92 lOV/A ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



All of US in one way or another know somethino^ of the 

 monotonous grind which makes up the life-long experience of 

 by far the larger number of our fellow men. On the farm, in 

 the shop, in the mine, day after day, one unceasing round of 

 toil, into which the idea of pleasure or freshness never enters. 

 How many thousands of our fellov/ men, tens of thousands of 

 our women see nothing but the revolving steps of labor's tread- 

 mill, day in, day out, winter and summer, year after year, for 

 the whole span of mortal life. This is especially so here, in 

 these western states, where the highest ideal is industry, the 

 highest accomplishment, speed. Oar rural population is wear- 

 ing itself out in an effort to wear out " labor-saving machinery." 

 If you do not believe it take a journey across the country, any- 

 where through Iowa, and see how our people are actually living. 

 They know no law but labor; their only recreation is their toil. 

 Now, it is needless to say how abnormal all this is. We are as 

 a people entrapped in our machines, and are by them ground to 

 powder. The effect of it is apparent already in the public health, 

 and will be the most startling factor in the tables studied by the 

 man of science in the generations following. Not to paint too 

 darkly the picture, attention may be called to the fact that rural 

 suicides are not uncommon, and that the wives of farmers are 

 a conspicuous element in the population of some of our public 

 institutions. There must be something done to remedy all this, 

 to preserve for our people their physical and mental health, 

 and to this end, as all experience shows, there is nothing so 

 good as direct contact with nature, the contemplation of her 

 processes, the enjoyment of her peaceful splendor. If in every 

 county, or even in every township, there were public grounds 

 to which our people might resort in numbers during all the 

 summer season, a great step would be taken, as it seems to me, 

 for the perpetuation, not to say restoration, of the public health. 

 We are proud to call ourselves the children of "hardy pio- 

 neers," but much of the hardiness of those pioneers was due to 

 the fact that they spent much of their time, women, children 

 and all, out of doors. All the land was a vast park, in which 

 that first generation roamed and reveled. They breathed the 

 air of the forest, they drank the water of springs, they ate the 

 fruit of the hillsides while plum thickets were their orchards, 

 and all accounts go to show that hardier, healthier or happier 

 people never lived. Such conditions can never come again, but 

 we may yet, by public grounds for common enjoyment, realize 

 somewhat of the old advantage. 



