his ability to withstand temptation increases. As will be shown later, it proves weakening to the character of the growing child to keep him entirely free from temptation and the possible contamination of his character in order that he may grow up “good.”

4. Social efficiency.—The good life is not merely self-sustaining in an economic way, but it is also trained in the performance of altruistic deeds. In building up the lives of the young it will be necessary and most helpful to think of the matter of social efficiency. Therefore, it will be seen to that the child have practice in assuming the leadership among his fellows, in taking the initiative on many little occasions, and in some instances to the extent of standing out against the combined sentiment of his young associates. Of course, during all this time he will be backed strongly by the advice and the insistent direction of his parents, the idea being to induce him to think out his own social problems and to carry forward any suitable plans of a social nature that he may devise.

5. Religious interest.—Few parents will deny that religious instruction is just as essential to the development of a good society as is intellectual instruction. Indeed, there is much evidence to bear out the conviction that religion is a deep and permanent instinct in all normal human beings. This being the case, it is fair to say that such an instinct should have some form of awakening and indulgence in the life of the child. However, there is no thought or intention of prescribing any particular form of religious faith. He might at least be sent to Sunday school and to church regularly where he may be led to do a small amount of religious thinking on his own account.

6. Happiness.—The good life is a happy life. But nearly all the students of human problems seem to think that happiness eludes the grasp of the one who seeks it in a direct way. “I want my children to be happy and enjoy life,” is often the remark of well-meaning parents. They then proceed as if joy and happiness could be had for money. It is true that during his early years of indifference to any serious concern or personal responsibility, the child may be made extremely happy by giving him practically everything his childish appetites may call for and allowing him to grow up in idleness. But there comes a time when the normal individual begins to question his own personal and intrinsic worth. The instincts and desires of mature life come on and if there be not available the means for the realization of the better instinctive ambitions, then bitterness and woe are likely to become one’s permanent portion.

However, it may be put down as a certainty that happiness and contentment will naturally come in full measure into the life that has been well built during the years of childhood and youth. If the good health has been conserved, a life of usefulness and service prepared for, moral strength built into the character, social efficiency looked after continuously, and something of religious experience not neglected—it will most certainly follow as the day follows the night that the wholesome enjoyments and the durable satisfactions of living will come to such an individual.

Plate II.

Fig. 2.—These Canadian lads are enjoying their first lessons in live-stock management. We call their conduct play, but surely no one was ever more in earnest than they.

Is the human stock comparatively sound?

There are now among the students of the home problems many who are seriously interested in the matter of breeding a better human stock. Many noteworthy conclusions have already been reached, and ample proofs have been produced to show that the human animal follows the same general lines of evolution as do the lower animal orders. It is shown in general, for example, that little or nothing that man has learned or acquired during his life is transmitted to his offspring. That is, even though a man devote many years to the intensive study of music or mathematics or the languages, such study will not affect the ability of his child in the study of the specialized subject. The same unaffected result obtains in respect to any other form of expertness of the merely acquired sort. For example, the fact that a man through long practice becomes expert in the use of the typewriter does not affect the character of the child in respect to such ability. It is a no less difficult task for the child to learn to master the use of the typewriter keyboard.

On the other hand, it is shown very conclusively that physical and mental characters inborn in the life of a parent tend at all times to be transmitted to the child, although many traits are known to be wanting in the first generation of children and to appear in the second or successive generations. According to the law of Mendel, the traits of the parents are transmitted to the child about as follows: one-half of the elements of one’s physical and mental natures are inherited from his parents, one-fourth from his grandparents, one-eighth from his great-grandparents, and so on. In any given case, however, there might be great variation from this rule of the averages, just as actual men and women vary more or less widely from the average human height of so many feet and inches.

There is no thought here of discussing the intricate problems of eugenics. The purpose of this brief dogmatic sketch is that of attempting to induce parents to believe that the great mass of our American-born children are comparatively sound in their physical and mental inheritances. The pathologists profess to be able to prove that nature is most kind to the new-born child in respect to inheritance of disease. In fact, it is shown that very few diseases are directly transmitted through the blood, and that many once so regarded are now found to be infectious in their natures. There is considerable indication, however, that the children of the diseased—tuberculous parents, for example,—inherit a weakened power of resistance for such disease. But this matter is somewhat foreign to our present discussion.

Best of all, for our present consideration, is the great mass of evidence sustaining the theory that about ninety-nine per cent of our new-born infants are potentially good in an economic and moral sense. That is to say, this great majority of the young humanity have latent within their natures at the beginning of life the possibilities of development into sound, self-reliant manhood and womanhood.

So, the writer of these lines would gladly lead rural parents to the point of being very courageous and optimistic about their infant children. He would have them see in the latter all the possibilities of good and efficiency that they may care to attempt to bring out by thoughtful and conscientious training. For that matter, it can be shown that many of the leaders of men are constantly springing up out of the ranks of the common masses and from those of humble parentage. Some of these great leaders, it is true, are what may be called accidental geniuses in respect to their native strength and their persistent life purposes. But many others, and perhaps the majority of them, are merely men and women who have been reasonably sound at birth and who have been trained from childhood to maturity in a manner that best served to build up strong, efficient character.

REFERENCES

The references given at the close of each chapter are meant to direct the reader to specific treatment of the topics named. It is thought that nearly every chapter or book referred to will be found helpful and instructive to such persons as may naturally become interested in this volume. In some instances a line of comment is given to make clearer the contents of the reference.

Must Children have Children’s Diseases? Newton. Ladies’ Home Journal, April, 1910.

Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette. Gazette Publishing Company, New York. $1 per year, monthly.

The Miracle of Life. J. H. Kellogg, M.D. Good Health Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich. Read especially pp. 363-388, “How to be Strong.”

Our Duty to Posterity. Editorial. The Independent, February. 1909.

Relation of Science to Man. Professor A. W. Small. American Journal of Sociology, February, 1908.

Character Building. Marian M. George. A. Flanagan Company. Treats the ethical problems of the home.

Through Boyhood to Manhood. Ennis Richmond. Chapter 1, “Usefulness.” Longmans.

Making the Most of Our Children. Mary Wood-Allen, M.D. Chapter IX, “Keeping the Boy on the Farm.” McClurg.

Youth. G. Stanley Hall. Chapter XII, “Moral and Religious Training.” Appleton.

The Contents of a Boy. E. L. Moore. Chapter VI, “Social Interests.” Jennings & Graham, Cincinnati.

Mind in the Making. E. J. Swift. Chapter II, “The Criminal Natures of Boys.” Scribners.

The Young Malefactor. Dr. Thomas Travis. Chapter II, “The Child born Centuries Too Late.” Crowell.

The Family Health. M. Solis-Cohen, M.D. Chapter I, “The Preservation of Health.” Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia.

The Durable Satisfactions of Life. Dr. Charles W. Eliot. Crowell. Points out ably the higher way.

The Study of Children. Francis Warner, M.D. Chapter IV, “Observing the Child. What to Look at and For.” The Macmillan Company.

What makes a Liberal Education. Editorial. The Independent, July 1, 1909.

Relation of the Physical Nature of the Child to His Mental and Moral Development. George W. Reed. Annual Report National Educational Association, 1909, p. 305.

CHAPTER II
THE TIME TO BUILD

We shall continue to assume that the reader, if a parent, is thinking of his child as being in the position of one whose character requires constant attention in order that it may be built up through the right sort of training and the right sort of practices. Just as certainly as there is a best time in the season to plow corn and also a time not to plow, as there is a time to plow deep and another time to plow shallow, so there is unquestionably a best time to give the child any particular form of training or to withhold it. In general, it may be said that the most effective training in respect to the human young is that which centers most closely around the childish interests and instincts.

What of the human instincts

By observing critically for a few days the conduct of an infant child, one may notice two or three pronounced instincts at work producing helpful results in the little life.

1. There is the instinct to nurse, which is so fundamental in securing the food with which to sustain and build up the body.

2. There is the accessory instinct of crying, also often necessary as nature’s signal for another intake of the food supply. Associated with these two instincts are a number of reflexes which take care of the important organic processes, such as digestion, assimilation, and excretion. Now, we have practically all there is to the “character” of the human infant. He has, as yet, no instinct for fighting, for sexual love, or for business. And any effort to arouse and make use of the last-named dormant qualities would be futile as well as ridiculous. In respect to a vast majority of the things to be learned, the child is a mere bundle of potentialities, all of which must bide their time for an awakening. In short, wise parents soon learn that the center of life in the infant child is in the stomach, and that if he be fed rightly, kept much in the open air, clothed comfortably, and bathed frequently, the body-building processes will usually go on in a satisfactory manner.

3. Although the little life seems so tiny and the daily round of infantile activities so simple and monotonous, the character-developing processes are already making their subtle beginnings. For example, the first lessons in habit are being inculcated through the comparative rhythm in the infant’s life. It will be found both conducive to good health and helpful to character-development to attend to all the infant’s needs with strict regularity. Let us follow the new-born child around his little cycle and see what happens. First, he is given a hearty meal, which is followed at once by perhaps two hours of profound sleep. Then, there is a gradual waking, the body writhes and wiggles slightly, and then more, and then still more, until a loud cry is set up. Under healthy conditions the crying should go on for a very few minutes, as it helps to send the good blood through every part of the body, purifying and building up the parts and carrying out the effete matter. The function of excretion is not only thus much aided, but the nervous equilibrium is completely restored. The little life has now swung completely round to the beginning point of two hours previously and it is ready to start on another journey with the intake of another hearty meal.

It will be found that the life circle described above continues with slight variations for the first few weeks, the child sleeping probably twenty to twenty-two hours out of twenty-four, if it be in a natural state of health. But slowly the conduct of the infant will become more complex, and that in response to the growths and changes taking place within his body. It will be found that he can take a heartier meal, can stay awake longer, kick harder, wriggle more, and cry louder as the days multiply. In a month or so his eyes will be seen following some brilliant or attractive moving body, while the impulsive movements of the hands will begin to suggest some slight definition of their conduct. Not long thereafter, the baby smile will break out in a reflex fashion and the hands will likewise grasp objects placed in the little palms. Coördinate with these new activities, nature is at work storing up new nerve structures and cells, especially in the region of the spinal cord and the cranial centers.

4. The child is all the while learning. As yet, there is little for the caretaker to do other than to feed the infant with exceeding care and regularity, and to enjoy the awakening of the new infant activities. In four to six months, the young learner will lead a much more complex life,—sitting alone, holding things in his hands, and looking about the room. But it must be understood that he still hears and sees very few things in a definite way. Then, in the next two or three months he will first creep,—he should in time be induced to do so if possible for the sake of his health,—at length he will stand upright, and finally walk. None of these processes must be hastened, although they may be aided when the inner prompting and strength warrant such conduct.

5. During the second year there will probably break out with sudden and surprising strength the new instinct of anger. It has been latent there all the time, but the low degree of intelligence and of nerve structure has not given it proper support and indulgence. But on an occasion there is perhaps taken from the child some cherished plaything, when he suddenly flies into a rage, yelling, screaming, kicking, and growing red in the face. This outburst of rage is a most interesting and enjoyable aspect to the parent who rightly understands children, although some ignorantly make it a matter of deep concern, regarding it as significant of a vicious character in the coming boy and man.

The purpose of this present discussion is to illustrate how the human instincts come into their functions at various times during the life of the growing child. And the further purpose is to urge that such thing be watched for and met with just the sort of training necessary for permanent and helpful results.

Now, let the little child fly into a rage two or three times and have his anger appeased through indulgence in the thing he cries for, and he has acquired his first lesson in the management of the parent or nurse. He has learned that if he wants a thing, all he needs to do is to squall or yell and the desired results will be forthcoming. But this childish rage really furnishes the occasion for the beginning of some disciplinary lessons. “Should I give the child everything he cries for, or withhold the desired object until he quits?” asks an anxious parent. Neither rule is necessarily the right one, and yet both, on occasions, may be correct. Suppose, instead of the infant you have a five-year-old boy who cries for a loaded revolver he happens to see in your hand. Would you give it to him to stop his crying, or withhold it? Suppose again he should cry for the return of his own plaything which some one unjustly snatched from him. Would you return his plaything to stop his crying, or let him cry it out? Now, here is implied the correct answer in dealing with the outburst of anger in the infant. It is all a matter of justice and fairness. If some agency, human or otherwise, snatches his food from his mouth, and the child squalls for its return, indulge the infant at once. If he has been well fed, comfortably clad and bathed, and under every proper consideration should lie still and behave himself, then do not run and take him up because he happens to be trying your patience with his squalling. Hold him to it and let him bawl it out. There is really nothing better coming to him if you are thinking of the development of his character—and your own.

6. So, somewhat later on you will find this same instinct of anger showing itself in the various forms of fighting and quarreling. The parent who understands the true natures of healthy children will not worry for a moment because the children show natural dispositions for contention and combativeness. On the other hand, it will be understood that these very tendencies furnish the occasion of many a lesson in social ethics. How can the child ever learn to be just and fair to his mates or square and considerate in his dealings with adults unless it be through the give-and-take experiences that come from attempting to get more than his share,—and failing much of the time,—and from attempting to over-ride the rights and privileges of others, and having such attempts properly thwarted? Indeed, it may be regarded as a great misfortune to the child if he has to grow up as the only one in a home and is denied the daily companionship of those of his own age from whom he may learn justice and fairness as a result of his attempts to get more than is just and fair for himself.

7. The watchful parents will observe that perhaps some time during the second half year, and with some pronounced repetitions later, there will be clear manifestations of the instinct of fear on the part of the child. Again, there is nothing for deep concern other than to meet this instinct in a general way as has been observed for the others named and to give the proper training. Fear must have been a human necessity during many years of savagery and barbarism. It still has its positive and negative values in the development of character. It serves as a deterrent from dangerous and criminal acts. It is also found to deter the growing infant from doing many a thing which he ought to be learning to do. Fear shows its most interesting aspects in the form of what has been called social sensitiveness; that is, bashfulness, shyness, reticence, and the like.

Parents should by all means watch closely the various childish and youthful tendencies to fear, allowing those fears which promise to be helpful to remain in the life or to die out slowly through counteracting conduct; and eliminating those other forms which would seem to serve no useful purpose. Examples of the latter sort would be the fear of ferocious animals and of murderers. Such mortal enemies are so uncommon in this civilized land that fear of them will probably be of no service to life. On the other hand, it may stunt and deter the development of courage. Especially do such fears tend to induce the habit of unnecessary concern and deep worry, thus destroying the peace and happiness and cutting off the length of years of many members of our society.

8. There is no questioning the value of social sensitiveness in respect to the development of character in the young. Some degree of bashfulness and embarrassment in dealing with people, especially those regarded by him as of superior worth, may be considered an actual asset in the life of the growing boy. This bashfulness will give him a rich inner experience of doubts and fears, and of hopes and triumphs. Slowly, under proper guidance and direction, the sensitiveness wears away through repeated experience of a contrary sort, and such qualities as create a self-reliance take its place.

On the other hand, it is doubtless a misfortune, especially for the boy, to become blasé—indifferent and unembarrassed in the presence of people of all ranks and conditions—while he is yet a mere lad. Under our present organization of society, the boy who would win the life race must have much experience of trial and error, of failure and success, and of tribulation and triumph; and all that for the sake of a self-reliant character. Now, the boy who has lost all sense of embarrassment in the presence of others is likely to be denied the stirring inner experiences just named, and to settle down in an indifferent, self-satisfied attitude toward the big problems of human conduct. It may be counted, therefore, as an indication of much promise and advantage that the country youth and the country maiden continue to be comparatively “green” and bashful during the period of their adolescence.

9. The instinct of sexual love will manifest itself at the proper time and age. Before so doing, certain organic changes and inner nerve developments must take place. Parents may learn some lessons from observation of this instinct that will apply to practically all the others. For example, there should be no attempt to hurry the manifestation and the functioning of the instinct, nor should the training necessary for its development and refinement be denied or withheld. Of all the many inner awakenings that come to the developing human being, there is probably none that quite matches the surging energy of sexual love in healthy young manhood and womanhood. And to an extraordinary degree, opportunities for instruction and development of the character become present at this time.

First of all, parents need to be reminded of the naturalness and wholesomeness of the sex instincts in adolescent boys and girls. They must be urged to provide carefully for its natural growth through the proper commingling of the sexes in a social way, and yet there must be preserved in the young lives just enough strangeness and mystery about the sex matters as to indulge the poetic and the romantic aspects of the unfolding natures. It need not, therefore, be a matter of worry and unusual concern to parents if their fifteen-year-old son and a neighbor’s thirteen-year-old daughter show pronounced tendencies to be “crazy in love” with each other. However, this situation furnishes most fitting opportunities for teaching the boy courtly manners, gallantry, consideration for women of all ages; and that through and by means of his own personal experience. In fact, this stirring period of sex-love opens up in the mind of the boy reflections that tend to run out into every possible avenue of his future life.

Likewise, the girl. That same little girl who shortly ago hated boys and declared she would never have anything to do with them is now manifesting much interest in the youth of her acquaintance. This thing cannot be laughed to scorn, or scolded away, or whipped out of the life of either boy or girl. Its roots are in the sex organs as well as in the heart. This first love period furnishes the rarest opportunities for teaching the girl proper lessons in respect to her comeliness, her purity of thought, and the sweetness of her own personal character. If during this time she be withheld entirely from wholesome association with boys and young men, there is a probability that she may become a drone or a mope, and especially that she may lose valuable training in the acquisition of those winsome ways so helpful to young women in the matter of their obtaining suitable life companions.

Perhaps less need be said in respect to giving the growing son those forms of social training which make it possible for him to win to his side an attractive helpmate. But beyond the question of a doubt there can and should be much done by way of training the daughter in this respect. In addition to her good health, her moral self-reliance, and those other desirable qualities illustrated in a preceding paragraph, the young woman who is thoroughly prepared for meeting successfully the issues of life has had careful training in all the practices that refine and beautify her character.

This duty of rural parents to the growing daughter is no less imperative than in the case of city parents. It may be considered as an excellent way of planning for the future happiness and well-being, not merely for one, but doubtless for an entire family, if the growing girl be indulged and directed reasonably in social matters during this period of greatest strength of her natural sex instinct. This thing cannot be safely put off a few years with the thought that the family will move to town and then the girl may have her proper opportunities of training. After such procrastination and neglect, it becomes too late ever to correct the many faults of omission.

10. There develops somewhat late in the lives of young men and young women what might be called the “homing” instinct, which amounts to nothing other than a deep and pronounced prompting from within to set definitely about the matter of getting into a home of one’s own and providing for and building it up. This is different from the mere sex instinct named above, although perhaps an outgrowth of it. It must be noted in passing that this homing instinct, when at its strongest, furnishes the proper occasion for instruction in respect to the home and the home-building affairs. Happy indeed is the young man or the young woman who, after a period of such instruction, may have the opportunity of settling down in a suitable dwelling place and there beginning the establishment of the ideal family life.

11. Unquestionably there dawns in the life of normal young men—and perhaps to a milder degree in respect to young women—a pronounced instinct of a business and economic sort. This inner prompting is doubtless associated with the two last named. It may be observed by any person who knows how to study the lives of children and young people that some particular youth who a few months ago was a spendthrift, indifferent of his future needs and welfare, is now heard to declare emphatically again and again that he must get into business, must save and invest his means and provide for his future needs. So, there is not a little evidence in effect that we have here another inner development of the nerve mechanism. And the time is most fit and opportune for the parents to exhaust every reasonable effort to discover what the youth is best suited for as a life practice and to guide him on toward the realization of that purpose. Much more will be said in another chapter in respect to the choice of a vocation.

REFERENCES

Rural parents who develop an intensive interest in the child-training problems will find it most profitable to read somewhat extensively in the texts that are not too direct but that give a careful treatment of the fundamental principles of child psychology. King’s and O’Shea’s books listed below are of this special character. For a fuller list, see [Chapter VI].

The Child: A Study in the Evolution of Man. A. F. Chamberlain. Chapter IV, “The Period of Childhood.” Scribner. A sound and somewhat scholarly treatment.

Boy Wanted. Nixon Waterman. Chapter I, “The Awakening”; Chapter II, “Am I a Genius?” Forbes & Co., Chicago.

Education of the Central Nervous System. Reuben P. Halleck. Chapter VII, “Special Sensory Training.” American Book Company.

The Moral Life. Arthur E. Davies. Chapter V, “Motive: The Beginnings of Morality.” Review Publishing Company, Baltimore.

Psychology. J. R. Angell. Chapter XVI, “The Important Human Instincts.” Holt.

Essentials of Psychology. W. B. Pillsbury. Chapter X, “Instinct.” Macmillan. Rural parents will find this entire text a non-technical and fundamental help.

Development and Education. M. V. O’Shea. Chapter XII, “The Critical Period.” Houghton, Mifflin Company.

Psychology of Child Development. Irving King. Chapter on “Instinct.” University of Chicago Press.

Your Boy: His Nature and Nurture. George A. Dickinson, M.D. Chapter II, “Elements of Character.” Hodder & Stoughton, New York.

An Introduction to Child Study. W. B. Drummond. Chapter XII, “The Instincts of Children” ; Chapter XIII, “Instincts and Habit.” Longmans. The book is worthy an entire reading.

A Study of Child Nature. Elizabeth Harrison. Chapter I, “The Instinct of Activity.” Chicago Kindergarten College.

Observing Childhood. A. S. Draper. Annals American Academy, March, 1909.

Are we spoiling our Boys who have the Best Chances in Life? Henry van Dyke. Scribner’s Magazine. October, 1909.

How to civilize the Young Savage. Dr. G. Stanley Hall. Mind and Body, June, 1911.

CHAPTER III
THE RURAL HOME AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

That the farm home is an ideal place in which to build up the lives of growing boys and girls has become almost a trite saying. But that rural parents are yet failing to realize the child-nurturing possibilities of such a place may be exemplified in thousands of instances. When we point to the farm home as being the best possible place for rearing children, we mean that it contains all the crude materials for such work, and that there must be in charge of that work some one who is conscious of the many aspects of the problem. So we hope to show the fathers and mothers of the farm community, not what they might do if they were differently situated, but as specifically as possible what there is in the present rural home situation that can be made directly available in the construction of the lives of their children.

What agencies build up character?

First of all, we must ask, What are the ordinary forces which need to be brought into service in the development of children? At the head of the list, we should name play, as furnishing a great variety of instructive activities; then, work and industry; after that, the recreation that comes properly after the performance of work. So, we have with all their implied meanings the three great child-developing agencies: play, work, recreation. Now the question naturally presents itself, Can the ordinary farm life be made to furnish in right amount and proportion these three essential elements of character development?

1. Play.—The necessity of indulging and training properly the play instinct of the child is becoming so fully appreciated of late that many of the state legislatures, and even the national Congress, have seen fit to make it a matter of deep concern. In order that all children may have full exercise of the divine, inherent right to play and to learn through play, many so-called child labor laws have been passed. These enactments have prescribed conditions under which children will be permitted to work at gainful occupations, and in the majority of cases they have strictly forbidden such child labor below the ages of fourteen to sixteen.

But the foregoing efforts in behalf of the young have been of a somewhat negative sort, merely guaranteeing the child the right to play. On the positive side, much is also being done. The scientific students of child life have been pointing to the great benefits of play and to the present need for larger means and fuller opportunities for play on the part of the masses of children. As an outcome of all this research and public agitation, there is now in progress a general movement which looks to the placing at the disposal of children everywhere the equipment and apparatus necessary for building up the character by means of play experience. The large cities are expending millions of dollars on municipal playgrounds, and the towns and rural communities are catching the spirit also.

It has been shown beyond a question that adult life can be prepared for and enriched in many ways by means of scientifically provided play during childhood. Two or three results are especially sought through the playground training: (1) better physical health and increased power to resist disease; (2) enlarged opportunities for the outlet of the spontaneous activities through the use of the hands and other parts of the body; (3) the provision of a powerful deterrent of evil thought and deed and of juvenile crime; (4) the manifold opportunities for learning how to get along with one’s fellows and to treat them in fairness and justice.

Plate III.

Fig. 3.—This beautiful Kansas home, with its large orchard and many shade trees adjoining, was constructed “away out on the barren plains where no tree will grow.” In this place an excellent family of nine children grew up.

It has already been urged that sound health constitutes one of the foundation stones of good character. Play is especially conducive to sound health. Some may think that work without much if any play will bring about the same results in the child life, but such proves not to be the case. The monotony and drudgery of enforced labor have been crushing the lives of children everywhere, especially until the wise legislation of very recent years prevented such thing. Strange to say, the same amount of exertion in spontaneous play may build up and strengthen the physical and mental life of the child. What is the secret of the striking difference in the result? Spontaneity! is the answer. The child goes at his play with a joy and an eagerness which are entirely absent from work—a sufficient guarantee that his nature is being fed upon the very stuff which his soul craves. It is true that children will play in a bare room containing nothing more than a pile of trash, but such a situation is woefully lacking on the side of instruction. Very little will be learned from a year of such ill-provided play.

So, there is every necessary reason for urging that the farm home provide not only the time and the occasion for the play life of the children, but that the means and proper materials also be looked after. At a certain rural home in the state of Michigan, where two boys and one girl were growing up, were found the following nearly ideal arrangements for the play life: a small clump of trees, which afforded opportunities for climbing and ample shade during the warm weather; a swing hung between two of the trees; a pole serving as a horizontal bar between two others; and a ladder leading to a rude playhouse constructed between the forks of a branching maple tree. Thereabout were seen also a boy’s wagon, two home-made sleds and other materials of this same general class, not to mention a fairly well-kept lawn, where the children could romp.

Now the cost of all the foregoing materials would be trifling in a money sense and not very expensive in point of preparation and work, while they would pay for themselves a hundred-fold in their results for character-development. If necessary, it could even be shown how just such provision for the play of the boys and girls on the farm will in time add to the actual cash value of the place and to the money-earning power of the boys and girls whose lives are being served. It seems altogether fitting to remind rural parents of their duty in respect to their children even though the mortgage may not yet have been lifted, and even though some of the live stock may have to suffer a little, and some of the farm crops deteriorate slightly. Let there be provided, first of all, some adequate materials for the indulgence of the play instinct of the child.

2. Work.—This term implies a wide meaning, and deserves a lengthy discussion. In a chapter to follow under the title “How Much Work for the Country Boy,” we shall give due attention to it. The purpose here is to advise the parent to make a study of the situation and to make provision for the amount and kind of work and industry necessary for the proper culture of the growing child.

First of all, there must be appreciated the sharp distinction between work and play. The latter is spontaneous, allowing the child to follow his caprice of mind. He may take up one play activity and drop it at any moment that another appeals to him more strongly. But with work, the situation is different. The purpose is outside of and not within the performance, as in the case of play. The work looks toward some end necessary of achievement and carries with it the elements of sacrifice, of giving out of one’s life something that is his very own in order that some other thing may be acquired. In the case of work the normal child probably at first finds almost any assigned task irksome. He feels that he is being more or less unfairly or unnecessarily driven to it and that when he grows to be a man, he will have a lot of money and hire somebody else to do the work.

All natural, healthy-minded boys are at first somewhat stubborn and rebellious in regard to work. No matter how good their parents may be, if merely turned loose in the world without direction and the spur of authority, they will almost invariably avoid manual labor. So it might as well be put down at once as a rule that every boy who is to become a real worker and an industrious character must be set definitely at his tasks while a mere child and held strictly to their performance. After much persistent urging, the young worker begins to forget the thought of being driven to his duty and to acquire instead a habit of industry. By slow degrees he develops within a sense of obligation in relation to work, also a feeling of responsibility for tasks done or left undone. Finally, after years of this sort of experience, the young industrialist reaches a point in his life when he can throw himself enthusiastically into some sort of well chosen occupation. And then and there emerges from his inner consciousness the exceeding great joy known to so many of the industrious men and women whose worthy life-long devotion to work is constantly reconstructing this good world in which we live.

It will be understood, of course, that the term work as here used includes the school training. The ordinary child regards the appointed duties of lesson getting in the nature of work and feels the same pressure of insistence and compulsion in relation to them. Unquestionably, the ordinary school course goes part way toward furnishing discipline in industry. The course of the newer schools about to be instituted throughout the country will reach still farther in this direction. It is very encouraging indeed to observe that the public school curriculum is destined to include, not only the study of books and the recitation of lessons learned from books, but also the many forms of manual labor and industry applicable to the character of the growing child. But until the public school authorities have provided such an ideal course of training, parents must see to it that the class-room duties be thoroughly supplemented with carefully assigned home tasks of the industrial training sort. In a later chapter specific attention will be given the question of the schooling of the country boy and the country girl.

3. Recreation.—What a vast amount of misunderstanding and misuse there is of this term! Observe, if you will, the real meaning of the term or of the kindred word, to re-create. It implies in this use that the body has been depleted, worn out, or fatigued by work and that there is to be a rebuilding of the same. But it is amusing—or would be if it were not so pathetic—to see how city parents often bestir themselves in an effort to provide recreation for their idle boys. Many of these boys who are seen loafing about the home town during practically the entire summer vacation period are given an outing in order that they may thus be furnished “recreation”—from indolence.

But farm parents are inclined to err on the other side. That is, they tend to over-work their boys and not to give them enough outings to furnish proper recreation and renewed zeal for the work required of them. Hence, the need of carefully considering the matter of the outings for the farm boy and girl. It can most probably be shown, for example, that the boy who works on the farm five and a half days of the week and who is given the other half day for rest and recreation—that he does more work in the five and one-half days and does it better than he would do in six full days without the half-holiday. The question here is that of a balanced schedule. How long should the boy be held to his task before being allowed a holiday or recreation period?

Just how can these half-holidays, outings, and the like, be worked into the farm boy’s program so as to make them contributive to the up-building of his character? What of this sort can be done to cause him to return to his assigned tasks with greater zeal and enthusiasm? How can it be provided that the boy may look forward to these outings with a thrill of joy during the long days he has to spend behind the plow or in the harvest field? Finally, how can these recreation periods, large and small, be so associated with his work-a-day tasks that he may come to regard farm life as a wholesome type of vocation—one that he may follow with pleasure and profit for himself, and one in which he may succeed so well as to make his achievements constitute a living commendation of such a calling to others? In a later discussion there will be shown many methods whereby the recreation experience of the farm boys and girls may be properly looked after.

Few persons seem to appreciate the value of solitude as a means of recreating and building up the inner life. Probably one of the greatest agencies in the development of many a powerful personality is the fact that its possessor was compelled by force of circumstances while young to spend much time in the company of his or her own thoughts. It is impossible to think intelligently while one is doing any body-straining work; for example, wood sawing or hay pitching. But there are many forms of occupation for boys and girls on the farm which permit of comparative rest of the body. So the foundations of many a worthy career have been laid in the silent reflections of the boy spending the day alone in the woods or on the prairies with his cattle and dog and pony, or sitting on the seat of the riding plow.

Likewise, the farmer’s daughter, during the performance of many simple, non-fatiguing tasks, reflects perforce upon the larger meanings of life and makes out in mind many plans for the time when she hopes to undertake the mastery of various trying and interesting problems. Lack of this enforced solitude and its attendant reflections—lack of the discovery of the joy of being at regular intervals alone with the great soul of Nature and with one’s inner consciousness—doubtless contributes in some measure to the undoing of city boys and girls. The constant turmoil of the street, the excitement of the ever changing scenes and situations, give an over-indulgence to the senses, ripen the judgments too early, and rob the character of those soberer habits which later enable one to find good in the common situations and the common people of the world.

It is, therefore, recommended that farm parents provide for a part of the sterner duties of the boys and girls such tasks as will allow for comparative rest of the body while the mind may tarry undisturbed with the reflections of the inner life.

Moving to town for the children

The practice of the well-to-do farmer who moves to town to “educate his children” is an old story and is fraught with many a hidden tragedy, to say nothing of the impoverishment of the land and of the social order left behind. Why cannot the intelligent farmer remain on the home place and join a movement having for its purpose that of making the neighborhood a more desirable place of human habitation?

One of the dullest places in the world is the country town which has been filled up with retired farmers. These are usually men who came into the place for the purpose of getting all the possible advantages at the lowest possible cost. In the typical case the new city dweller of this class secures a very good residence, and that often, if possible, just outside the city limits, in order to avoid local taxes. He takes little or no interest in the town’s municipal affairs and votes against nearly all proposed improvements. He keeps his own cow, horse, chickens, and garden, and brings extra supplies in from the farm. Gradually he takes on a few of the city ways. That is, he uses less home produce and does some buying at the stores. But for want of stimulating employment he gradually grows stouter and mentally more stupid, sleeping away many of the hours of the day in his chair—an indication that he is dying at the top and that he is soon to be cut down. Really, the retired farmer is a nuisance to the town and the town is a bore to him.

But what of the children whom he brought in to “educate”? They learn rapidly, soon taking on the city manners. The natural restraints from evil conduct, which the farm home furnished, are now wanting. The blare and bluster of the town both excite and delight them, while the parents have positively no rules or standards by which to govern and direct their young in the new situation. All the boys and girls need to do in order to gain parental consent for going out at night is to declare that “everybody is going” or that they are “expected” to be there, and the thing is settled. Thus the young ruralists newly come to town go dancing and prancing off into a veritable world of sweet dreams and delights—spoiled forever for any service that they might have rendered in building up the country community—and finally destined to become mere cogs in the ever grinding wheel of some city.

A back-to-the-country club

Nearly every town and city of the United States has had a so-called Commercial Club. This has been in reality a boosters’ club bent first of all on bringing big business to the place and thus opening the way for a bigger population. Anything for the sake of more people has been the watchword. Now, I would reverse this order of things. Nearly every one of these towns and cities needs a club or committee that might have for its purposes: (1) to show the would-be retired farmer how to shift the burdens from his wife as housekeeper, how to provide better social and intellectual advantages for his children and yet stay on the farm; (2) to find means and methods whereby to plant in the rural community those persons of the city population who are not making a fair living in their present positions, seeking first of course to choose those who are capable of transplanting and then preparing them with care for the change.

I am satisfied that this thing can be successfully thought out,—that is, how the worthy poor city family may be removed to the country and there through hard work gradually acquire enough land whereon to earn a fair living at least. This end will never be accomplished by merely driving out the poor families, but rather by means of scientific and sympathetic practice of re-establishing them. Well-conducted research shows that these poor people are nearly all constituted of good, sound, human stock. So, if transported under the conditions named, there may be expected to come forth in the second generation a splendid crop of rural boys and girls.

REFERENCES

Report of the Commission on Country Life. Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt. Sturgis-Walton Company, New York. A brief but epoch-making book. The student of rural problems will find it a splendid outline guide.

Cutting Loose from the City. E. G. Hutchins. Country Life, Jan. 1, 1911.

Back to the Farm. J. Smith. Collier’s, Feb. 25, 1911.

Value of a Country Education to Every Boy. Craftsman, January, 1911.

Why Back to the Farm? Editorial. Craftsman, February, 1911.

The Country-Life Movement. L. H. Bailey. The Macmillan Co. Contains a contrast of the back-to-the-land movement and the country-life movement.

Drift to the City in Relation to the Rural Problem. J. M. Gillette. American Journal of Sociology, March, 1911.

The New Country Boy. Independent, June 22, 1911.

Overworked Children on the Farm and in the School. Dr. Woods Hutchinson. Annals American Academy, March, 1909.

Why One Hundred Boys ran away from Home. L. E. Jones. Ladies’ Home Journal, April, 1910.

The Country Girl who is coming to the City. Batchelor. Delineator, May, 1909.

Play and Playground Literature. For most helpful and inexpensive literature on this subject address: The Playground Association of America, 1 Madison Ave., New York City.

Conservation in the Rural Districts. James W. Robertson, D.Sc. The Association Press, New York.

Education for Country life. Willet M. Hays. Free Bulletin, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Treats ably consolidation and rural agricultural high schools.

Child Problems. George B. Mangold. Ph.D. Book II, Chapters I-II, “Play and the Playground”; Book III, Chapters I-V, “Child Labor Problems.” The last reference contains accurate information as to child-labor legislation up to date of publication.

Influence of Heredity and Environment upon Race Improvements. Kelsey. Annals American Academy, July, 1909.

Burning up the Boys. Editorial. North American, September, 1910.

CHAPTER IV
THE COUNTRY MOTHER AND THE CHILDREN

Greater attention needs to be given to the conservation of the farmer’s wife. Although there are many other justifications for giving more thought to the care and the comfort of the country mother, the single fact of her very close relation to the children growing up in the home, and of her peculiar responsibilities as center of life there, warrant us in devoting a chapter to her interests. Recently, while passing upon a country highway, the author met a funeral procession. A little inquiry revealed a pathetic situation, one that has been repeated thousands of times throughout the length and breadth of this fair country. The deceased was the wife of a young farmer, both of them under thirty-five years of age, hard working and ambitious for success, but thoughtless of their own health and comfort. Their farm was somewhat new and unimproved, there were hundreds of things to do other than the routine affairs of home keeping and crop raising. Worst of all, there was a mortgage to be lifted. After all reasonable improvements were made and the mortgage paid off, then, according to their plans, they were going to take matters easy. But the delicate cord of life suddenly broke in the case of the wife, and left the young husband as overseer of the farm and home and sole caretaker of three little children.

How can parents hope to produce a better crop of boys and girls in the farm communities so long as the typical farm wife is crushed into the earth with the over-weight of the burdens placed upon her? A few minutes’ enumeration in this same rural neighborhood brought out the startling fact that in fully half of the homes a scene similar to the one just described had been enacted during the last score of years. That is to say, during the twenty years, fully one-half of the farm mothers living in that particular neighborhood had died before their time from one cause or another. In most instances the death occurred during what we usually speak of as the prime years of life, and at a time when the rose bloom should naturally be fresh upon the cheek. Fortunately, this serious condition, still present in some communities, is being gradually improved by the improved methods.

Poor conditions of women

The report of the Country Life Commission makes the following suggestions:—

“The relief to farm women must come through a general elevation of country living. The women must have more help. In particular these matters may be mentioned: Development of a coöperative spirit in the home, simplification of the diet in many cases, the building of convenient and sanitary houses, providing running water in the house and also more mechanical help, good and convenient gardens, a less exclusive ideal of money getting on the part of the farmer, providing better means of communication, as telephones, roads, and reading circles, and developing of women’s organizations. These and other agencies should relieve the woman of many of her manual burdens on the one hand and interest her in outside activities on the other. The farm woman should have sufficient free time and strength so that she may serve the community by participating in its vital affairs.”

Plate IV.

Fig. 4.—A day nursery at the Country Social Center. It may be otherwise called “an institution designed to lengthen the lives of tired country mothers.”

In discussing this same matter, Henry Wallace, a member of the Commission, says in his paper, Wallaces’ Farmer:—

“They have been saying that the mother is the hardest worked member of the family, which is often and we believe generally true. They have been saying that in the anxiety of the farmer to get more land, he not only works himself too hard, but his wife too hard, and the boys and girls so hard that the boys get disgusted and leave the farm, and the girls marry town fellows and go to town.

“Now the farmer’s wife is really the most important and essential person on the farm. As such she needs the most care and consideration. You are careful, very careful, not to over-work your horses. How much more careful you should be not to over-work the mother of your children. You rein back the free member of the team. You take special care of the brood mare, and the cow that gives three hundred pounds of butter. Have you always kept the freest of all workers, your wife, from doing too much? How about this?”

For the sake of the children

But this chapter, as well as the entire book, is being prepared in the interest of boys and girls. So we shall attempt to show a number of specific conditions that may be sought as tending to conserve the strength and the life of the rural mother, with a view to her continuing to be in every best sense of the word a caretaker and conserver of the lives of her own children.

1. Surplus nerve energy.—However it may be achieved, the thing to work for in this connection is a surplusage of nerve energy. If the child training is to go on in a satisfactory manner, the mother especially, and if possible both parents, must have stated times and occasions for looking after such training and for inculcating a series of important fundamental lessons. The first and best test of this child-rearing situation may be made at evening. If, after the work of the ordinary day, the mother is still fresh enough to take a real interest in the children’s affairs, to read to them briefly and perhaps tell them a story or two, or to read for further preparations of her work with them,—then it may be said that her life energies are being conserved in a fairly satisfactory manner. The children will most certainly reap the benefits. But if the close of the ordinary day’s work finds the farm mother suffering from physical and nervous exhaustion, cross and impatient with the other members of the family, depressed in spirit and gloomy as to the future, these are signs which should give alarm to the head of the household and arouse him to the point of looking into such distressful conditions, and setting them right.

2. A rest period.—How would it do to plan for the mother a daily period of rest and relaxation? Would not such a program furnish something of a guarantee of length of life in her own case and of peace and contentment in the home, and of improved well-being in respect to the children? How shall we state this question? Must the very lives of the rural mother and her children be run through the mill of over-work as a grist for the improvement and up-building of the farm animals and the farm crops? Or should all of these material things be valued only in proportion as they contribute to the happiness and contentment and the long life of the members of the family? Too many farmers seem to say, as expressed by their conduct: “I must lift that mortgage this year! I must market so many bushels of corn and so many head of live stock! So here goes my wife, and here go my children into the hopper! Perhaps they will have to give up their lives. At any cost I must make this thing pay!”

Then, how would it be to set apart an hour or more each day, regularly, for the rest and relaxation of the mother, and call it “Mother’s hour”? During that time let it be the policy of the entire family to require no work, no assistance, no favors of her, unless it be in case of illness. During such a time of recuperation, the delicate organism of the ordinary woman would tend to regain its poise. The nerve energy would be more or less restored, while she would tend to view the better things of life more nearly from their right angle. Best of all, she would regather during the hour not a little strength to be used later in the caretaking of her children. Try it for a week.

3. The home conveniences.—This is not the place for a detailed discussion of what might or ought to be put into the house for the sake of the convenience of the home-maker. But if such materials be thoughtfully arranged, they may be made most effective, even though they be small and inexpensive. A little inquiry among the ordinary homes will show what is meant here, by either the presence or the lack of the things indicated. It is not so much a question of expense as it is one of thoughtful provision. The guiding principle of the home convenience is that of saving and conserving the strength of the housekeeper.

There is especially one day in the week which might be appropriately called the “mother-killing day.” That is the occasion of her doing the washing and ironing for the family. Not infrequently two or three days thereafter are required for the restoration of her normal strength and health. Now, it is clearly the specific duty of the farmer to take hold of just such matters as this and attempt seriously to put them right. Doing the washing for four or five, and that with the use of the wash tub, is a man’s work so far as required muscular energy is concerned, and very few women are able to do it regularly and live out their allotted lives. Therefore, let the conscientious farmer see to it first of all that some kind of machinery be installed for lightening such wife-killing tasks as that just named. Let him provide such household helps and conveniences first, and for the sake of the house mother and her children. And then, if there be other means available, let him provide the man-saving machinery about the barn and the fields. In the chapter on “Constructing a Country Dwelling,” fuller attention will be given to these matters.

4. The mother’s outings.—The farmer who is seriously interested in providing for the care and comfort of his family, and for the instruction and intelligent direction of his children, will see to it that his life companion be allowed her share of outings. This matter must be just as much on his mind as that of marketing the produce. The usual habit of the farmer’s wife is to give up willingly her rights and opportunities of this sort. But she cannot well continue to be spiritually strong and mentally well disposed toward the world unless she be permitted to get out among her friends and acquaintances at frequent intervals.

So, arrange carefully a series of outings for the country mother. The beginning of such a program is to provide that there be available for her use and at her command a horse and carriage. This equipment need not be of the finest quality, and it may be used for other purposes, but when her needs appear, it should be given up to her purposes. At least one afternoon a week she should go away from the place and be free as much as possible temporarily from the cares of the household while she finds congenial company among some of the neighboring women, or at the library or elsewhere.

5. The home help.—The unending problem of the home life throughout much of the civilized world is that of obtaining adequate assistance in the performance of the household work. Much of the time such assistance from outside sources is practically unavailable. And yet something must be done to meet the situation. If there be young girls growing up in the home, the solution of the problem may, and should, be met by means of requiring the daughters to assist with the home duties. But in case there be no daughters it is seriously recommended that either the father or the boys do certain parts of the heavier housework.

It is not necessarily beneath the dignity of the best and most brilliant man of this country for him to get down on his knees in his own home and help perform the menial work there which threatens to break the health of his life companion. If there be growing sons in the family, there is every justification for training them to assist in the housework in a case where such assistance is needed to shield the health and strength of the mother. It prepares for better manhood and for more sympathetic protection of his own wife to be, if the boy be required to do such things and thus to become intimately acquainted with what it means to perform the many burdensome tasks that tend to wear away the lives of so many good women.

6. The children shield the mother.—There will perhaps be no better occasion than this to remind parents of the necessity of carefully training the growing children to perform such deeds as will shield the mother in the home, and show a sympathetic interest in her welfare. These matters will not naturally be acquired by children. The country to-day is full of grown men whose mothers and wives have worked themselves to death; and yet these men did not detect the seriousness of the situation until it was too late. There are many men of this same general class who are willing and even anxious to protect the women of the home from the crush of over-work, but who know not how to do it. Such faults as we have just named might easily have been avoided had these men, during very early boyhood, been brought into an intimate acquaintance with the burdensome tasks of the household. Especially should they have been drilled time after time in the performance of deeds of love and sympathy in respect to their mother. It may seem a little thing for a younger child to rush to the table, call for and partake of the best the table provides and, inattentive to the wants of any other members of the family, hurry off to his play full fed and happy. And yet this very thing may be indicative of a serious lack of attention to the rights and requirements of others, such as may be carried over into his future home life and there amount to serious abuse. Again, it must be insisted that deeds of sympathy and altruism are acquired through the actual and continued practice of the performance of such deeds.

7. Planning for the children.—Among the other splendid results of the conservation of the nerve energy and the vital interests of the house mother may be mentioned that of her ability to plan thoughtfully for the instruction of the boys and girls. It is not an easy task to select appropriate stories and readings for the young. It is neither an easy nor a trifling matter for the parent to be able to read suitable stories to them and to interpret helpfully such stories. It is not a trifling matter for the parents to converse together an hour at evening and there plan as to the future home instruction of their young. When should this be introduced into the boy’s life and when that into the girl’s life? What is a fair allowance for the boy for what he does and for his spending money for the Fourth of July, Christmas, and the like? What is a fair allowance for the girl with which to purchase her clothes and for her pin money? When should each of them be told this and that about the secrets of life, and where may helpful literature thereon be obtained? Just when and how much should the boy and girl be allowed to go among the young people of the community? When we consider the far-reaching results which their solution may mean for the developing young lives, these and many other such questions become exceedingly important.

8. A common conspiracy.—In many a farm home to-day there is a secret compact which goes far to shape the destiny of a great number of lives. Go if you will to the farm home where the life of the mother is being gradually crushed out by the over-work and the lack of sympathetic protection on the part of the husband, and you will almost invariably find a secret understanding between the mother and the growing children in reference to the future careers of the latter. It is implied by these words put into the mouth of the mother: “Your father is too ambitious about the work and in his desire for accumulating wealth about the farm. He is over-working me, is thoughtless of me, and indifferent to your present needs and your future welfare. Work on as you must, driven by him, but do as little as you can and grow up to manhood and womanhood. Study your books, get through with your schooling, and in time find something easier for your own life work. Perhaps we can persuade him to give it up after a while and move to town, where you can go out more, dress better, and get more enjoyment out of life.” Thus, the children grow up to mistrust and dislike their father, and to despise the vocation in which he is engaged. Such a state of affairs will precipitate their flight from the home nest. This will take place at the earliest possible moment and will often be in the nature of a leap into the dark, anything to get away from the drudgery of the farm.

Mark you this situation well, you farm fathers, and attack it in all possible haste with the best available relief. A happy, contented, well-protected farm mother almost certainly means the same sort of farm children, while the converse situations will also run in the same unvarying parallel. Do not satiate your desire for more hogs and more land with the sacrifice of the peace and happiness and the very life-blood of your wife and children!

REFERENCES

The Nervous Life. G. E. Partridge, Ph.D. Sturgis-Walton Company, New York. This book is especially recommended as an aid to the relief of the tired farm mother.

Parenthood and Race Culture. Charles W. Saleeby, M.D. Chapter IX, “The Supremacy of Motherhood.” Moffat, Yard & Co., New York. This is a book of great value for students of race improvement.

From Kitchen to Garret. Virginia Van de Water. Chapter I, “A Heart-to-Heart Talk with the House Wife.” Sturgis-Walton Company. Wholesome advice concerning the conservation of the mother’s strength.

Proceedings of Child Conference for Research and Welfare, 1910. L. Pearl Boggs, Ph.D. Page 5, “Home Education.” G. E. Stechart & Co., New York.

The Efficient Life. Dr. L. H. Gulick. Chapter XVIII, “Growth in Rest.” This entire volume is highly recommended as being suitable for over-worked mothers.

What the Farmer can do to Lighten his Wife’s Work. T. Blake. Ladies’ Home Journal, Feb. 15, 1911.

The Higher Tide of Physical Conscience. Dr. L. H. Gulick. World’s Work, June, 1908.

Education for Motherhood. Charles W. Saleeby. Good Housekeeping, April, 1910.

The Profession of Motherhood. Dr. Lyman Abbott. Outlook, April 10, 1909.

Power Through Repose. Annie Payson Call. Chapter XII, “Training for Rest.” Little, Brown & Co.

Wallaces’ Farmer, Des Moines, Ia., is especially to be commended for its editorial championship of The Farm Mother.

The Freedom of Life. Annie Payson Call. Chapter IV, “Hurry, Worry, and Irritability.” Little, Brown & Co.

Ideas of a Plain Country Mother. Ladies’ Home Journal, May 1, 1911.

American Motherhood. Coopertown, New York Monthly, $1. This magazine publishes many short articles bearing on the subject of this chapter.

How to conduct Mothers’ Clubs. (Pamphlet No. 302, 8 cents.) American Motherhood. Coopertown, New York.

CHAPTER V
CONSTRUCTING THE COUNTRY DWELLING

Much has been written in books, and more has been spoken from platform and pulpit, relative to the patriotism of the American people. In addition to all this the public schools of city and country have been consciously instructing the children with a view to laying a permanent foundation in their lives for love of the native land and for defense of the national ideals. But it seems to me that the best word on the subject of patriotic instruction has never as yet been given wide publicity. So long as a boy has to grow up in a home where there are meanness and turmoil and strife and hatred and degradation, one may point a thousand times with pride to our great nation, display again and again before his eyes the proud banner of freedom, sing with him numberless times the patriotic songs eulogistic of the fatherland and its national heroes,—under such circumstances a boy can never be expected to develop into anything other than a superficial patriot. But give him a good home, simple and unadorned though it may be, where love reigns, where his childish needs are thoughtfully ministered unto, whereinto he may go at nightfall after a hard day’s work and find rest and peace and comfort; a home whereinto he may take his childish cares and perplexities and place them before the affectionate consideration of his parents and perhaps his elder brothers and sisters; a place where he is carefully taught the rudiments of filial respect and a wholesome regard for work and industry,—bring up the boy in the midst of these plain, sympathetic situations, and you have a real patriot. Although he may be reminded only occasionally of the meaning of the national flag, and although he may read with no unusual interest about the blood that was spilled on the national field of battle, a life so reared would mean that the love of home has become rooted in the heart of the young patriot, and that he would rise up if need be and give his life in defense of that home. In such a case, only a small stretch of the imagination would make it possible for the youth to regard the nation as his home in the larger sense, while his willingness to defend that home in time of real need would be none the less present and strong.

Plans and specifications not available

There are hundreds of types and thousands of varieties of rural dwelling houses. It would perhaps be impracticable to attempt to furnish definite plans and specifications in connection with this chapter. The wide variation in the nature of the selected sites, in the means available for building the home, in the size of the family to be accommodated, and the like, would hinder us in the attempt. But there are certain principles that may perhaps apply in nearly every instance and that especially in thought of serving the first and best needs of the juvenile members of the household.

It is altogether possible to make a two-room cottage out on the open prairie a place suggestive of repose, of beauty, and of other high ideals. So, no matter how small and inexpensive the rural dwelling may be, let the builders work first of all for that simple beauty and attractiveness which may most certainly invest the heart of the indweller with a feeling of comfort and satisfaction. Let it be a place, though humble, that may soon become to the members of the family the most beloved spot on earth. For, after all, the best things of life cannot possibly be bought with money. There are often misery and dissension and bitterness in the finest palatial dwelling, while the essential elements of beauty and worth may have lodgment in the hearts of the humblest cottage dwellers. However, it is not the intention here to argue any one into the thought of building a humble cot for the mere sake of humility. The point we desire to make is merely this: that, although possessed of very meager means with which to build, one can actually construct a home in which the inhabitants thereof may dwell in peace and contentment, and a place over which the Spirit of the Most High may brood in great strength and beauty.

Plate V.

Fig. 5.—An attractive old country residence in the South, built in 1854. At least one good family has been matured therein. And to them
“How many sacred memories
Bring back those childhood scenes.”

What appeals to the children

In the selection of a location and a site for the dwelling the welfare of the children must be thought of, second only to that of the house mother. Now, what material arrangements will appeal to the growing children and add much interest and romance to their lives as in future time they view them in retrospect? First of all, perhaps, a broken landscape might well be mentioned, a hill or two near by the place, with a sharp cliff or embankment to the crest of which the children may climb and there cast down missiles. Such things tend to add a charm to the young lives. And then, if possible, have a brook or larger stream of fresh running water. A large river is less desirable on account of the danger to child life. But a stream which may furnish, not merely water for the live-stock, but a swimming and bathing place for the children in summer and a skating pond for them in winter, to say nothing about the pleasures of fishing and boating—these will appeal most strongly to the boys and girls. And then, the woodland, or at least the shady grove with trees to climb, and possibly nuts and wild flowers to gather—a place where chipmunks and song birds and the like may have their natural habitat, and wherefrom there may proceed the weird and doleful sound of the night owl and the whip-poor-will; herein one may find many of the crude materials well suited to give proper nourishment to the souls of the young.

But the things just named will not nearly always be accessible. Throughout many of the commonwealths there are vast stretches of level plateaus with scarcely a hill or woodland in sight, and yet covered with a rich, tillable soil. These places may for good reasons be selected for the site of a dwelling. But they demand more work and heavier expense of money and time before the best material surroundings of an ideal home for boys and girls may be realized. Before the house is scarcely laid out in such a place, the shade and ornamental trees should be planted, selecting for part of the planting a quick-growing species that may be removed later after more permanent and more valuable trees have reached a suitable height. Of course, a stream of water cannot always be diverted so as to make it pass the place, but a fair substitute may be had by the construction of a pond. And this thing should be accomplished at the earliest possible moment. If there be a small dry ravine, dam it up with concrete and catch it full of surplus water during a rainy season. It is a positive injustice to boys and not a little unfair to girls to require them to grow up without any access to open water of some kind. And it is almost a matter of criminal neglect to require children to live permanently in a home about which there are no trees growing. So it is recommended, even if the house construction must in part be delayed or cut off, that the surroundings just named be sought in all earnestness.

The house plan

In planning and arranging the house, the matters to be thought of in addition to those named above are convenience and comfort. While it is somewhat important that the house look well to those who may be passing upon the highway, it is vastly more important that it be good within and serve such needs of the home-maker and the children as will conserve the strength of the former and render the lives of all happy and contented. In addition to the matters just named, that of placing the dwelling to face in the right direction will be thought of. That is, arrange the house so as to take advantage of the morning sunlight, the evening shade, the winter blasts and the summer breezes. While for the sake of entertainment it may be well to place the rural dwelling near the public highway, rather than sacrifice the child-developing factors of shade trees and streams and the like, it is often better to build back from the road and make a private lane leading thereto.

In arranging for the heat and light in the house, think first of all of the health and sanitation of the family. Ordinarily, the windows of the farmhouse are too small; while worse still, many of them, even in the bed chambers, are permanently nailed down. So, if the health and the general well-being of the boys and girls, as well as the parents, are worth anything at all, attend religiously to these small and inexpensive conveniences, not neglecting to provide most carefully for keeping out flies and other insects. The wise farmer will find the secret of getting along with his own household and of rearing a strong, healthy family to lie in the strict attention he gives to just such small matters as these. The things that overstrain the physique, that try the temper and patience of the housewife, must especially be looked after and something of a better nature substituted for them.

How one farmer does it

Mr. W. F. Mottier, living in Ford County, Illinois, gives in Farmer’s Voice his plan of providing for the children, as follows:—

“I have always tried to farm intelligently. One of my favorite ideas in regard to farm life is that of making the home as attractive as possible for the children. So I put on the place all the modern improvements that I can afford, in order that the children may not feel that town life is the best. And our children do not have any desire to go to town. It would bring a sad thought to me to hear my children talk against the farm life or home life on the farm.”

Outbuildings and equipment

With few exceptions, the money available for building the home should be expended first in putting the house into the ideal condition just named. After that, if any means remain, the outbuildings may be constructed. Otherwise, crude, temporary arrangements may easily suffice. There is one thing, however, that must be provided with scrupulous care and that is the water for the household use. It must be, first of all, wholesome and comparatively free from impurities. Then, if at all possible, it should be cool and taste well. Actual records have shown that one will not drink enough water to satisfy the demands of his health in case the taste be in any degree unpleasant to him. So the ideal water for household use is comparatively soft, is cool, highly pleasing to the taste, and is free from disease-carrying germs. This comparatively simple matter of providing the water will prove most important in relation to the well-being of the household and the up-building of the family life. See to it at any cost that the well be situated out of the way of seepage from any barn or outbuilding, even though it may from such necessity be placed somewhat out of the reach of convenience.

Human rights prior to animal rights

If the farmer cannot afford to erect a good barn he may take reasonable care of his horses with the use of a cheap, improvised one. Actual test will show that horses may be made comfortable in the summer time with the use of a straw-thatched shed for a barn, provided the drainage be reasonably good and the earth floor be kept in good order. The thatched covering may be made to keep out the rain. During the winter, with the use of a few slender poles, the entire shed may be inclosed with a hay or straw wall and the place thus be made very satisfactory for the time being. Similar sheds and protection may be provided for the other live-stock, all to await the time when the means are at hand for better conveniences. It is especially suggestive of a mean lack of consideration of human rights in the case of the farmer who has a big, expensive farm barn towering up beside a little dingy shanty of a dwelling house. And yet this thing is all too common, particularly in new prairie regions. Such is the place out of which beastliness and criminality and anarchy tend to be germinated from the lives of boys and girls, to say nothing about the hidden tragedies that surround the lives of the many women who are forced to put up with such an arrangement for half a lifetime.

Just one illustration of a situation of the sort described will suffice to point out the moral. On an occasion two strangers drew up to a farmhouse. One of them was a land agent, and the other a home seeker. Their mission was that of purchasing a farm. The owner of the farm showed them about the place with considerable enthusiasm, but his heart swelled with pride when he reached the magnificent barn, one side of which was devoted to the propagation of a high-grade strain of Duroc Jersey swine. Every convenience and comfort for the hogs was provided. He boasted about his success with them, showed an affectionate regard for the different individuals, calling them by name. The horses, too, might have aroused the envy of the entire neighborhood. They were sleek and well-fed, full in flesh and fair in form. There was provided every convenience for feeding and caring for the horses and the hogs, so that the hired men found the work about the barn exceedingly easy and pleasant.

Then the attention of the visitors was turned to the farmhouse. Yes, it was small and run down and poor, the intention being to build a larger one “some time.” But that same intention was known to have been expressed repeatedly for a period of twenty years past. And where were the boys? Well, that was the trouble, and furnished the excuse for his willingness to sell the place. He simply could not induce the boys to stay there and take an interest in things. Two of them, barely more than boys, had left the home nest in its meanness and degradation and hired out in town. The mother of the boys was living there because she had to, but upon her face were lines of suffering and disappointment and degradation. Yet in the midst of it all, strange to say, the father seemed to blame the boys and their mother for having conspired against the interests of the farm home and plotted to get away. In the course of his conversation he made it somewhat evident that he would have sold out and left sooner had the other members of the family not been so urgent about the matter, and that he was now holding on partly to indulge his spite and feeling of stubbornness in reference to them.

The cheap novels one may pick up depict many a fictitious tragedy. But in the place just described lies the typical scene of thousands of real tragedies during the course of which numberless lives of boys and girls have been wrecked forever,—lives latent with possibilities of goodness and beauty, of mental and moral strength. And then, the bitterness and anguish of soul of the mothers of these lost members of a high humanity—what of that? The silent walls of an untimely grave in many cases closed them in, while much of the memory of their secret suffering lies buried with them.

The children’s room

Even though the means available will not allow for more than the humblest sort of cottage, there should be definite thought of providing therein some room or niche or corner to be considered as the private property of the children. In a three-room dwelling on the Kansas prairie in which lives a happy family of five, and about which thrifty young shade trees and orchards are growing, there may be seen a children’s room that would surprise and inspire any ordinary observer. In a little attic room facing the east and reached by a mere step-ladder arrangement, may be found the “den,” which is the private place of the three children. A small window opens out to the east and a small improvised dormer window about twelve by twenty inches admits light and air from the south. There is no plastering or other expensive covering upon the sloping roof walls, but the artistic mother has provided dainty white muslin for concealing the rough places, and with the help of the children she has decorated the little room in a manner that would attract the very elect. None of this has required a money cost, but it has all been done beautifully at the expense of thought and good sense and artistic taste, prompted by rare consideration for the needs of the boys and girls.

Plate VI.

Fig. 6.—A commodious farmhouse in Canada, equipped throughout with a complete water system. Many farmers waste enough trying to build a house without a modern plan to pay for this extra convenience.

The two little girls and their brother, ranging in age from five to ten years, spend many a happy hour in their attic chamber. The heat from the room below comes through a small aperture and warms the little place in winter time, while the breeze passes through the little windows in summer, tempering the room satisfactorily excepting upon extremely hot days. Upon the walls are arranged beautiful post cards, larger pictures gathered from magazines and other sources, and small though beautiful home decorations of every conceivable sort. The little seven-year-old boy has a small assortment of curios collected from the hills and streams, while the girls have a small display of their childish needlework, their dolls, and some of their best school drawings. How suggestive and how helpful it would be if this little den could be displayed before the eyes of all the humble cottagers throughout the rural districts!

Yes, the hogs may live out-of-doors and the horses get along very well indeed with a temporary barn thatched with straw, but the places of the boys and girls must be looked after and that in the interest of making them happy, of filling their lives with every good, clean sentiment, and of preparing them for that large sphere of usefulness which may mark their future. If the house be larger than the one we have described, then provide accordingly for the children. Give them a good room of their own. Put their ornaments and playthings in it. If there be space, provide a library containing a few suitable volumes. And after this thoughtful provision has been made, see to it carefully that their schedule for work, schooling, and the other duties allows for ample time and opportunity for their enjoyment of the apartment set aside for them. In years to come, that sweet poetic sentiment running back to the home of one’s childhood will be given greater strength and beauty because of the fact that this thing just urged has been done. And more than that, the man (or woman) who has the blessed privilege of recalling these bygone scenes of childhood receives from such contemplation a new sense of inner strength and new enduement of power to go on with life’s struggle and master the larger problems that come to him.

The evening hour

No matter what the cares of the day may have been, how many things may have gone wrong, how much hay left out in the field unprotected from the rain, how many acres of corn unplowed and losing in the battle with the weeds, how many items of household duties unperformed—there is every justification for laying aside these work-a-day affairs at the approach of bedtime and for the spending of a precious hour with the problems of the children. Farm parents as well as other parents can thus preserve their youth and add immeasurably to the joys of their own lives. This thing of being with the children at evening may seem slightly awkward and prosaic at first, but it will slowly grow into a habit and will become transformed into an experience of great charm and beauty. Best of all the high refinement, potential in the lives of the children, will thus be gradually brought to an expression, and the foundation stones of substantial manhood and womanhood will be laid in their lives. Yes, it is true, even farm parents may learn to lay aside their cares and perplexities and enjoy the splendid privilege of getting intimately acquainted with the hopes and desires and aspirations of their boys and girls!

REFERENCES

The Outlook to Nature. Revised edition. L. H. Bailey. Page 79, “The Country Home.” Macmillan.

Low Cost Country Homes. A. Embury, Jr. Collier’s, June 10, 1911.

A Primer of Sanitation. John O. Ritchie. Chapter XXXIII, “Public Sanitation.” World Book Company, Yonkers, N.Y. Recommended for general use.

From Kitchen to Garret. Virginia Van de Water. Chapter X, “The Boy’s Room.” Sturgis-Walton Company.

Home Waterworks. Carleton J. Lynde. Sturgis-Walton.

“Comforts and Conveniences in Farmers’ Homes.” W. R. Beattie. Yearbook, Department of Agriculture, 1909. Washington, D.C., pp. 345-356. See also in same volume, “Hygienic Water Supply for Farms,” pp. 399-408.

Water Supply for Farm Residences, The Plan of the Farm-House, Saving Steps. Cornell Reading-Courses.

Rural Hygiene. H. N. Ogden. The Macmillan Company.

Rural Hygiene. I. N. Brewer. J. P. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.

Earn your Child’s Friendship. J. Balfield. Lippinott’s Magazine, January, 1911.

Fireside Child Study. Patterson DuBois. Dodd, Mead & Co.

Home Decorations. Dorothy T. Priestman. Chapter XIV, “Rooms for Young People.” Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia.

CHAPTER VI
JUVENILE LITERATURE IN THE FARM HOME

It may be truly said that the strength and impressiveness of the personality depend on the nature of the inner thought of the individual. Now, thoughts are not unlike the trees and the growing grain, or, for that matter, any other living thing; unless they have proper nourishment they wither, perish, or dwindle away to a puny shadow of their possible selves. How shall we measure the strength and force of the human character other than by the bigness and the purity of the daily thoughts of the individual? It matters little what the occupation may be—a hewer of stone, a hauler of wood, a captain of industry, or a governor of a state—each of these may be mean and little in his respective position provided his thoughts be sensuous and groveling. On the other hand, each of these can shine in his allotted place in a light all his own, provided he have the habit of entertaining clean and inspiring ideas in his secret consciousness.

Now, one of the larger problems of the rural life is that of supplying the many hours necessarily devoted to silent reflection with a suitable form of thought culture. Proverbially, the farmer and his wife and their children are hurried along with the work-a-day affairs and tend gradually to acquire the non-reading habit. This is bad for the parents in that it keeps their minds running around upon a little cycle of hard, industrial facts. It is worse for the children in that it fails to supply the proper nourishment for the dream period through which their lives are necessarily passing. What can be done, therefore, to nourish and build up the best possible thought activities, especially in case of the rural boys and girls?

How good thinking grows up and flourishes

It may not be out of place to show here somewhat more definitely how attractive forms of literature gradually work themselves into the lives of the young. In the first place, the young person cannot invent his own ideas. He does not manufacture his thoughts out of something latent within his organism. The latent situation consists merely of a nervous system prepared to receive manifold impressions and to retain them and give them back through the process of ideation. That is, the young person thinks only about things that have actually happened in his life. All he knows has come to him through the avenue of his senses; what he has seen and heard and felt, and so on, constitutes the “stuff” out of which his thoughts are made. So he must have the widest possible experience, while young, in the use of his natural senses.

The literature best adapted to the child would be that which appeals to the interests predominating in his life at any given time. During his early years not hard, prosaic facts, but situations that stretch the truth and sport with the fixed condition of things are especially appealing to him. He should therefore be indulged in the classic myths, fables, fairy tales, and the like. The parent will of course be on guard against his acquiring any seriously erroneous beliefs in respect to such things, and also against his receiving any serious shock or fright from the tragic aspects of the tale. Later on, during the early teens, the boys and girls will become more and more interested in the stories of the wars of old and in the fact and romance of history. Stories supplementing the text-book history of the home country may now be introduced.

As a possible means of bringing the minds of the boys and girls into a more intimate knowledge of the rural situation, nature studies and nature stories should be offered. It must be remembered that it is quite possible for the boy to grow up within a stone’s throw of many of the living things of nature and yet scarcely recognize their presence, much less know anything definite about them. Therefore, nature-study books and leaflets written perhaps in story form and containing attractive illustrations of the birds, bees, flowers, and trees to be found near about the rural home will prove most interesting and instructive to the young. Through such helpful literature the mind will gradually acquire the habit of casting about in the home environment for the description of possible objects and conditions new to one.

One of the best and most helpful results accruing to the young person who indulges the habit of reading good literature is this: he acquires a large vocabulary of words and phrases in which to clothe his secret thought and with which to express himself to others. All this furnishes, not merely a splendid form of entertainment for the silent reflections, but it also gives the thinker a sense of the power and the worth of his own personality.

Types of literature

It may be stated as a foregone conclusion that no farm is well equipped for the happiness and well-being of those who dwell thereon unless there be an ample supply of good literature in the house. No matter how well stocked with high-grade farm animals, how productive in point of farm crops, how well kept the hedges and lanes may be, secret poverty and littleness of mind lurk in that home if the literature is wanting. So, first of all, let us lay the foundation by means of enumerating some periodicals and books of a more general nature.

Plate VII.

Fig. 7.—It is a mistake to try to make bookworms of children. Many of their best books are “green fields and running brooks,” also frequent opportunity to play together in groups and neighborhoods.

1. The best reading.—Of course the Bible might head the list. Whether or not there be a large “family” Bible, there should be at least a text of convenient size and form for everyday use. This book should contain a good concordance.

Then there should come into the home a first-class weekly newspaper; possibly the local paper will supply this need. Many farm homes now receive a daily paper regularly.

In addition there should be available a weekly or monthly summary of the current events of the nation and the world. The Literary Digest, the World’s Work, and the Review of Reviews are examples of standard magazines of this particular class. Either one of them will stimulate most helpfully the quiet thought of the farmer and the members of his family and keep one in touch with the most important movements of the country.

Along with the foregoing, there should be kept constantly at hand a first-class farm magazine. There are numberless periodicals of this sort, but perhaps among those of the first rank and those which especially give definite helps for the boy-and-girl life of the farm may be mentioned Wallaces’ Farmer, Des Moines, Iowa, the Farmer’s Voice, Chicago, Illinois, and the Farmer’s Guide, Huntington, Indiana. Also, the semi-official state paper well known in many of the commonwealths is usually very helpful.

Look out for trash. There are many papers published, ostensibly in the interest of farm life, which are in fact cheap and trashy sheets made use of almost wholly as a medium of advertising quack medicines, get-rich-quick schemes, and other frauds. A reliable means of testing the value of any one of these so-called “farm” or “home” papers is to examine the advertisements. If there be any considerable number of advertisements which offer sure cures for chronic diseases, confidential treatments for secret troubles, fortune telling, and attractive high-priced articles at a trifling cost, then the whole thing is probably fraudulent and not worthy to come into your home. Also avoid the paper or magazine which advertises intoxicating liquors. It is very low in moral tone, to say the least.

2. Books for children.—In selecting a list of books for farm boys and girls, we should make little or no distinction between them and the children of the city homes. Their earlier literary needs are practically all alike and their youthful minds must be nourished in about the same fashion. In offering the lists to follow we do not pretend to have selected nearly all the profitable books available, but rather to have named a few examples of volumes already found enticing and helpful to the young mind. The majority of them are standard and well known. While the price and publisher are given in many instances, often a cheaper edition may be had.

In order to proceed with greater certainty and economy in purchasing books for the children, the rural parent is advised to consult some one near at hand who is thoroughly familiar with children’s literature. Perhaps the superintendent of schools of the town near by, or some local minister, or some well-informed leader of a mothers’ club, may furnish the desired assistance. It would also be helpful to write for the general catalogues of a number of the large publishing and distributing houses and from their lists select a number of suitable titles. Many of them publish the older classics in very attractive form for ten to twenty-five cents, the original unchanged and unabridged.

In order to stimulate interest in forming the nucleus of a home library the farmer should either make or purchase a small set of book shelves. Important as it may seem to build a first-class house for the thoroughbred hogs, this matter of the children’s reading is even more important and should be attended to first, before it becomes too late to catch the attentive ear of the boys and girls.

A SELECTED LIST

The following lists are taken chiefly from those selected by such well-known critics as Mary Mapes Dodge, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Edward Everett Hale, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Hamilton W. Mabie.

Ages Four to Six Years

Various Authors. Boston Collection of Kindergarten Stories. J. L. Hammett Company, Boston. 50 cents.

Bryant. Stories to Tell to Children. Houghton, Mifflin Company.

Holbrook. Hiawatha Primer. 50 cents. Houghton, Mifflin Company.

Eggleston. Story of Great America for Little Americans. 35 cents. Houghton, Mifflin Company.

Scudder. Fables and Folk Stories.

Stevenson. A Child’s Garden of Verses.

Lang. Blue Fairy Book.

Ruskin. King of the Golden River.

Field. Lullaby Land.

Wiggin. The Story Hour.

Sewell. Black Beauty.

Ages Six to Seven Years

Norton and Stephens. The Heart of Oak Books, No. 1. 25 cents. Heath.

Gilbert. Mother Goose.

Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson). Alice in Wonderland. $3. Harper. 35 cents. Crowell.

Andrews. The Seven Little Sisters. 60 cents. Ginn.

Kingsley. Water Babies.

Kipling. The Jungle Book.

Greene. King Arthur and his Court.

Ages Seven to Eight Years

Grimm. Fairy Tales. Translated Mrs. E. Lucas. $2.50. Lippincott.

Goldsmith. Goody Two-Shoes. 25 cents. Heath

Æsop. Fables. Selected by Jacobs. $1.50. Macmillan.

Harris. Nights with Uncle Remus. $1.50. Houghton, Mifflin.

Bible Stories. 60 cents. A. L. Burt Company, New York.

Hawthorne. Wonderbook and Tanglewood Tales.

Irving. Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, or The Sketch Book.

Ages Eight to Nine Years

Baldwin. Fifty Famous Stories Retold. 35 cents. American Book Company.

Longfellow. Hiawatha, The Village Blacksmith, The Children’s Hour, etc.

Mabie. Norse Stories Retold from Edda. $1.80. Dodd, Mead.

Miller. Out-of-Door Diary for Boys and Girls. Sturgis-Walton Company.

Ages Nine to Ten Years

Norton and Stephens. Heart of Oak Books, No. 4. 45 cents. Heath.

Hodges. The Garden of Eden. (Bible Stories.) $1.50. Houghton, Mifflin.

Mathews. Familiar Trees and Their Leaves. $1.75. Appleton.

Burroughs. Wake Robin.

Ages Ten to Eleven Years

Higginson. Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic.

Dana. How to know the Wild Flowers. $2. Scribner.

Blanchan. Bird Neighbors. 35 cents. Doubleday, Page.

Norton and Stephens. Heart of Oak Books, No. 5. 50 cents. Heath.

Church. Stories from Virgil.

Morley. A Song of Life.

Stevenson. Treasure Island.

Ages Eleven to Twelve Years

Alcott. Little Women. $1.50. Little Men. $1.50. Little, Brown & Co.

Lucas. A Wanderer in London. $1.75. Macmillan.

Aldrich. Story of a Bad Boy. $1.25. Houghton, Mifflin.

Shakespeare. The Tempest.

Scott. Tales of a Grandfather. The Talisman.

Edgeworth. Parent’s Assistant.

Ages Twelve to Thirteen Years

Kipling. Just So Stories. $1.20. Doubleday, Page.

Seton-Thompson. Wild Animals I have Known. $2. Scribner.

Wyss. Swiss Family Robinson. 60 cents. McKay; also Dutton.

Palmer. The Odyssey. $1. Houghton, Mifflin.

Goldsmith. The Vicar of Wakefield.

Dickens. A Christmas Carol. The Cricket on the Hearth.

Hughes. Tom Brown at Rugby.

Ages Thirteen to Fourteen Years

Swift. Gulliver’s Travels. $1.50. Macmillan.

Longfellow. Evangeline.

Dana. Two Years before the Mast. $1. Houghton, Mifflin.

Norton and Stephens. Heart of Oak Books, No. 6. 55 cents. Heath.

Lamb. Tales from Shakespeare.

Coffin. Old Times in the Colonies.

Franklin. Autobiography.

Stowe. Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Ages Fourteen to Fifteen Years

Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. $1. McLoughlin. $1.50. Harper.

Bunyan. Pilgrim’s Progress.

Norton and Stephens. Heart of Oak Books, No. 7. 60 cents. Heath.

Austen. Pride and Prejudice.

Thoreau. Walden.

Ages Fifteen to Sixteen Years

Cooper. Leather Stocking Tales.

Burroughs. Birds and Bees. 15 cents. Strawbridge and Clothier.

Pyle. Robin Hood. 60 cents. Scribner.

Scott. Ivanhoe. 60 cents. Appleton. Lady of the Lake. 35 cents.

Ginn. Lay of the Last Minstrel. 25 cents. Macmillan.

Sixteen Years Old and Older

Irving. The Alhambra. 25 cents. Macmillan.

Macaulay. Lays of Ancient Rome. 75 cents. Macmillan.

Kipling. Captains Courageous. $1.50. Century.

Nicolay and Hay. Boy’s Life of Lincoln. $1.50. Century.

Eggleston. Hoosier School Boy. $1. Scribner; also Heath.

In addition to the foregoing, there is beginning to come from the press a mass of juvenile literature that promises to furnish most practical inspiration and guidance to the juvenile mind on the farm. Much of this new rural life literature may be had for the asking or for the mere price of publication. The following are recommended:—

The Rural School Leaflet. Edited by Alice G. McCloskey, and issued under the general direction of L. H. Bailey at Ithaca, N.Y.

The Country Life Publications, issued by D. W. Working, Superintendent of Agricultural Extension, Morgantown, W.Va.

The series published by A. B. Graham, Superintendent of the Extension Department, Ohio University, Columbus.

The annual reports of County Superintendent O. J. Kern, Rockford, Ill., and of County Superintendent George W. Brown, Paris, Ill.

The Wisconsin Arbor and Bird Day Annual, issued by State Superintendent C. P. Cary, Madison, Wis.

The Extension Departments of many of the state universities and nearly all of the state agricultural colleges are now issuing a series of small pamphlets on such matters as stock judging, grain breeding, soil testing, and home economics. This literature should be given the widest possible circulation in the country home, as it will prove helpful both to the young and to the parents in their direction of the young.

Literature on Child-rearing

Parents who are seriously in earnest in the matter of developing the lives of their children will find great assistance and much inspiration through the reading of books and magazines on the child-rearing problems. In fact, it may be put down as a practical certainty that the work of child training cannot go on effectively and continue in its interest except one have some aids of the kind just named. Therefore, the interested parent should cast about for the books and magazines that promise to serve in the solution of the particular problems at hand. It happens that the author has collected a large number of books and periodicals of this class and that he has made a somewhat critical examination of them.

In listing the titles below, a word or phrase is used to indicate the contents or purpose of the text.

1. Periodicals on Child-rearing

The American Baby. American Publishing Company, 1 Madison Ave., New York City. $1 per year, 10 cents per copy. Contains much detailed and most helpful instruction on the care of the child.

American Motherhood. Coopertown, N.Y. $1 per year, 10 cents per copy. Helpful and sympathetic. Especially strong in respect to health and sanitation and in methods of instructing children in regard to the secrets of life.

The Child-Welfare Magazine. Official organ of the National Congress of Mothers, 147 North 10th Street, Philadelphia. 50 cents per year, 10 cents per copy.

The educational pamphlets published by the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 9 E 2d Street, New York City. Excellent monographs, each treating some urgent child problem in relation to morals, sanitation, and the like.

The Home-training Bulletins, prepared and issued by William A. McKeever, Professor of Philosophy, State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kan. 5 cents each. Each of these pamphlets contains about sixteen pages and covers a particular home-training problem. The numbers thus far issued are:—

1. The Cigarette Smoking Boy.

2. Teaching the Boy to Save.

3. Training the Girl to Help in the Home.

4. Assisting the Boy in the Choice of a Vocation.

5. A Better Crop of Boys and Girls.

6. Training the Boy to Work.

7. Teaching the Girl to Save.

8. Instructing the Young in Regard to Sex.

Others are in course of preparation.

2. Books on Child-rearing

Holt. Care and Feeding of Children. $1 Appleton. Most helpful and practical.

Curley. Short Talks with Young Mothers. $1.50. Putnams. Helpful from the medical side.

Harrison. A Study of Child Nature. $1. Chicago Kindergarten College. Excellent. A standard help.

Allen. Civics and Health. $1.25. Ginn & Co. Most helpful on the side of sanitation.

Hall. Youth. $1.50. Appleton. A great book on child study by one of the world’s leading authorities.

King. Psychology of Child Development. $1. University of Chicago Press. A Fundamental work for those who wish to make a scientific study of child life.

Ritchie. A Primer of Sanitation. 60 cents. World Book Company. A clear, helpful presentation of the facts.

Chance. The Care of the Child. $1. Penn Publishing Company. Full of detailed information about infants, especially.

Mangold. Child Problems. $1.25. Macmillan. Presents the matter ably and in the light of the freshest information.

Call. The Freedom of Life. $1. Little, Brown & Co. A great and inspiring book. Will give rest and poise to tired mothers.

Gulick. Mind and Work. $1. Doubleday, Page & Co. A companion book to the one above, only more suitable for the father.

Saleeby. Parenthood and Race Culture. $2.50. Moffat, Yard & Co., New York. A remarkably instructive volume on race improvement.

1. The Cigarette Smoking Boy.

2. Teaching the Boy to Save.

3. Training the Girl to Help in the Home.

4. Assisting the Boy in the Choice of a Vocation.

5. A Better Crop of Boys and Girls.

6. Training the Boy to Work.

7. Teaching the Girl to Save.

8. Instructing the Young in Regard to Sex.

Others are in course of preparation.

REFERENCES

How to Direct Children’s Reading. Mae E. Schreiber. Annual volume N.E.A., 1900, p. 637.

A Suggestive List for a Children’s Library, 483 titles. Helen T. Kennedy. Democrat Printing Company. Minneapolis.

A Mother’s List of Books for Children. Catherine W. Arnold. A. C. McClurg & Co.

Children’s Rights. Kate Douglas Wiggin. Pages 69 ff. “What shall Children Read?” Houghton, Mifflin Company.

Fingerposts of Children’s Reading. Walter Taylor Field. McClurg & Co. Gives extensive lists.

Books for Boys and Girls. Brooklyn Public Library, New York. A carefully selected list of 1700 titles, 200 of them being especially marked for their value.

CHAPTER VII
THE RURAL CHURCH AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE

There was never a greater demand for efficient leadership in the rural communities than there is to-day. The country has continued for many years past to become richer in farm products and equipment, but it has steadily grown poorer in social and spiritual values. In fact we have unconsciously acquired a distorted idea of values. Hogs are too high in proportion to boys. Beef cattle are absorbing too much interest in proportion to the time and money expended in perfecting the character of girls. It has long been the proud boast of the Middle Western states that they could feed the entire country. And we have continued so long in this way as now to regard big crops and the great abundance of farm animals and other such material possessions as ends in themselves. So it is high time that we ask ourselves what this material wealth is all for. Looked at from at least one high vantage point, it may be properly regarded as so much encumbrance unless we shall be able to convert it into a means to some worthy and spiritual purpose.

Decadence of rural life

The open country in the Middle Western states has for some time been the breeding place for sterling manhood and ideal womanhood, and the recruiting ground wherefrom have been drawn many men and women to undertake the management of the larger enterprises of the country. The enforced self denial and discipline of work; the continued practice of quiet reflection; the comparative freedom from the evil and degrading influences peculiar to much of the child life in the cities; and many other character-building experiences could be set down on the favorable side of rural child-rearing in the past. But this situation is rapidly changing. The ten-year period just closing has witnessed a decadence of country life, the rural population actually showing a decrease. Large numbers of the best families have moved to the cities and towns, and their places on the farm have been taken by irresponsible laborers and transient renters.

Yes, the wealth of the rural community is still there, lying more or less dormant, and all the other means of a splendid civilization are there. But in the usual instance there is no one to assume the leadership in bringing about the reconstruction of the rural life. Now that he has accumulated such an abundance of material things, the typical farmer needs to be shown how to deal more fairly and helpfully with the various members of his family. Some farmers’ wives are gradually being dragged to death with the over-burden of work, which might be obviated if the farmer and his wife were both shown specifically a better way of getting things done. Many boys and girls growing up in the country are being cheated out of their natural heritage of good health, spontaneous play, and the joy of social intercourse, all because of the fact that farm products are too much regarded as an end rather than a means to the higher development of the members of the rural family. So a good soil and excellent crops are essentials for a substantial rural society, but they are not a certain evidence of such thing. It is possible to go into some of the country communities where these material things are accumulated in great abundance and yet find the people there living a little, mean, and narrow form of life, and that chiefly because they do not quite understand how to use the splendid means at hand in the accomplishment of some high and worthy purposes.

Work for the ministry

And so we hereby issue a call and a challenge for workers to enter the great fallow field just named and make it blossom with new social and spiritual life. And it is the conviction of some that the ministers of the town and village churches can undertake this work much better than any other class of persons, for they are already in many respects trained leaders. Let these ministers be provided if possible with an assistant, a layman it may be, for both their town and country work. Then let each of them have a rural appointment to which they may go from one to four times each month; and, inspired by a vision of all the possibilities ahead of them and endued with divine power and guidance, enter earnestly into the great work of rehabilitating the country community. It is evident that the minister who will leave his town congregation with perhaps only one Sunday sermon and go to a country church and preach to the adults, and teach and lead the young, while his assistant takes charge of the second Sunday service at home—it is evident that such a minister will not only wear longer in the locality in which he is stationed, but that he will find in the rural work just mentioned such a flood of zeal and inspiration as will more than make up for and repay the effort. Many of the town ministers are preaching to audiences that are more or less irresponsive to what they have to say. Under present conditions they are compelled to preach to the same audiences too much. Their sermons grow stale. But under the arrangement here recommended, such conditions would not obtain. They would come back from the rural appointment so laden with new ideas and ideals as to appear to the home congregation in a most advantageous light.

The country minister

There is at present not a little promise that there may be developed throughout the country a new type of country-dwelling ministers. It is certainly a logical position for the effective religious worker to assume; namely, that of actually dwelling among those whom he is attempting to serve. He acquires an intimate knowledge of their problems, their point of view, including the status of their individual beliefs and prejudices.

Plate VIII.

Fig. 8.—The fifty-year-old country church at Plainfield.

Fig. 9.—The new country church at Plainfield, Illinois, erected through the inspiration and leadership of Reverend Matthew B. McNutt.

As an example of what the country minister can achieve one needs to read an account of the splendid work of the Rev. Mathew B. McNutt of Plainfield, Illinois. Mr. McNutt was called to this charge in 1900 when a fresh graduate from a Presbyterian seminary. At the time of his call there was in the locality a small dead or nominal church membership and an occasional weak, ineffective service held in the little old church of fifty years’ standing. This devoted and far-seeing man got down among the people with whom he settled, made a careful survey of the economic, the social, and the religious life of the place, and began his wonderful work of reconstructing all this. The ultimate purpose was the improvement of the spiritual well-being. He organized singing schools, granges, literary and debating societies, sewing societies, and clubs of various other sorts, all as a means of awakening the life of the community and bringing the people together in a spirit of mutual sympathy and helpfulness. After less than a decade of hard work a marvelous transformation of the rural life thereabout was achieved. Among other notable changes was a new church to supplant the old one. The new building was erected at a cash cost of ten thousand dollars; has an audience room seating five hundred or more, several Sunday school class rooms, a choir room, a cloak room, a pastor’s study and a mothers’ room, all on the main floor. In the basement below there is a good kitchen, a dining room with equipment, also a furnace, a store room, and the like. The church membership has grown to one hundred sixty-three with many non-members attending, while the Sunday school enrollment increased to three hundred.

Now there are always a few minds who wish to measure all earthly things in terms of a money value. To such it may be shown that the land values in the vicinity of this new country church have gone up to a marked degree and that the economic conditions are all of a most satisfactory nature.

As further evidence of what a rural community working together may achieve for the spiritual welfare, there may be cited the instance of the little side station by the name of Ogden in Riley County, Kansas. Here the people got together and voted to build a country church, and that without determining as to the denominational affiliation. A committee of leaders was appointed to raise funds and to draw plans for the building. In a short time, arrangements were perfected for constructing the building at a cost of four thousand dollars. It was later voted to place this new church temporarily under the direction of the Congregational church in Manhattan, fifteen miles away.

In one or two instances the religious leaders in a country community have succeeded admirably in establishing a “commission” form of church administration. The method pursued has been that of having a committee of three, each a member of a different church, to call by turn from the towns near by the ministers of the various denominations. Further details of the plans provide for the committee to raise funds so that the minister may be paid a definite amount for the service conducted.

One of the first essential steps in the establishment of a rural church is a careful survey or study of the situation. While it may be accounted a sin against God and humanity to add another church where there are already more than the people can support, often it will be found that very large, well populated country districts are wholly without access to any religious service whatever. Verily, the field is white unto the harvest and the laborers as yet are few.

A mistake in training

Too long we have been training young people in the school and in the home to struggle for the best of everything—a sort of rivalry that results in envy, jealousy, and strife, and a falling apart where there should be coöperation and sympathy and a spirit of mutual helpfulness. The craze for clothes, the glare of the electric lights, and the lure of the cheap theater have struck the country people and are drawing away much of the best young blood there. It seems that we have over-done this thing of pointing to the top and urging our young people to scramble for that, until as a result no one is looking for a place to serve, while all are looking for a place to shine. Now, there may be “plenty of room at the top” for selfish scrambling, but in some respects the top is woefully over-crowded. On the other hand, there is a vast amount of good room at the bottom, acres of it, and we might well commend it to every one who may be imbued with the idea of doing some effective work in the world. All over the broad, open country, in thousands of rural districts, the situation at the bottom is literally crying out for constructive workers who will come in there with their good courage, their scientific training, and in the name of the Most High get down among the people and the common things in the midst of which the people live and lay a substantial foundation for a new and beautiful structure—an edifice erected out of the plain materials to be found in any ordinary rural community, and that by means of transforming such things and making them contributive to the high and lofty spirit-purposes for which they are really designed.

Rural child-rearing

We are not half awake as yet to the meaning and possibilities of the rural community as a place for rearing children. The city environment ripens youths too fast and too early and works all the spontaneity and aggressiveness out of the boys and girls before their mature judgments are ready to function. As a result of this city hot-bed, we have as a type the blasé sort of young man, and a young woman who is overly smart in respect to the “proper things to do.” Either of them has little power of initiative and less power of persistence. One of the greatest virtues of the somewhat isolated rural home is that it matures human character more slowly and keeps the boys and girls fresh and “green” and spontaneous while there is being gradually worked into their characters the habit of industry and the power of doing constructive work.

If one should desire to obtain a sterling specimen of manhood, he would not take up with the “smart” city youth who at the age of sixteen has had all the experiences known to men. The latter is too ripe. He knows it all. From his own point of view, his knowledge of the world is nearly completed. No, one would prefer to go to the most remote country district and, if need be, lasso some green, gawky, sixteen-year-old who is afraid of the cars and the big girls and who has never had a suit of clothes that fits him. This scared, unbroken youth would go through a tremendous amount of rough-and-tumble, trial-and-error experiences during the course of his college training; and he would live intensively and rush into many unknown places and commit many blunders, between whiles catching countless inspiring visions of how he might be or become a man of great strength and ruggedness of character. Such a man might be relied upon to shoulder the heavy burdens of the world. Such a man could be called out to join in the forefront of battle when the moral and religious rights of the people were at issue. Such a man when fully matured could be sent into some kind of missionary field and be expected to labor there for a long time alone, courageous and persistent, finally winning a very small following; then a larger number of adherents; and then the entire population at his heels, applauding and backing him up in his every worthy effort.

The author has long had a vision of a man trained and developed through the seasoning experiences just sketched and who, under the inspiration and the guidance of the Most High, will go into these rural communities which are latent with material life, and there begin his labors in behalf of the higher things into which all the elements of this typical rural situation may be transformed. Just as fast as men hear this divine call and heed it and take up this work, so fast will our country life be reconstructed and the best that is in our society become gloriously transformed and everlastingly saved as a heritage of the oncoming generations. And it is evident that the rural minister, working through the rural church, is the person to whom this divine call may most naturally come.

The churches too narrow

Not a few of the country churches are too narrow in their limitations, tending to chill out those who do not happen to be adherents of the creed, and to foster dissensions and hatred among neighbors. And they are not touching in a vital way the lives of country boys and girls.

Plate IX.

Fig. 10.—This attractive and modern church building was erected by the Christian people living in the vicinity of the country village of Ogden, Kansas. Four different denominations participated at its dedication. Its ruling body is undenominational.

It will be agreed that the gospel of the Master of men may be made so broad and inviting as to attract all who have a spark of religion in their natures, and that means practically every one in the community. But there is no good reason why the rural church should stand alone as such. It should and can be made a social as well as a religious center for the whole community. So, let there be constructed a modern building with big windows, and several apartments for Sunday school classes, and for meetings of social groups, such as the grange, the farmers’ institute, the sewing society, and the literary and debating clubs. Then there should be apparatus for the preparation of meals, with a room in which a long table might be spread as occasion demands. Outside of this building there should be a children’s playground with some simple apparatus for play.

Not less frequently than one afternoon of the month—and twice would be better—the people of the community should drop everything and come together for a good social time and a general exchange of ideas. On an occasion of this kind the town minister could be present or someone from the outside who would bring with him at least one helpful and practical idea about building up country life. Let this building be regarded as the property of every man, woman, and child in the community and strive to bring it to pass that the legitimate and worthy interest of all shall be actually served there.

Constructive work of the church

This country church here thought of need be no less a religious affair, but it must become distinctively a socializing agency. It must not merely save souls, but it must save and conserve and develop for this present life the bodily, the moral, and the intellectual powers of the young. One cannot adequately develop those splendid latent powers in young people solely by means of teaching them the Sunday school lesson or preaching to them, no matter how true the gospel may be. The evidence is ample to show that boys and girls who attend church and Sunday school are nevertheless falling into many vicious habits of conduct, and are growing up without many of the forms of discipline and training essential for stable Christian character and social and moral efficiency. In fact as a means of temporal salvation the old-fashioned church and Sunday school are proving more and more a failure.

Now, as soon as the church realizes the meaning of the foregoing situation and acts accordingly, just so soon will this splendid old institution be enabled to do efficient work in vitalizing the practical affairs of the community in which it is located. To illustrate this point: The great curse of boyhood to-day is the tobacco habit, and this vitiating practice is slowly working its way among the country youth. The youth who acquires the smoking habit before becoming physically matured thereby depletes his physical health to a marked degree, reduces his mental efficiency ten to fifty per cent, and almost completely destroys his power of initiative. Such a youth is never found contending for any moral issue or any high and worthy cause of the people. His constructive instinct is made more quiescent, while his disposition to condone evil is greatly and permanently increased. Boys who attend church and Sunday school are also, like others, falling victims to the sex evils of various forms.

An innovation in the rural church

Perhaps there is no better illustration of how the economic affairs of the neighborhood may be vitally linked with the church service than the work carried on under the direction of Superintendent George W. Brown, of Paris, Illinois. During one year Mr. Brown conducted on seven different occasions an over-Sunday program, somewhat as follows:—

On Saturday either at the country school house or in the basement of the country church there was arranged an exhibition of corn, while during the day class exercises in the study of corn were in progress. On the day following, Sunday, there were two sermons, the theme of each being closely allied to the economic problems studied the day previously. The ministers are reported to have coöperated enthusiastically in this work, each one attempting in his sermon to show how better economic life may be made contributive to a better religious life.

On the Monday following, the program was continued with a farmers’ institute representative of the several interests of the adults and the young people. At this Monday meeting a number of the faculty of the state university were in attendance and gave helpful addresses appropriate to the occasion. At night the County Superintendent gave an illustrated lecture, using the stereopticon to show the audience just what was being done in the various parts of the county and country by way of improvement of the social and economic conditions.

In many places in the New England and other eastern states the rural communities are attacking the social-religious problems in practically the same manner as is being done at Plainfield, Illinois. At Danbury, New Hampshire, there is a Country Settlement Association, which is accomplishing some epoch-making things. At the official building there is provided a trained nurse to assist the entire community. The organization conducts social-betterment work for the local neighborhood and leads in a campaign for social reform throughout the state.

Likewise, at Lincoln, Vermont, there is an interesting example of coöperation between the religious and social interests. Three churches have formed a federated society. In a building maintained in common by them, the meetings of the Ladies’ Aid Society, the Good Templars, the Grange, the Grand Army Post, and many others of a social nature are held. Such coöperative work is certain to have a helpful and far-reaching effect on any community.

Plate X.

Fig. 11.—An illustration of “Corn Sunday,"” as instituted by Superintendent Jessie Field, Clarinda, Iowa, in the rural churches thereabout.

Spiritualize child life

Above all things else, let the country church be reorganized with reference to the interests of the young. Let the minister and the other leaders take a firm stand for a square deal for the farm boys and girls in respect to work and play and sociability. Let them place before country parents clear, concrete models and methods as to how to accord fair treatment to the children in every particular thing. Let them organize the young people of the community into groups for play and sociability and direct them in both of these matters.

It is high time we were considering all of our legitimate interests as a part of our religion. Indeed, there is no good reason why the young people could not meet together at the rural church and on the same evening have an oyster supper and a prayer meeting. They could very consistently discuss and participate in both a temporal and a spiritual affair on the same occasion and in such a way that each part of the program would be vitalized by the others. And likewise the smaller children. It should not be considered at all irreverent for one to go directly with them to the playground after the Sunday school lesson is ended and there lead and direct them in their health-giving enjoyments. Try this in your rural-church society centers and see if the boys and girls do not run with great enthusiasm to the whole affair.

One great error committed by many of us in the past is that of regarding work and things as arbitrarily high or low. But the author does not see why plowing corn may not be made just as sacred and just as divine a calling as preaching the gospel, provided the former be regarded in the light of service of some high spiritual purpose; as indeed it may be. So, here is a distinctive part of the function of the rural church; namely, to spiritualize work as well as workers—to urge upon the attention of the rural inhabitants the thought that their work must all be regarded as a means to the transformation of the community life and of each individual life into a thing of transcendent worth and beauty.

A summary

Now, here is the proposed plan in a nutshell. The country community is the best place in the world for bringing up a sturdy race of men and women and the country church is or can be made one of the greatest agencies in the achievement of this work. But such achievement can best be brought about only when the country church goes to work to save the whole boy and the whole girl. And that means that the church must understand better how human life grows up—that it must meet these growing boys and girls on their own level of everyday interest and socialize and spiritualize these interests through close contact with them. Then, make the rural church a social center for the young, including exercises in work and play and recreation, as well as a place for religious instruction. The child is a creature of activity and not of passivity. You cannot preach him into the kingdom in a lifetime; but you can get down with him and work with him and play with him and guide and direct him through his self-chosen, everyday interests, to the end that he may afterwards enter the ranks of the Lord’s anointed.

Again, it is urged, make your country church a center for the entire life of the community. Not only have the adults bring their practical affairs to this center for consideration, but have the boys and girls come with their implements of work and play, with their specimens of farm and home produce and handiwork, with their miniature menageries and workshops—all this with joy and reverence before and after the religious services.

REFERENCES

Efficient Democracy. W. H. Allen. Chapter X. “Efficiency in Religious Work.” Dodd, Mead & Co.

Rural Christendom. Charles Roads. Prize Essay. American Sunday-School Union, Philadelphia.

Report of the Commission on Country Life, pp. 137-144, Sturgis-Walton Co.

The Country Church and the Library. John Cotton Dana. Outlook, May 6, 1911.

The Country Church and the Rural Problem. Kenyon L. Butterfield. University of Chicago Press. A strong presentation of the entire situation.

The Rural Church and Community Development. President Kenyon L. Butterfield. The Association Press, New York. A collection of practical papers and discussions on several important topics.

The Day of the Country Church. J. O. Ashenhurst. Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York. Read especially the excellent chapter on “Leadership."”

The Church and the Rural Community. Symposium. American Journal of Sociology. March, 1911.

Philanthropy, A Trained Profession. Lewis. Forum, March, 1910.

Rural Manhood. The Association Press, New York Monthly. This magazine publishes many excellent articles on the Rural Church.

The Inefficient Minister. Literary Digest, April 10, 1909. A report of the criticisms of Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, of the Carnegie Foundation, and Dr. Henry Aked, of San Francisco.

World’s Work, December, 1910. An interesting account of Reverend Matthew McNutt’s work in building up a country church.

The Country Church. George F. Wells, in Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, by L. H. Bailey, volume IV, page 297.