216 Social Training for Farm Boys and Girls 



fore be drawn on broad and liberal lines, not forget- 

 ting the great possibilities of awakening slumbering 

 interests and aptitudes, and of building up a social 

 community that will draw young people to it. 



If one will take the time to drive for a hundred 

 miles in a direct line through the farm districts, as the 

 author has done, he will be not a little surprised at the 

 striking contrast in the social conditions of the various 

 neighborhoods passed through. In one instance he 

 will be told that there is absolutely nothing present 

 to invite the young a dull, dead place with per- 

 haps many run-down farms and farm homes to keep 

 it company. He will learn that the young people 

 of such a community are running off to some neigh- 

 boring town where many of them find a cheap and 

 degrading class of entertainment. But the next 

 adjoining neighborhood may present a converse sit- 

 uation. One will be told that the young people 

 are happy and contented there, that they have fre- 

 quent meetings of their social clubs and other forms 

 of organization; most probably the appearance of 

 the neighborhood will be likewise much better than 

 that of the other one mentioned. Attractive homes, 

 well-kept roads and hedges, and other evidences of 

 prosperity will meet one's view. 



In one district visited, the author found that this 

 better situation had an interesting history and that 

 it was nearly all traceable to a quarter of a century 

 of public-spiritedness of one man. This resident had 



