should be a new form, something in the way of representing the end of
the planting, the harvest, the seasons, the leading crops, the dairy,
the woods, the history and traditions of the neighborhood or the region.
Many of the pieces should be acted out of doors, and they should be
produced chiefly by local talent. Such simple plays for the most part
need yet to be written, but the themes are numerous. Why not have a
festival or a generous spectacle of Indian corn, and then fill the whole
occasion full of the feeling of the corn? As pure entertainment, this
would be worth any number of customary theatricals, and as a means of
bringing out the talent of the community it would have very positive
social value. The traveling play usually leaves nothing behind it.
The themes for short, simple, and strong dramatic presentation are
almost numberless,--such episodes and events, for example, as the
plowing, the reaping, the husking, the horse-shoeing, the hay-stacking,
the wood-chopping, the threshing, the sugaring, the raising of the barn,
the digging of the well, the herding of the cattle, the felling of the
tree, the building of the church, the making of the wagon, the bridging
of the creek, the constructing of the boat, the selling of the farm, the
Indians, the settlers, the burst of spring, the dead of winter, the
season of bloom, the heyday of summer.
We do not sufficiently appreciate how widespread and native is the
desire to dramatize. The ritual of fraternal orders is an illustration.
We see it in the charades of evening parties. The old school
"exhibition" made a wonderful appeal. Every community likes to see its
own people "take parts." At nearly every important grange meeting, and
at other country meetings, some one must "recite," and the recitation
usually has characters, situations, and "take-offs." It is too bad that
we do not have better literature to put in the hands of these reciters;
in the meantime, I hope that the custom will not die out.
One who has seen the consummate Passion Play at Oberammergau must have
had the thought impressed on him that there is much latent talent among
the country folk, and also that it is much worth the while of a
community to develop this talent. Aside from its transcendent theme,
this stupendous play appeals to the world because of its simplicity and
directness and because of its reality, for these are the very kind of
folk that might have taken part in the mighty drama had the Great Master
lived in Oberammergau.
The nativeness of the play impresses one. The very absence of so much
that we associate with the ordinary drama gives the play an appeal,--the
absence of the studied stride and strut, of the exaggerated make-ups,
and of the over-doing of the parts. The play is grounded in the lives of
the people in the community.
We cannot expect another place to become an Oberammergau, but it is
possible for something good to come out of any spot. This thought is
vividly expressed by W. T. Stead in his account of the Passion Play:
"As I write, it is now two days after the Passion Play. The crowd has
departed, the village is once more quiet and still. The swallows are
twittering in the eaves, the blue and cloudless sky over-arches the
amphitheater of hills. All is peace, and the whole dramatic troupe
pursue with equanimity the even tenor of their ordinary life. Most of
the best players are woodcarvers; the others are peasants or local
tradesmen. Their royal robes or their rabbinical costumes laid aside,
they go about their ordinary work in the ordinary way as ordinary
mortals. But what a revelation it is of the mine of latent capacity,
musical, dramatic, intellectual, in the human race, that a single
mountain village can furnish, under a capable guidance, and with
adequate inspiration, such a host competent to set forth such a play
from its tinkers, tailors, plowmen, bakers, and the like! It is not
native capacity that is lacking to mankind. It is the guiding brain,
the patient love, the careful education, and the stimulus and
inspiration of a great idea. But, given these, every village of country
yokels from Dorset to Caithness might develop artists as noble and as
devoted as those of Oberammergau."
_The business of farming._
After all is said and done, the first question still remains,--the
opportunity to make a good living on a farm, and the possibility of
leading a life that will be personally satisfactory.
There has never been a time when farming as a whole has been so
prosperous as now, notwithstanding the fact that there are hardships in
many regions. The whole occupation is undergoing a process of
readjustment, and it is natural that the readjustment has become more
complete and perfect in some places and in some kinds of farming than in
others. We have but recently passed through a time in which the farming
business, except in special regions or special cases, could not be
really profitable and attractive.
To make a good and satisfactory living on the farm is a matter both of
temperament and of first-class training. There are great series of city
vocations in which any person with fair ability can succeed; but farming
is a personal business and each man is his own manager. No one should
ever go into farming impersonally.
Many persons are making a comfortable living on farms, a better living
in fact than persons of similar ability and expending similar energy are
making in town. Other persons are failing.
I am not advising anybody to establish himself in the open country; but
I am saying that the time has now come when good talent need not avoid
the open country.
This is a good time for the well-trained farm-minded young man or woman
to go into agriculture; but one should be sure that he has the
qualifications.
There is no need that farming provide only a narrow and deadening life.
One may express there all the resources of a good education.
The college man is now beginning to affect the sentiment and the
practice in rural communities. Formerly a college man going back to the
farm was likely to be the subject of distrust and even ridicule. This
attitude is passing very rapidly in the good rural regions.
In his public relations, most of the ambition of the countryman has been
to hold office. It is a form of small political entertainment, too often
with no thought of any particular service to the community. We have a
wholly distorted idea of the "honor" of holding office; there is no
honor in an office unless it contributes something worth while to
society. We cannot expect strong leadership to develop in the open
country until there are better things to look forward to than merely to
hold the small political places. Many opportunities for rendering
prominent public service will now arise in the farm country; perhaps
this book will suggest a few of them. And it ought to be some
satisfaction to a young man or woman to know that he or she is part of a
world-movement, and to feel that it is no longer necessary to explain or
to apologize for being a countryman or a farmer.
We have been living in a get-rich-quick age. Persons have wanted to make
fortunes. Our business enterprises are organized with that end in view.
Persons are now asking how they may live a satisfactory life, rather
than placing the whole emphasis on the financial turnover of a business.
There is greater need of more good farmers than of more millionaires.
My reader may wish to know what constitutes a good farmer. I think that
the requirements of a good farmer are at least four:
The ability to make a full and comfortable living from the land;
to rear a family carefully and well;
to be of good service to the community;
to leave the farm more productive than it was when he took it.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
Obvious printer errors have been corrected without comment. Other than
obvious errors, the author's spelling and use of punctuation have been
preserved as in the original publication.