MR. URBAN AND A COUNTRY HOUSE 



country) is your quiet landholder, living in 

 the performance of a humble range of duties 

 — rearing brown-cheeked boys, who will make 

 their way to high places of trust — to general- 

 ships, to governorships, by dint of their sturdy 

 habits of self-denial, and of work, which have 

 belonged to their early life; and, on the other 

 hand, yonder by the gas-lights is your busi- 

 ness man of the city, rearing boys under the 

 shadow of the Broadway shops, who, by rea- 

 son of no self-denial at all, will hardly arrive 

 at the governing even of themselves (to say 

 nothing of States) ; and yet, such a person 

 counts it no difficult matter, by the gains of 

 only a week's profitable venture, to oust the 

 countryman from his home, and take posses- 

 sion of his lands. It is lamentable to think that 

 the accomplishment of such undertaking is so 

 easy. An instinctive clinging to one's home, 

 is a good nucleus for the growth of orderly 

 virtues. I am not going to enter into the 

 question as to whether the better man may 

 grow up under trees, or under brick walls; it 

 is a large question ; and there is a leafy side to 

 it, which, to me, is particularly engaging: but 

 to-day, our concern is with Mr. Urban and 

 his search and its results. 



As I have said, the advertisements are most 



233 



