TOWN DRUDGERY. 231 



the physical trend of people who live in great 

 cities is one of steady deterioration ; the cities 

 must be constantly recruited from the country. 

 To me the persistent city man who never goes 

 beyond the brick walls and paved streets is en- 

 titled to pity very much upon the same ground 

 as are the animals we see in our menageries. 

 Centuries of wrong living have evolved a people 

 who stand confinement and bad air wonderfully 

 well, but Nature takes her revenge in one way 

 or another. Nevertheless, we stand our arti- 

 ficial existence so well that most of us forget 

 that it is an artificial existence. As animals we 

 ought, by rights, to be in the sunlight from 

 morning till night. Our ancestors of a few 

 thousand years ago, who foraged the woods 

 and waters for birds and fish which they de- 

 voured raw, slept well in their caves after the 

 day's chase, and knew nothing of half the ills 

 we now live in dread of. When Thoreau notes 

 that the sports of civilized man were the labors 

 of uncivilized man, does he not indict civiliza- 

 tion ? Man has given up play as a means of 

 getting a living. To some extent we go back 

 to the rational life when we can. The rich 

 Wall Street gambler, the rich dealer in lard or 



