Nothing a Year 27 



in our American cities. The danger is rather 

 that the individual will be colored by his 

 surroundings and reduced to that level. Our 

 great public schools tend to turn out boys and 

 girls all knowing the same things, all thinking 

 the same way, all intellectually fashioned upon 

 the same model, and that a poor one. Unless 

 I am able to provide for my boys and girls 

 teachers of exceptional merit, I should rather 

 trust to home influence and the district school 

 of the country village than to the great public 

 schools of large cities, always with the idea 

 that the boy would find it possible to work his 

 way through college some day, and that the 

 girl would not grow up without some idea of 

 literature and music. The question with me is 

 not whether the influence of the crowds of 

 cities is for good, but whether it is not for evil. 



