AMONG THE FLOWERS WITH REXFORD 



118 



nobody owns it except to make nse or 

 money out of it. The country house is 

 another thing : it is or ought to be the 

 outermost self of a human being — the ex- 

 pression of the life of the family. 



The country home should be and it can 

 be idyllic with itself and its surroundings. 

 Because out of the public eye it should not 

 be sloyenly. The true, the good and the 

 beautiful may unite in its formation. But 

 to secure such a home its builder himself 

 must first be educated to its possibilities. 

 Our rural education should teach more 

 than mathematics or eyen the sciences of 

 horticulture. It should expound the 

 country as something more than pastures 

 for beef cattle or the resort of classifiable 

 insects and plants. The esthetic should 

 enter more into common education at all 

 points. Art, fine art — art that makes 

 liying noble, that reaps happiness as well 

 as wheat — that points upward and on- 

 ward, should constitute an elementary 

 part of country education. 



The country home should not only be 

 beautiful, but there is absolutely no rea- 

 son why it should not be strictly sanitary. 

 Here should dwell health. ^ This requires 

 among other things a cellar removed from 

 the house; a driven well with water com- 

 ing out of the rocks; a cesspool with per- 



fect drainage; and, if possible, oldfash- 

 ioned fireplaces. These are not costly 

 luxuries, but simple necessities. Most of 

 the sickness in country homes is from bad 

 drainage, bad cellars, bad water, and bad 

 ventilation. Doctors' bills will more than 

 cover all the comforts of life and the cost 

 of securing most of the luxuries. 



When the completer evolution that we 

 have suggested is accomplished, includ- 

 ing rural mail deliver}^, trolley roads, and 

 telephones, the country will become the 

 normal residence — the natural dwelling 

 place of human beings. The town will 

 furnish no conveniences that are not se- 

 curable in the country. The country will 

 have its own peculiar privileges which the 

 town cannot secure. It may also have its 

 libraries, its music and its literature. 

 These are to be among the ambitions of 

 the cross roads. Exactly what is to be 

 developed along the line of telephone cir- 

 cuits we cannot foresee ; but we already 

 know that music can be heard as plainly 

 as conversation over a circuit of several 

 miles. Of country libraries we shall have 

 something to say at another time. They 

 are not altogether a novelty. Half a cen- 

 tury ago the country school district library 

 was as complete as that which could be 

 found in the villages, if not in the cities. 



1 



THE PICTURESQUE SUBURBS OF AUSTIN, TEXAS 



