340 



/S VILLAGE LIFE WORTH PRESER]LNG? 



grass sods, selected b}- expert farmers for striking 

 vigor and productiveness, were the most valuable 

 collection of lolium, for propagating purposes, ever 

 made in England. But it does not appear that 

 either Fream or Carruthers realized the special 

 value of those sods at all — though the latter gentle- 



man wasn't giving away his trade to any great ex- 

 tent in the article in question. Further thought 

 about the nature of grass from across the Tweed 

 would seem to be needed by the English mind at 

 this juncture — intense thought, too, with maybe a 

 bit of practical application to follow. 



IS VILLAGE LIFE 



WRITEI^ IN the New York 

 E^'cning Post (John Tunis) 

 ably discusses some problems 

 of village life, which is synony- 

 mous with "country life" in 

 the minds of many people. 



I We would not have it so ; 



real country life is another 

 thing. Every generation changes its way of living, 

 often reverting in a way to the manners and cus- 

 toms of generations beyond their immediate prede- 

 cessors, and this is marked at the present time. Of 

 course these changes affect everything pertaining 

 to ways of living, and so change whole communities. 

 Village life is so different at various times and 

 places that an assertion fitting one locality will illy 

 apply to another. Few of us have an absolute 

 choice of residence, and must try and modify our 

 surroundings, rather than remove ourselves to more 

 congenial localities. The tendency of our time is 

 towards the cities, and each of us must decide the 

 question from our own position. In a broad way, it 

 is a most serious question whether village life is 

 worth preserving as we find it now. 



Can it be changed, or must we change ourselves ? 

 In the modern Utopias of the " Looking Backward " 

 school of authors, who in their way endeavor to 

 forecast the future, we are told that perfect adap- 

 tation of the means to the end will result in the 

 greater amelioration of life to workers and dwellers 

 in the country. Each one is to raise what his lands 

 and conditions are adapted to and exchange with 

 his countrymen whose crops and conditions are dif- 

 ferent. " Once consolidate agricultural interests, 

 and the innumerable small farms are unnecessary. 

 A great farming corporation with capital, economiz- 

 ing the small yet innumerable wastes of little farm- 

 ing efforts, would certainly have a better chance of 

 success, and the condition of the farm hands be 

 much improved." 



How is all this known ? Mankind must first be 

 improved and all the rest will be easy. We have 

 not seen the laborers enjoy a happy life on large 

 estates where numbers were employed. The laborer's 



)RTH PRESERVING? 



condition is always a hard one, for it is his hard 

 conditions that make him a laborer. The number 

 of small landowners has always been considered the 

 bulwark of civil, religious and personal liberty among 

 English speaking nations, and trusts, corporations 

 and huge estates the oppressors of mankind. Men 

 will have to change in the future, and then will 

 change their mode of life. It is well to consider 

 what are the evils incident to humanity when mak- 

 ing comparisons between city and country. The 

 countryman who visits town at leisure and spends 

 his time in a succession of delights puts too high an 

 estimate upon the easy life of the town, when he con- 

 trasts it with his uninteresting and monotonous ex- 

 istence of work, yet he probably has greater varie- 

 ty of occupation than nine-tenths of the men in 

 town who work. The city visitor to the country, 

 with time to enjoy its beauties, and amused and en- 

 tertained at the littleness of life there, glorifies the 

 country for its beauty and charms. It is true, on 

 the other hand, that those who most truly love coun- 

 try or town are the persons who have long lived 

 and understood either situation. 



It seems understood that village life is declining 

 both in English and America, and this gives rise to 

 the question about its preservation. The main 

 cause of decline seems to be that the better element 

 in the population seeks the cities. Now the best 

 place for alert and cultivated people to go would 

 be where the society was congenial, and this they do, 

 both in country and town. If they seek the wilder- 

 ness it becomes a town and then a city. They are 

 a gain to the place they go to, and a loss to that 

 they leave, unless they have heavy moral disadvan- 

 tages to neutralize the good. But people vary as 

 much as conditions. No sweeping assertion will 

 include the race, only a restricted class. It is true 

 there is a greater number of fine people in large 

 places, but we shall not all associate with them if 

 we go there. There is much to enjoy and gain if 

 we can take the advantage of it, in both, not with- 

 out. To form a just judgement we must perceive 

 things exactly as they are. Good authorities tell 

 us that the Paris of Zola exists in the city on the 



