234 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



the advantages gained. Take half a dozen of 

 the most successful city men you know and 

 consider (i) How much healthy exercise in the 

 sunshine they have ; (2) How much of their 

 life is passed with their children and family ; (3) 

 How much intellectual exercise do they get out 

 of life, how many books worth reading do they 

 open in the course of the year ? 



In olden times, and in fact in recent times 

 until the power press and cheap postage ap- 

 peared, the dweller in the country was largely 

 cut off from intellectual intercourse. He had 

 1 "; his few books, as a rule costly and therefore 



T * 



few, and that was all. To-day, no matter how 

 '-' distant the hamlet, the mail reaches it, and for 

 . . - a trifle the newspapers and magazines bring 

 due -him the best thoughts of the world together 

 I yU. with a record of what men who like the fuss 

 and the noise of towns are doing. It is no 

 longer necessary to live with the throng in 

 .order to know what is going on where crowds 

 meet, and all signs go to show that in the 

 future it will be still less necessary. The phon- 

 ograph, to speak of but one wonder of the near 

 future, offers extraordinary things to the man 

 / who wants to get away from the crowd. The 



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