No. 4.] COUNTRY ROADS. 247 



as I have said, that it comes so largely from the thought- 

 fulness of some of the intelligent women of that neighbor- 

 hood. 



It appears to me that the need in this direction is largely 

 that of public education and discussion, and that hardly 

 anything adequate at all can be done in this State unless we 

 begin to a very great extent at the beginning of things, as 

 you are beginning here in this meeting to present the facts 

 first and then the principles which obviously relate to these 

 facts, so that we can have a little advance in civilization in 

 relation to these subjects. People have to do new things, 

 and disuse some of the old ways of doing things. There 

 must be some advance in popular thought and in popular 

 intelligence, perhaps, before anything adequate can be 

 accomplished. 



One thing presses upon me when I think on this subject, 

 and that is the curious fact of so great a movement 

 going on towards the shore region of New England, 

 with, at the same time, so slight recognition of such 

 a movement among the people. A little while ago, 

 as my friend Mr. Elliot remarked, I was through the 

 shore towns of Massachusetts, and everywhere I found 

 indications of this movement. There is not a shore 

 town in the State to-day, Mr. Chairman, in which there is 

 not going on a change in the ownership of land ; and yet 

 very few people in the towns where this change is taking 

 place recognize that there is any movement. When I 

 visited the citizens along the shore and the town officers and 

 the leading men, and asked them about it, very commonly the 

 answer would be, "No, there is nothing especial going on 

 here ; things are just about as they have been always." Of 

 course there are towns in whlcn this is not the case, but in 

 many towns I was told : "No, there is noting particular 

 here. Somebody nas bought this farm down here and a 

 land company has taken up something of an area over on 

 this side, and we have heard that in the next town there 

 have been several places bought within a year or two." 

 But very few people put these things together, and many 

 people in the State do not perceive that these changes in 

 their towns indicate any general movement at all. They do 



