252 THE BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



within his limited income. It is needless to say 

 that he developed into a kicker, and kicked against 

 every movement of the church or his city that 

 called for the expenditure of money. Had he re- 

 mained on the farm he would have still enjoyed his 

 church privileges and been a power for good in 

 the farm community, lived a peaceful life, spared 

 himself much humiliation, and the town community 

 would have avoided his irritable presence. 



The author has seen old people retire from the 

 farm to the city, who, on the farm had been sur- 

 rounded with life-long, kind, and sympathetic 

 friends and neighbors who were their close 

 daily companions. City people are divided into 

 clannish, narrow circles too often bent on society's 

 doings and pleasures. The women of the thriftier 

 class are caught in the maddening rush of parties, 

 entertainments and receptions, and those of the 

 middle or poorer class are caught in the grind of 

 respectable and abject poverty. City men gener- 

 ally must be madly engrossed in the business or 

 work in order to maintain their positions or even 

 to live. Such a body of engrossed men and women 

 are not likely to take on new acquaintances or 

 associations, and they merely politely notice the 

 retired farmer or his family, so he finds himself 

 "midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men." 

 'He sees, hears and feels, but he cannot possess/ 

 He roams about the city's street with 'none to 

 bless him or none whom he can bless,' with kind 

 and good companionship the awfulness of soli- 

 tude midst the crowd that throng him becomes his 

 lot. Upon the farm he had the consolation of 



