Digging to the Roots of a Dying Tree 21 



must be so, if there is anything at all in education re- 

 garding the common duties of life, and any hope of 

 raising the standard of efficiency in that respect. And 

 it is the city that can do it is doing it far more than 

 the country. It is a part of the organized life of the 

 town which contrasts so sharply with the over-individ- 

 ualistic life of the countryside. 



We see it again in the matter of nurses. In times of 

 illness, it is usually difficult even to obtain household 

 help, and nursing is often left to the unskilled hands 

 of the older children, or of the neighbors and their 

 children. Five millions of the best men and women have 

 come into the world under these conditions. Sturdy 

 mothers and noble children have survived the experi- 

 ence; yet this circumstance is no more an argument 

 against the modern scientific conditions now enjoyed by 

 the city, and impossible to the old and discredited sys- 

 tem of rural life, than the fact that Abraham Lincoln 

 read his lessons by firelight is an argument against the 

 use of the electric lamp. 



Not only has the city the advantage of fine and 

 abundant hospitals, with their complete staffs of highly- 

 trained physicians and nurses, as well as free clinics for 

 the needy, but they also attract the ablest specialists in 

 every line. Take dentistry (half our bodily ills are now 

 traced to the teeth) and ask yourself if there is any 

 comparison between the practitioners and facilities al- 

 ways available in the city and those usually found in 

 the country. Add to this the thorough inspection of 

 teeth now quite generally made in city schools, and 

 the laxity in that regard in many, if not most, country 

 schools; and it is apparent at a glance that so far as 



