4 City Homes on Country Lanes 



others who were strangers to such functions. All met 

 the same warm hand-clasp and gracious smile at the 

 wide-flung door; all were soon equally at ease. The 

 flowers, the music, the games, the refreshments, the 

 favors, were precisely what the hostess would provide 

 if she lived in town, or on a lordly country estate, in- 

 stead of in a humble "camp" on the side of a sagebrush 

 hill. And she made those pioneer women happy — filled 

 their cup to the brim. One of them remarked: "It's 

 worth all the work and worry of the week, just to be 

 here on Thursday afternoon." It was not simply the 

 good times — it was the leveling of all social barriers, 

 the striving for the very best there is in life. 



The influence thus projected did not stop with one 

 afternoon in the week, nor with the women alone. It 

 spiritualized the whole community. It elevated the 

 public meetings in the rude town hall, setting a high 

 standard for all entertainments, and all meetings of an 

 intellectual or social character. It overflowed into the 

 front gardens and beautified them with flowers, some 

 of them still fragrant with roses and tender with vines 

 given by the gracious lady on the hillside. For, as 

 her own love was perennial, so she loved to give her 

 friends perennial plants that should fill the air with 

 fragrance year after year. Yes, some of them are 

 blooming yet ; and they do not forget her. They have 

 long memories — those roses ! 



I tell this story of the beginnings of our New Earth 

 —the New Earth that is to bring security and content- 

 ment to millions— because it illustrates a deep social 

 principle, the absence of which has had its part in the 

 decadence of American rural life; also, for another 



