OCR Text |
Show rIZZZZZZZZI There seems to bo a general impression than city life is enervating aliko to physical ("Jitfvr health and to morals, that for real bodily " vigor and the uncontaminatcd virtues you OP must go to tho country. "t j There is a shop-worn saying about tho V4fJUm.ry necessity of returning to tho soil every third Which? generation. It is argued that, liko the fa bled Antaeus, tho human race must bo re- newed and rejuvenated by actual contact Jk By PATRICIA PEMBLETON. with lnothcr cnrUl- lm'1 lhis renlly om of tho pretty fictions that pass current becauso no one ever took tho troublo to contradict them? A great deal is said about tno urontuui nervous strain ot mo in a city, and quite as much about tho healthy wholcsonicness of country life. The natural way of settling tho question of superiority would bo by com-9 com-9 if parison of tho product of Uic two environments. Take a scoro of business and professional men, CO years of ago, and compare them with formers of tho same number of years. Tho city men , are more erect, more vigorous, more alert mentally and physically. They look fivo years younger than the farmers. Compare their wives, and tho . -,, samo conclusion is inevitable. Despite tho "dreadful nervous strain" tho w" city peoplo aro younger in thought and feeling, not to mention looks, moro alivo to tho world's interests. Granted that tho country lifo is tho life of tranquillity and rcposo. t That is the trouble with it. It lacks mental stimulus. It is a lifo of dull quietude, spent in a round of ever-rccurring tasks centered on a few J acres and lacking outside stimulation or change. There is littlo of tho friction of mind upon mind that produces flashes of intellectual bril- ! liancy or arouses the mental energies by tho introduction of new ideas. Tho principal thing tho farmer gets out of his occupation is fresh air. Incidentally ho gets rheumatism and lumbago and stiiE joints. Hygienical!)', Hygieni-cal!)', he is supposed to live under tho most favorable conditions. People . j go to tho country for health. T'ioso who live thero seem to somehow man- " ago to miss that blessing. Who arc tho best patrons of tho patent medi cine men? AVho buys tho pain-killers and tho tonics? Whoso wives and daughters fill up tho insane asylums? Tho farm is on excellent rcfugo for tho man whoso business abilities are below par; ho can make a living off tho land. Tho successful farmer, who as a rulo makes his money in lines outsido puro agriculture, could moko more money and do it quicker and moro easily in town. The apostles of "tho simple life," who prato about the peace and calm of country life, oro glad enough to hustle back to tho city after a month of its maddening monotony and routine. They get whero it becomes positively necessary to have "something doing." |