FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



relaxation he does not want merely to be amused. His life is 

 made up so largely of actual labor and encased in such an 

 economic austerity that he does not react to the frivolous 

 and light. There must be something to the play life that fits 

 his need." 1 Further proof of this fact may be found in the 

 reading of country people. An investigation of the reading 

 statistics of a rural county, covering a period of nine suc- 

 cessive years, shows that, on the whole, the people living in 

 the open country read more serious books than are read by 

 city residents. 2 The following item taken from the German- 

 town (Ohio) Press is to the point: "On Wednesday morning 

 of last week a number of merry farmers found their way to 

 the woods of the John Kinsey farm. Owing to sickness the 

 renter, Mr. Hoffman, had been unable to cut his winter's 

 wood, and the near-by farmers, prompted by a feeling of 

 neighborliness, enjoyed a day of fun and frolic in preparing 

 for him a big pile of fuel. Twenty-five farmers had a part 

 in the pleasure of the day." 



1 See " Country Church Work," p. 14. 



2 Saida B. and Ernest I. Antrim, " The 



County Library," p. 223. 



4 6 



