A Refuge From City and Prairie 



By Wilhelm Miller, 



The home framed by a white oak which is probably 150 years old and by festoons of wild grape which has overgrown two dead specimens of Norway spruce. 



Yucca in bloom 





PRAIRIE homes," says the East- 

 ern critic, "are fearfully new, 

 bare, raw. They have no big 

 trees; they lack the mellowness 

 that age alone can give. The home 

 grounds have no privacy; they are exposed 

 to the public gaze, nakedly and .shame- 

 lessly. They make no attempt to hide 

 unsightly outbuildings, 

 billboards, streets. New 

 countries know nothing 

 better than trees in 

 straight lines, flower beds 

 in the middle of the lawn, 

 fancy beds, and gaudy 

 tropical plants for sum- 

 mer show." 



"All these bad things 

 can also be found in the 

 East," the Westerner 

 might retort, but, he is 

 also painfully conscious 

 that some, or all, of these 

 criticisms are only too 

 often justified; and he is 

 in a mood for something 

 better — something that 

 is more dignified, appro- 

 priate, and Western. He 

 is casting about for a 

 style of outdoor living 

 that will arouse an honest 

 pride. 



Here is an .example 



ii. r_'i tit t> t- a The water, rocks 



worthwhile. Mr. Robert Creek , a brancn of 



H. Tinker of Rockford, foreground. These 



111., has a home which means something 

 as different as possible from the spirit of 

 show which is eating the heart out of 

 home life. It is a refuge from the infinite 

 prairie and from the artificialities of city 

 life, where the family may live amid the 

 wildness of stream, rocks, and woods. 

 Every home ought to have a theme or 



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and woods which made Mr. Tinker buy six acres at Rockford. 111. Kent 

 the Rock River. There is fishing and skating above the dam; rapids in 

 Silurian rocks have horizontal lines that repeat those of the prairie 

 337 



motive. The best theme, ordinarily, for a 

 dweller on the prairie is a retreat from the 

 prairie. Not that the prairie is flat, com- 

 monplace, uninteresting! On the contrary 

 it is beautiful, inspiring, and has a character 

 of its own, which man has not altogether 

 spoiled. The endless cornfields give a 

 stronger feeling of the breadth and gen- 

 erosity of Mother Earth 

 than anything else in the 

 world. The prairies like 

 the sea are a symbol of 

 the infinite. But the 

 more you feel the infinity 

 which the sea suggests the 

 more you need a snug 

 retreat, like the captain's 

 cabin. So with the prai- 

 rie; the more it means to 

 you, the more you need a 

 home which shuts it out, 

 at least from the window 

 of one room that is sacred 

 to your own personality. 

 The farmer stirs a few 

 steps beyond his wind- 

 break and there is a view 

 as wide as any that the 

 soul can grasp. The pio- 

 neers who have no wind- 

 breaks tend to be crushed 

 by the prairie; their lives 

 become hard and com- 

 monplace, the women 

 often go insane. It is 

 because they lack con- 



