CHAPTER XIX 



AMATEUR THEATRICALS 



BELIEVE that a country town or 

 neighborhood can receive no greater 

 benefit than in the introduction of 

 new blood. My brief experience as a 

 farmer has taught me this, and my long experi- 

 ence as a citizen of a country town has convinced 

 me that in no way can a country community 

 make good its loss of young men who have an 

 ambition awakened in schools and colleges to 

 go to larger communities, than by offering every 

 possible inducement for young men and women 

 to come in from other communities. 



For instance, if Ike Peterson's son Bill goes to 

 Boston or New York or Seattle or Chicago, and 

 becomes an active and influential member of the 

 law firm of Strasser, Ellis & Co., our town has 

 lost one who might have been a useful citizen. 

 But if at about the time of Bill's departure, the 

 junior member of the selfsame firm should, cu- 

 riously enough, decide to quit the city for life 

 on the farm, or amid semi-rural surroundings, 

 and, more curiously still, should decide to be- 



