V 



SPRING 



r \ A HE last snow has fallen. The country- 

 JL man is now embogged, and is losing 

 temper and dollars because of the delays, 

 difficulties, and damages he has imposed on 

 himself by his cheap and miserable roads, 

 and the city man is returning thanks that 

 his yet more miserable street has ceased to 

 be a place of navigation, and may now be 

 forded, with rubbers. The first warm days 

 take one out of doors : albeit in town they 

 bring a forecast of the frightful August 

 weeks to come, when men and horses fall 

 at their work and have to be put on ice, 

 that is, the men do, and babies die by 

 hundreds in the tenements; die wretchedly 

 within half a dozen miles of health and 

 life ; die because their parents are hopeless 



victims of the aggregation habit. 



58 



