Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1916 — PROGRESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PROGRESS

(By Walt Ma on) When I was young I had to go and till the cornfield with a hoe. Ah, it was weary work, indeed; I paralyzed the noxious weed, and scraped the dirt around tie corn, and yearned to hear the dinner horn. I'd toil all day to beat he band, till blisters came on hoof and hand, and then the husbandman would say, as he dug up my meagre pay, "Was that the best that you could do? You must have loafed, tiie whole day through!" And now I see the farmers ride on cultivators tall and wide, that hill the corn and slay the weeds, as they are drawn by prancing steeds. A hundred freckled lads with hoes might work all day along the rows, and not achieve as much, I ween, as would one green and red machine. The farmers of these modern days know naught of old time toilsome ways; they do their labors sitting down, and ride in choo-choo cars to town; they find the boodle growing rank, and have to stack it in the bank.