CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE 37 



a gold watch and chain. " He was sensi- 

 ble, that man was: he liked air." And, 

 after all, thousands of New Yorkers sleep, 

 or try to, in the streets on broiling, sul- 

 try August nights. Only, they don't wear 

 gold watches. 



The merit of such a life, and of all rural 

 life, is its individualism and independence, 

 its modesty, bravery, and self-sufficing- 

 ness. Men are a part of nature, and can- 

 not help it ; yet the world is full of vain 

 striving to get away from this fixity and 

 fate. The men wear starched collars, nar- 

 row shoes, and hard hats, and the women 

 wear tight foot-covering and corsets the 

 aim in each case being to be as little like 

 men and women as they can. They do 

 not care to be reminded of nature. Better 

 the farmer, the hunter, the wood-chopper, 

 who eats with his knife, and is at home in 

 the woods and at one with them, than the 

 affected, lisping, dawdling fop of the town. 

 The clearest, if not the deepest, minds 

 ought to be found in the country, and 

 frankness is apt to be a rural trait. Bacon 

 objects to a naked mind. I wonder if our 



