. RURAL AMERICA 



physical training was given by 650 communities, most of them 

 doing both outdoor and indoor work. There were 811 Bible 

 classes and 1,323 religious meetings for men and boys. The 

 work has had a growth of over 200 per cent in five years. 1 



/. Country Social Life Yesterday and Today 



In the " Homespun Age " of the nation, to use an expres- 

 sion of Horace Bushnell, the country's social life was rural 

 in its character, since there were no cities in the present 

 sense of the term. The centers of population which bore the 

 name cities were simply big country towns, and the social 

 life of the country reflected itself in practically all the cities of 

 the nation. As a matter of fact, according to the census of 

 1800, there were only six cities in the whole country with a 

 population in excess of 8,ooo. 2 In those pioneer days the 

 social life of the country had largely to do with barn raisings, 

 plowing contests, log rollings, singing schools, sewing cir- 

 cles, apple parings, quilting parties, husking bees, spelling 

 matches, camp meetings, barbecues and the like. Now if one 

 studies those activities, he finds in most of them a blending of 

 work and play. But the age of coal and steam effected a 

 change in the social life of the nation, which previously had 

 been distinctively rural in its character. Cities have created 

 a social life of their own and the youth of Rural America have 

 been partially won over to the social life of the cities. The 

 characteristic of the social life of Urban America is pleasure 

 for pleasure's sake. The element of work is absent. But how- 

 ever greatly Urban America has influenced Rural America, the 

 rural population still clings pretty tenaciously to the custom 

 of getting keen pleasure from the social activities that repre- 

 sent a blending of work and play. The late Miss Anna B. 

 Taft, of the Department of Church and Country Life of the 

 Presbyterian Church, calls rural recreation a purposeful 

 recreation and goes on to say : " The average country citizen is 

 more serious-minded than his city brother. In his moments of 



1 Data furnished by Mr. A. E. Roberts of the International Y. M. 

 C. A. Committee. 



2 W. L. Anderson, " The Country Town," p. 31. 



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