one] introduction 



about them. For poor people they designed arbor- 

 like buildings with fancy turrets and pinnacles; and 

 for the wealthy they offered Fifth Avenue palaces, 

 to be constructed along boulevards. This book has 

 nothing to do with boulevards or villas. I aim sim- 

 ply to go out with the people who have a heart sick- 

 ness after life in the green fields, and to help them 

 as I can in adjusting conditions to desires, or desires 

 to conditions. What we want in the country is 

 men and women who intend to live as common- 

 sense folk; will lift the social level with simple broth- 

 erhood, high aspirations, and a humanity filled with 

 Godliness — unaffected, pure in heart, and demo- 

 cratic. 



This book will not concern itself specifically with 

 cooperative colonies. These are hopeful, and 

 those in charge of the Salvation Army are promising 

 to be successful. My appeal must be to individual- 

 ism and to individuals; to men and women who 

 have had their eyes opened to the folly of that sort 

 of life, which characterizes the bulk of our city 

 population — a population where cooperation has 

 dropped into deadly competition, and where money 

 has become absolute. A studious man, or woman, 

 on a small farm, possessed of industry and intelli- 

 [11] 



