THE COUNTRY HOME [cHAPTER 
valleys, and feel their way like fingers of fate up 
between the hills. The postal authorities promise 
now that within four years they will have covered 
every square mile of the United States with free 
mail service; while well within that time it seems 
probable that no reputable farmhouse will be with- 
out its telephone. This is an evolution that consti- 
tutes a revolution. Urbanism spreads out into 
suburbanism, and suburbanism widens to cover the 
larger part of the country, because the advantages 
of contiguity are no longer sufficient to overcome 
the advantages of individual living. The close con- 
tact, the smoky air, the pinched freedom of action, 
the deprivation of orchard and garden, no longer 
seem tolerable; because they are unnecessary. 
The mischief of packing population began with 
the introduction of steam power. ‘The steam age 
began about 1830.. Many of those now living re- 
member its inauguration; some will see its close. 
In 1891 Professor Orton, our most eminent author- 
ity on coal and kindred subjects, said in a brilliant 
monograph: “The age of coal is nearly ended, and 
with it the reign of steam.”” All known deposits of 
anthracite coal in the United States, the Pittsburg 
seam alone excepted, he affirmed, would be ex- 
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