Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1915 — WALT MASON The Poet Philosopher. [ARTICLE]

WALT MASON The Poet Philosopher.

The farmers sadly ramble o'er soggy fields and wet, and say, "Our job's a gamble-—-none knows which way to bet’ We think we have a reason for planting oats and chops, we somehow think the season will boost such kind of crops: and then they send wet weather, a deluge and repeat, and we cry all together, 'We should have planted wheat!’ Oh, warfare is exciting, when hardy sold-

iers arm, but it's hot sp exciting as life upon a farm! Talk not of stress and danger, es battlefields and fights, before the harried granger. cf dreadful days and nights! If ■ he could quit his farming, and soldier tor a spell, he’d think the quiet Charming, a rest he'd earned so well. In shooting foes or strangers there is no mental strain, like that endured by grangers who fight the drought or rain. There’s nothing so exhausting in packing round a gun, as in a fight that’s costing the farmer all his mon. This farming is a scramble for goals we seldom win, a hazard and a gamble, a scandal and a sin.