The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-09-12

swarming markets. But when the bodily
powers have begun to fail and the mind tC
weary of combinations and hbOrs when
visions of wealth and honor have lost Their
power to entice and man begins to count
the number of his probable remaining years
and heholds how few they are, then his
thoughts turn toward the country and the
heart ycarns for the place of his birth.
Youth is vain and manhood Ostentatious.
but age renews the modesty and the sim
/ plicity of earlier years. IL have gained, -
said "A man to me once, "a fair share of
worldly honor, and my wealth is abundant.
but have reached that period of life at
| which they do not seem so valuable rs they
once did, nor do they satisfy, and | am
| going back to the dear old spot where
was born Ia get some quiet and peace be-
fore ! die, and be laid in the little grave
yard where my parents sleep, when all is
! over"
II do not Sec" said an old merchant to
me once at Il funeral, chow people can
bear to die and be buried in cities"
know that this is only sentiment, but it
is IA sentiment so honorable and so accord
ant with the sweet philosophy of nature.
that it seems to me as natural as the long
ing Of a child to see the face of its mother.
We must remember, too, that half the
sentiment is often far wider than wisdom.
and while know it makes no difference
where my body sleeps when have left it.
| nevertheless confess to wish that it
might be carried through the clear sunshine
to its grave and rest at last with nothing
above it heavier than the grasses and the
daisies
This movement of our population coun-
tryward, moreover, is REINFORCED by large
additions from that class who live in cities
against their will. There are many of us
in middle life who stay in cities only from
II sense of duty. There is work to be done
for man and God in them. and some one
must do it. We would not shrk our dtity.
nor desert the post where the Great Com
mander has stationed us, but we are like
soldiers away from home; we wish the
campaign was over. But although we stay
to earn money Tor those we love. and do
the needed thing, still Our hearts are not
there. In it we are pen,. constrained. The
ear shrinks from its never ending noises.
and the eye from its glaring sights. Its tu-
multi disturbs the mind and its wrctched-
ness appals the heart. At the word of per-
mission we fly from it as a hound escapes
the lash. or Il bird darts from the gildcd
bars behind which it has been imprisoned.
The vgor which was its birthright could
not come to its wings, nor could il ever
sing within its elegant dungeon quite as il
might pour out its joy from within its leaiy
home, or while flying through the clear
spaces of the pure. free air. The country.
and the country alone. can satisfy us
These are some of the causes which. act
ing with accommodating force upon the
population of our cities, are impelling so
large Il portion of it toward the country.
Nnti,ip,r oil r. Al.
inaugurating and propclling force is found
in the necessities of society and the long
ings of the human soul. The fashion will
spread until it shall crystaliezin to II habit
or rule, and cities he regarded as arenas of
activity. not the realm of reposc; places
to toll, but not to sleep in. look forward
then to the time as by no means distant
when. rs n people. we shall return to sim
pier and healthier habits of life, physically,
to n less fevcrish and more conservative or
der of industry, and to far more innocent
ambitions. when the rivalries that now di-
vide and antagonize men will give place to
those fricndlp competitions which spring
from cultivation of the soil. and which
have no hostile exhibition than find their
manifestations on these grounds to-day.
Then American life will he truly American.
benevolent in its action and honorable to
the actors and that peace on earth and
good will to men which were predicted by
angelic voices at the birth of the Saviour
shall come in the full measure of sweetness
and comfort to all men.
anticipate the action of these tendencies
in nature and society with happy conf
dence. The curse of poverty will be re-
moved from agriculture, and the fields that
are sterile and the damp levels that lie I'M
drained undel the control of enterprise and
wealth will become fertile and fruitful
You cannot develop great and complex
industry, requiring many agents and instru-
mcnts, without the assistance of wealth.
Money is needed. and money is precisely
the one thing the average New England
farmer has lacked. He who is compelled
to invest only for immediate results cannot
invest wisely. An interval must elapsc be-
tween the expenditure and the return. and
this Il poor man, with family to support
and heavy taxes to pay, cannot afford
The country can never redeem itself. The
cities must come to the rescue, and in the
persons of those who in them have amassed
wealth and obtained IA wider knowledge of
men and things than Il secluded life can
rive, introduce and inaugurate such new
methods of economies as will give to agri-
culture higher and more attractive charac-
ter and richer profits.
hold that it is nothing less than duty
for every man who has been so prospered
in mercantile or professional life as to be
able To assist in this undertaking, to Join
those who are already active in this di-
rection. Every merchant in the city of
Boston, Orin any city, who was born and
bred in the country, owes something to his
native town. He should give som, thing
back before he dies to thar place whence
he derived the physical, mental and moral
forces which have won for him his success
in life. The spot of his nativity has
sacred claim upon him. He should become
u teacher and helper to every boy now
growing up in the place where he toiled
when boy. For what is wealth, for what is
art, for what culture, for what all the APP
pliances of civilization ii not to elevate the
many and disseminate with II liberal hand
on all sides the possibilities of wealth and
the comfort that wealth can alone supply.
The finest sentiment of Christianity is twin
sister to this practical benevOlence, and the
two should fly forth over all the land like
companion angels, doubling the fertility of
every field over which their white wings
passed. 1t is only by this method, so far
ms can see that here in New England at
least the industry which is mother to all
other industries can be kept alive.
We cannot alfofd, gentlemen, 10 allow
agriculture to pass into decadence. When
the farming class shall be considered as an
inferior class, we have revived the disas-
trous distinctions of the middle ages. 1t is
because the New England farmer has not
been n serf or peasant that New England
has become what she is. | doubt if re-
public could endure in any country where
agriculture is not the prime industry.
When wealth and culture and civic honors
have been divorced from the soul of the
country, the country itself will have sunk
into ameniable debasemcnt. For il cannot
be denied that the forces that originated
and secured for us our free institutions,
came MS directly from the soil as the streams
flow down our native hills. The land
La. In oil ci,tiliznIiAnn hna huor, Al ,,.nl.l,