Yes, there really was a magazine called Rural Manhood. It was from the non-city branch of the YMCA, and was published, ten issues a year, from 1910 to 1920. The premise was that boys in farming areas (generally in the South) were leaving the farm in droves to go to the city, but it was aimed at adult farmers with sons. The emphasis of the YMCA, and the magazine, was to help keep boys on the farm.
It seemed to try to cover way too many bases at once. Check out this "purpose statement":
It's true that the early 1900s were a zealous time. It was a new century just packed with promise--and there were thousands of young men (like Anton Janson) who were born in Europe and who wouldn't have had such a spectacular future there. But grandpa didn't seem to want to leave Buckman, tho he realized how much hard work farming was. His thoughts tended toward finding new methods to make farming more mechanized and efficient, and way less back-breaking. This magazine wasn't aimed at him...lolThese next two clips from issues of Rural Manhood were supposed to be "inspirational" pages, I suppose...but they mostly make me scratch my head. Who were they trying to convince, and about what?
(Just some interesting history for ya, that's all).
No comments:
Post a Comment