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Show Perhaps Superintendent Tortor imagines im-agines he has made a new discovery when he announces that his "most interesting in-teresting bulletin" will establish the fact that the tendency of modern civilization civiliza-tion is toward the large cities. Other people less satiated with census statistics statis-tics know this to be the case without waiting for his "most interesting bulletin." bulle-tin." The fact is that with the exception of sentimental rhymsters who would rather starve in the cities than live in the country, few people find rural life attractive. There is nothing in it but ceaseless toil and deadly monotony. To women especially, it entails a mental strain that only too many of them can not endure. Look at the insane asylums of the country and you will find the majority of female patients there are recruits re-cruits from the farms. It is all very nice for a millionaire to spend a few weeks in the summer on his fancy farm and then give it out that he is worn out with the cares of business and seeks recreation in the country; but it is another thing to spend one's whole existence there; to plow and to reap, to thrash and to shell from spring to spring, from sunrise to sunset aud to enjoy nothing. It is very creditable to the farmer that he aims to givo his boys and girls a better opportunity in life than he himself possessed; that he sends them to the city where they can go to school and church and sometimes to the theater thea-ter and get a broader and deeper view of the world than the country affords. It is creditable to him that ho provides them with sooial advantages they cannot can-not find at home. While competition is keener in the city the chances are far greater for the energetic country youth, endowed with a good digestion and clear brain, to make his mark. In the country he is circumscribed and soon settles down to a dull routipe for life. There is not even money in it, and as Mr. Porter's census will doubtless show in another "interesting bulletin," the great majority major-ity of our farmors waste their strength in liquidating a mortgage that only too often refuses to be liquidated, depending depend-ing largely upon circumstances over which they have not the slightest control. con-trol. Farming is a very good occupation for those who can do nothing better; for those who can pursue it by proxy, and for the foreigner who has been trained to endure much and enjoy little. Indeed we believe that an analysis of the census would show that farming is slowly but surely passing into the hands of the foreigner altogether. |