' I 



HOME-LIFE. 1 27 



Now, in our domestic life, till very lately, there 

 was ample room for the satisfaction of these pro- 

 found social instincts. But the rapid growth and 

 development of our great cites have largely upset 

 the primitive sociability of our lives. Peoj)le from 

 all parts of the country and all countries of the 

 world have crowded into the big towns. There 

 tliey have come together (piite accidentally, in 

 streetful after streetful of miscellaneous humanitv, 

 knowing nothing of one another, often with few 

 or no interests in common, and unable to mix 

 freely in social intercourse. It is largely this hap- 

 hazard crowding together of people from every- 

 where that has begotten that exclusiveness and that 

 "stand-off" attitude which many foreigners find 

 so characteristic of the English and still mtn-e of 

 the American nation. Everybody is afraid of 

 knowing his neighbor, for fear his neighbor, about 

 whose antecedents he is absolutely ignorant, should 

 not turn out to be quite the sort of person with 

 whom he would naturally wish to associate. 

 That eminently respectable man IJrown is anxious 

 to keep Smith at a distance, for fear Smith should 

 prove an undesirable acquaintance ; that eminently 

 respectable man Smith looks askance when lie 

 meets Brown on the doorstep, for fear BroNvn 

 should be discovered, upon nearer view, to be no 

 better than he ought to be. Then, again, it is so 

 hard for the people who would really wish to know 



