1891.] ESSAYS. 99 



thereby years of comfort to our existence. You may tell me 

 that the popular cry is, that rural life is declining in its condi- 

 tions, and cite the everlasting statement of abandoned farms. 

 All I have to say is that they ought to be abandoned, most of 

 them. I will leave the development of this to your own 

 thoughts. 



I hope to see the comforts of rural life increasing, especially 

 farm life, there has been so little in the past. Our life here is a 

 short one. I believe that it was never intended to be one of 

 labor and hardship, but of mental growth and development, 

 which must have certain bodily comforts as necessary conditions. 

 The subject your Committee gave me also included home embel- 

 lishments, which I have cteveloped but very little ; it is a great 

 one, and requires much thought, more than my limited time will 

 allow. If you desire to see it promoted, I will suggest a trans- 

 fer of the pocket-book to the good wife, who rules the home, and 

 she will exemplify it for you, and prove that a good wife is in 

 herself the greatest embellishment of a rural home. 



