IGO RURAL MICHIGAN 



continued to be an important and interesting feature 

 of rural life even to the present time, wherever the 

 population is mainly of this same Yankee stock or 

 has come under strong Yankee influences. On the 

 first Monday in April in these sections of the State 

 ]\Iichigan farmers still gather within their township 

 at the town hall or school-house, or, if the day is 

 favorable, in the open air in the yard, for the purpose 

 of arriving at a decision in regard to the building 

 or improvement of public roads and bridges, and it 

 may be for the enactment of ordinances and the 

 consideration of other aifairs of local concern. It is 

 genuine democracy similar to that which framed 

 measures against the tyranny of George III or exists 

 in the smaller cantons of Switzerland. 



As pertains to county government, the example of 

 New York is most closely adhered to. The township 

 supervisors who assess the farmer's property for pur- 

 poses of taxation meet jointly at the county seat to 

 attend to the administrative and legislative affairs of 

 the county as a whole, while the farmer's deeds and 

 mortgages are recorded with the county register of 

 deeds who produces an abstract of title for a fee. The 

 county surveyor may be called in to run a line or 

 establish a corner, and the county drain commis- 

 sioner lays out the drainage ditches that run from 

 farm to farm into the natural water-courses. Eural 

 justice is administered in the first instance and in 

 cases of minor importance by one of the four justices 

 of the peace of the township; the constable is the 

 same innocuous official that time and literature have 



