Middletown transcript., 1869-07-24
Popular Nlistellanp.
Country and City.
DY HARRIET DEECuER STOWE.

Human beings are divided into two
classeszzone of which is made to live in
the country, and the other in the city.
There can be no doubt about that.
There arc some who, while condemned
to live in the city, live there as an exile.
They are all the while straining their eyes
over the tops of the houses to catch dis
tant glimpses of sunrise and sunset, or
looking wishfuly up at the square of blue
sky, which is all the portion Of nature al
lotted to them. They nourish forlorn
plants in fower-pots at their windows, with
an affecting devotion. They send into the
country for ferns and MOSES and bits of
wood grasses, and 90 into ecstases over
them. They are always longing for the
yearly time to come when they shall get
out of the city and into the country.
This elias of people are easily satisfied
with their country retreat. They don't
want fashion, they dctost company, and
anything which reminds them Of artificial
life all they ask is good farmhouse,
somewhere alone in the country; for they
love "dear old mother earth" so, that, like
Christopher Columbus, when he landed in
America, they are ready to fall down and
kiss the very ground.
If they could have their way, they would
live in the country the year round, no
matter how far from conveniences. Mud
dy roads and deep, whirling snew-drifts,
and post-ofice ten miles off, have no
tcrrors for them--they find beauty in eve
ry thing.
These are the people made to live in the
country.
Then, again, there are other people quite
as good, and with quite as much taste and
refinement and feeling, who are made to
live in the city.
Madame de Stael said that the very gut
ters of the Rue de Bao had more charms
for her than all the glories of Switzerland.
What she lived in was the salon life-the
reuniops-thc constant action Of mind on
mind, which is only possible in city.
Yet Madame de Stael was by no means in
sensible to the beauties of nature. She
loved nature much, but she loved social
excitement more.
The city is the great spoilt child of the
country. The best of everything that the
country raises is poured into the city. Who
ever makes up his mind to live in the
country must make up his mind also to
have only the second choice of all the
gifts of nature, Of which the first and best
are always sent into the city. He must
not hope for carly peas or strawberries oil
lettuce, even though they be raised in al
the towns around him they are ratified
, right past his door on the railroad to the
city. His market gardener neighbors
wouldn't think of such thing as selling
to him any more than if he were o cow
No indeed; their choice tit-bits are not fol
people SO stupid as to live in the country
They are to strike the eye and dazzle the
senses and get money out of the purses
of the millionaires who live in the city,
Almost invariably the first thing tha
> people discover who take country board il
that they have bid farewell to fruit anC
vegetables, as well as to tender meat, and
even down by the seaside, often to goot
fish.
All these things may be the product
and often the peculiar product, of the re
gion where they are, but they are non,
) the better off for that, for they all so jog
Hm8 Oh 10 Tue lAaFkcI III Tue clty
They may be got, perhaps, by paying
double the price that one would have t.
pay in the city; for the farmer or fisher
man, a little uncertain how much he nigh
get in that golden mart, is determined tina
if he must sell any where else, to ge
y enough for 1t.
: The city is served by great gardens
e where the owners compete with each othe
It to have every thing earliest, largest, AM
II most perfect But the country boarde
has nothing to fall back upon but the goo
:. deacon'e own little private scrap of gar