Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-09-26
THERUTLAND HERALD.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 81, 1872.
The city and the Town.

A city is always interesting. While
some may decry its crowded thorough
fares and haunts of traffic and pleasure
contrasting them unfavorably with the
fertile fields. and green shades OF the
country, the most of men Will ever seek
the city for the greater concentrated a'-
fractions of labor. of mind, of business,
of humanity. The country may be laud-
ed for its natural beauties, for Its unso-
phisticated manners and freedom from
enormous vices, as If to lay upon CITY
life greater aggregation Of folly and
crime. But there is danger of nisappre-
hension from this view. There is not
rural district anywhere free from vice
indeed. in many cases, the village eX-
ceeds the city denizen in excuses OF any
grade. In many small towns, as Wellias
less settled neighborhoods, the vices or
mans nature, are exhibited unblushlngly
and without fear Of restraint, for eXecu-
tors of the civil law are too weak to re-
press any disorders Of the least magnl-
tude. The thinness of population how
ever. causes this fact to be overlooked,
and consequently cities are generally eX-
ecrated as disproportionately criminal.
It is forgotten that while great amount
of wickedness may perYade large town
there is also a much more powerful in
fluence excrtcd for law, for intelligence,
and morality, than could be obtained IN
any rural locality The city has ever
been the center from which radiated the
wonderful achievements Of religion, of
humanity and art The names Of Jer-
usalem, Rome, ConstantinOple, London,
call to view religions that have swayed
the world. While the histories of the
cities of European and Asiatic kingdoms
have been written in blood and folly,
they have also marked the truth that
civilization has been fostercd within
their walls, which would otherwise have
been lost among people purely pastoral
or nomadic Art, science, law, refine
ment, have all been gathered there to
perpetuate the greatest efforts of man, to
establish his highest genius in the eyes
of future generations, to authorize order
and government, to increase the welfare
of the human race. 1t is from our mo-
dern cities, for example, that religion
and moral reform have received their
greatest encouragement, in the form of
charitable, educational and humane ia
stitution of societies for the diffusion of
the gospel and of every approved enter
prise in church and state. These facts,
render the city doubly interesting to the
moral observer as well as to the mere
curiosity seeker To the latter what as
constituent and speculations does the
various shades of city life present.
Every tongue and class of people, jOstl-
ing along the crowded streets, every
form and variety of youth and age, every
device of trade and pleasure. every in
genuity of mechanism, every means of
commerce, existing together in har-
mony of confusion, anid q deafening
din and hustle, with All absorbing haste
and earnestncss With spicndor and
squalor mingled, with the EXTREMIST
show of penury and unlimited eXtraya-
gance. Thus does the city present itself
10 the mind of an observer in the con-
trast with the quiet of our country life.
While vice and squalor walk the streets
of the cities Of our land yet moral re-
form and humanity in their higher
phases originate therein, and fully re-
compensc the sad pictures OF life they
present.