26 City Homes on Country Lanes 



become one of the most valuable features of modern 

 education, is difficult, or impossible, in all except the 

 highest types of country schools. On the other hand, 

 it is readily within the reach of the city school, with its 

 large attendance, good salaries, and opportunity for 

 careful grading. 



Investigation has disclosed a pitiable lack of library 

 facilities in many rural schools throughout the United 

 States, including some of the most advanced and pros- 

 perous agricultural sections. Many instances were 

 found where the total library stock did not exceed 50 

 to 100 volumes, and where these were unchanged for so 

 long as two or three years. City school libraries are 

 far more adequate and enterprising, and they are sup- 

 plemented by great public libraries which are open to 

 the children. 



The same influence necessarily governs the character 

 and extent of school buildings in the city and country. 

 The Little Red Sclioolhouse is picturesque, but fre- 

 quently uncomfortable, inconvenient, unsanitary, and 

 at least a generation behind the times. City school 

 buildings, on the other hand, arc generally the object 

 of the greatest pride — often of lavish expenditure, and 

 sometimes the last word in architecture, convenience, 

 beauty and sanitary arrangement. 



One reason thai great numbers of men and women 

 have left the country and gone to the big centers of 

 population is because they are thereby enabled to give 

 their children a far better education, and hence a 

 better start in the race of life. It is idle to deny the 

 facts, and equally idle to argue against the parental 

 instinct that demands the best for its offspring. The 



