52 What My Critics will Say 



has no resources of his own, if he finds no 

 pleasure in books and literature, I should say 

 beware of the country. Any such scheme as I 

 have outlined would fail ; it may be that very 

 few men are so fond of out-door life that they 

 would consider the loss of New York's advan- 

 tages as of small account in comparison with 

 the joys of wood-chopping and oyster-dredg- 

 ing. In writing these pages I have had no 

 intention of tempting away the clerk from his 

 yardstick or his ledger, or the broker from his 

 office. I have simply had my say, knowing 

 that I am in an insignificant minority. I think 

 I have shown that bankruptcy need not result 

 from such a course, providing there is a small 

 income, so small that most men who reach 

 middle age have it at their disposal. And in 

 such a case there is the possibility of getting 

 also out of the city some of its advantages, for 

 there are several months in the depth of winter 

 when there is nothing to be done, either in the 

 way of sport or work, in the country. I have 

 gone so far as to say that even if country life 

 meant entire isolation from the city, and de- 

 pendence for a living on the money which may 



