THE EXPANSION OF FARM LIFE 51 



more comforts and luxuries than ever before. 

 They dress better than they did. More of them 

 ride in carriages than formerly. They buy 

 neater and better furniture. The newer houses 

 are prettier and more comfortable than their 

 predecessors. Bicycles and cameras are not 

 uncommon in the rural home. Rural telephone 

 exchanges are relatively a new thing, but the 

 near future will see the telephone a part of the 

 ordinary furniture of the rural household; 

 while electric car lines promise to be the final 

 link in the chain of advantages that is rapidly 

 transforming rural life — robbing it of its isola- 

 tion, giving it balance and poise, softening its 

 hard outlines, and in general achieving its 

 thorough regeneration. 



This sketch is no fancy tale. The movement 

 described is genuine and powerful. The busy 

 city world may not note the signs of progress. 

 Well-minded philanthropists may feel that the 

 rural districts are in special need of their ser- 

 vices. Even to the watchers on the walls there 

 is much of discouragement in the advancement 

 that isn't being made. Yet it needs no prophet's 

 eye to see that a vast change for the better in 

 rural life and conditions is now in progress. 



No student of these conditions expects or de- 



