Thursday, January 23, 1913.]
THE CABOLINA TJNION FARMEB
Page Three
As we move close to that invisible line marking
the end of the old and the beginning of the New
Year, we are stirred with cleaner, higher impulses.
So we make resolutions.
Such resolutions spring from reawakened con
science as we look back over a year of wasted op
portunities, foolish dissipations and health-break
ing habits, and a desire is born within us to
achieve a higher and better plane of living. Un
happily good resolutions do not continue long of
force with most of us.
Good resolutions, like all good impulses, are
right if kept. They perhaps do good any way, be
cause no one loses by having noble thoughts and
aims, even if they are of brief duration.
There are a few simple New Year resolutions I
would like by brethren to make and keep. They
are all homely, but I guarantee if you live up to
them for one year, you will find yourself a better
citizen, neighbor, husband and father.
First, resolve to look on life cheerfully. Don’t
be a grouch. Smile even when you don’t feel like
it, and pretty soon you will find it easy to be an
optimist even when things look darkest.
Don’t go into debt unnecessarily. Don’t do it
at all if you can help it; but if you must, be sure
you are not obligating yourselves to pay more
than you can without straining your resources
and making your family suffer. Nothing else
takes the heart out of a man like a burden of
debt.
Resolve to be a real neighbor. If Jim Jackson
is apparently offish, approach him in a friendly
way, discuss the things of common and mutual
interest. It won’t be long until it is easier to be
neighborly than it is to be selfish.
Stick to your neighborhood interests, your
church, your school and your friends. Learn to
yield your own obstinatjB opinions if it is appar
ent that in so doing you benefit those around you.
A mulish, self-opinioned man is a thorn in the
flesh, particularly if he is not willing to be con
vinced that he is possibly wrong. I have seen one
man and his pig-headedness disrupt an entire
community.
Co-operate with your neighbors in all good
movements. The very foundation of all human
success or growth is imbedded in co-operation ■
pulling together.
Resolve to treat your wife as something more
than a mere drudge to cook your meals, make
your beds, nurse and care for your children, milk
your cows, do the thousand and one things that
often makes the life of a farmer’s wife one cease
less, killing, loveless grind. Take her to meeting
to visit the neighbors, buy her a new dress now
and then, but above all else show her sympathy,
love and tender consideration that will sweeten
and lighten her toil. The best, truest, most self-
sacrificing women in the world, the mothers of the
men upon whom the burden of our civilization
rests, are on the farms of America.
Treat that boy right. Make him look to you as
his real guide in life. Make him a companion,
teach him the love of the soil, and give him some
of the earnings' made by the swet of his brow.
Thousands of boys are driven from our farms
every year by harsh and unjust treatment of
fathers.
Be gentle and considerate of your girls. Let
them have pretty dresses and ribbons and the
things dear to a girl’s heart. Let her have the
right kind of association among young people, and
show her your love and protection in guarding
her, shielding her from danger or trouble.
Resolve to be a real, a true and a helpful mem
ber of the Farmers’ Unipn. We have drones in
plenty; we want earnest, purposeful workers.
Finally, face the New Year manfuly, with stout
heart, with sunny disposition and the ambition
and intent to live your life the very best you
know how.
These things may all sound trite and common
place, but the real test of the best life is .usually
based on doing the commonplace things well and
cheerfully. C. S. BARRETT,
Union City, Ga., January 18, 1913..
« * 4> * * « 1
♦ «
* THE PRIZE. *
* •
* We failed to announce last week the win- •
* ner of the December prize as we anticipated. *
* - Three of the essays were printed in last week’s *
* paper and the prize for the month goes to Mrs. *
* J. H. Henley, of Sanford. For January we *
* will give three prizes, of Five, Three and One *
* Dollars, for the three best papers submitted *
* during the month on “What My Local has
* Done for the Good of the Community.’’ There *
* will be no restrictions, but the brevity of all *
^ essays will be considered ip awarding the *
* prize. *
All local Secretaries have been given in- ♦
structions in regard to subscriptions during *
the quarter, and those not receiving same *
should write at once. Where there have been *
changes in Secretaries the instructions may / *
not have gone to the proper party, and where *
there have been changes, we will be glad to *
forward all necessary instructions to the new *
Secretary. *
Moslem Complacency.
“The best Moslems are those most remote from
civilization.’’ This is the opinion of the expert
missionary journalist, Mr. W. T. Ellis who writes
for the January Century a most illuminating ar
ticle in which he gives the following fine illus
tration of Moslem complacency: “Floating down
the Tigris on a goatskin raft, I, had a handsome
and alert Kurd for raftsman. One day he asked
me if 1 had been to Stamboul (Constantinople.)
When I assented, he remarked, as though stating
a commonplace, ‘Of course it is the greatest city in
all the world, isn’t it?’ I was obliged to confess
that there are some larger and mightier cities, and
I named London and Paris, Berlin and New York.
He looked pityingly incredulous and said: ‘Stam
boul is the capital of the world. The calif lives
there, and all the world is Moslem except a few
Armenian Christians, and when they talk too
much we cut their throats.' ‘Christians,’ he gen
ially informed me, ‘will all go to hell.’ And when
I pressed the point, he affirmed with great hearti
ness that I too was bound for the same destina
tion. I tried to get into his mind the fact that
the vast majority of Moslems are under Christian
rulers. His face showed that he had a simple ex
planation: I was lying. I asked him if he knew
all about Mecca, and he said, ‘Yes.’ I showed him
a picture of the Kaaba, and he was awe-struck.
The photograph was according to the description
he had always heard. Then I showed him the
mosque at Medina. When he affirmed that he
knew the Koran, I asked him to suggest.a favor
ite ‘sudra;’ and then I read it to him from a trans
lation of the Koran I carried with me. The man
was thunderstruck. The printing press had
shaken the foundations of his self-complacency,
and that is what is happening all over the world.’’
—Biblical Recorder.
The Assassin and the Saloon.
The American Issue is quoted as saying that
the man who killed Lincoln first fired his brain
w’ith liquor at a near-by saloon; that the man who
killed Garfield got his immediate inspiration in a
saloon; that the plot to kill McKinley was con
cocted in a saloon and carried out by a regular
habitue of that resort; and that the man who
tried to kill Roosevelt last fall was a saloon keeper
up to the time of his assault on the ex-President.
How long will the American people tolerate this
prolific breeder of crime?
SUPPOSE WE QUIT?
You are either a member of the Farmers’ Union
or you are not. There are more farmers in the
United States who do not belong than there are
who do. Most everyone likes to be with the big
gest crowd, so let’s just all quit being members of
the Union, and if we belong to any other organi
zation that has not a majority of the inhabitants
of the earth, why let’s quit it, also. It takes
struggle and work, and time, and sacrifice, and
worry, and patience, and money, and loyalty, and
a whole lot of other things to make the Farmers’
Union a winner. What is the use for any man who
can exist some old way till he dies, waiting to go
through the ordeal to sustain this organization?
Don’t you think we would be a whole lot better
off just to let everything go to thunder and every
fellow do his own grubbing? Just quit thinking
about changing the habits of folks and the condi
tion of the country and all go to sleep in a ham
mock under the shade tree—it is so much easier.
Oh, dno’t it make you feel good to relieve your
mind'of all anxiety and take the world easy?
There is nothing like being at ease and having
nothing on your mind. If a few thieves gobble
up the country, what difference does it make?
Who cares if things go to the bad? Some of us
would have to do most of the work if we succeed
ed in changing the trend of the age, and who is
willing to do this for the benefit of others who
won’t thank you when it is all done?
What does a man get out of life if he has to do
something for others always, while you are being
made fun of by some, denounced by others, and
often deserted by your comrades? Don’t you like
to have an easy time? Well, I’m here to tell you
there has got to be some hustling if you make the
Farmers’ Union go to success.
Now, if we are going to join the quitters, let’s
just finish the job. Let’s quit the struggle we un
dergo to get- along in the world. Let’s don’t do
anything for the good of the country or‘for pos
terity. It is too much trouble and they might not
appreciate what we do. We will all be dead in a
few years, and the next generation won’t thank
us for what we do for them—and even if they did,
what good would that do us after we are all dead?
So we will quit spending half the money of the
State for schools, and use it to have a good time
while we are among the living.
But I’ll tell you what. It is a whole lot of
trouble to live at all. It is risky. We have to be
bothered with so many cares and suffer so many
aches and pains physically and mentally, that it
is really a losing game anyway. So I am just
about decided to quit the whole business and seek
that quiet rest that lasts forever. Why not just
die and'escape the responsibilties, the anxieties,
the worries, the toil, the pain, the anguish, the
heartaches of life?
If we are going to get out of difficulties, that is
absolutely the only way to escape—to die. This
being the fact, I am either to fight my part of the
battle or surrender ignominiously.
Not wanting to commit suicide, I think I will
just keep on and do my best, letting events take
care of themselves. I believe I can get more com
fort and satisfaction out of doing something than
in dodging my task. So, hit or miss, sink or swim,
live or die, survive or perish. I’ll just fight on to
the end, not grieve over things I cannot help nor
look back to see whether or not everybody else is
coming. There is glory in conflict when you fight
for the right.—T. J. Brooks.
NO'TICE TO COUNTY SECRETARY.
* Please notify this office at once of any
* change of County Secretary that I may send
" the County dues and fees to the proper offi-
*cer. E. C. FAIRES, Secretary-Treasurer.
* Aberdeen, N. C.
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