Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1876-12-13
WHOLE NO. 1891
found admirer of the blonde style of
beauty, there is no woman in all the
world SO dear to him as Lis One Little
Indian =!
Coming to the City.

Both by experience and by observa-
ton we know the eager, restless desire
OF a certain class of young men on
the farm TO get uway from farm life
and come to the city. They dislike
the drudgery, the steady, hard work
OF the farm, and think it would be
much better and nicer if they could
stand behind counter in some dry
goods store, or work in an office, or
even drive a city team They would
then be "amoug folks, they think,
and would be able to see for them
selves ''what was going on" The
glare and glitter, the noise and hustle.
the activity and commotion, the ap-
parent splendor and gayety of city
life, they think, would just suit them,
and would be so different from the
solitude and lonesomeness OF the farm
and the farm house.
Now we have few plain words
that we desire to address directly to
this class. Not that words of similar
import have not been spoken before.
but it will do no harm to remind Won
OF them again. And first, call is not
gold that glitters." There is drudgery
to be done in the city, as we'll as in
the country, and if anything, even
more. There is also as much hard
steady work. 1t is little different in
kind, to be sure, but then it tires you
out just as soon, and you feel just as
weary at night. Besides, man can
work to much better advantage in the
stiffness and quietude and amidst the
unexc'table surroundings of country
life than he can with the noise and
confusion of passing multitudes
around him. There would be far less
Of nerve.exhaustion and vital con
sumption at the old home than there
would be here.
But again, if all this were not true,
the city, at present, is the last place in
the world that any man should think
Of coming to. Cities are generally
overcrowded, but at the present time
they are unusually full. Chicago is as
well circumstanced as any large place
in this respect, and in Chicago to-day,
by 4 safe estimate, there are from one
to five thousand men out of employ
ment. Some of these are men with
families who reside here, but large
proportion of the number are young
men who have come in from all quart.
ers, looking for a situation, because
they wish to change their mode of life,
and feel dissatisfied with their present
condition. No one by looking merely
at the outside can begin to tell the
amount of magnificent misery and
gilded poverty which exists within
the city walls. Thu number of large
business houses that are making any,
thing more than bare living now is
very small.
To any young man, or old man,
who is even comfortably situated on
farm, we say, by all means, remain
contented. "Better endure the evils
you already have than fly to others
you know not Of" The temptations
and seductiveness of city life, its op.
portunities for self-destruction by
gambling, drinking, RIGHTEOUSNESS,
and thousand other evils, the pecu-
liar isolation and lonesomeness of liv.
ing and moving among people whose
names, even, you do not know, is not
1alf as pleasant as it might appear at
irst thought. The man who ought to
oe the happiest of all men is he who
has nice farm, free from debt, and
lnder a good state of cultivation,
With a cheerful, loving wife, and a
5oodly number OF healthy, bright, du-
itul children, to Imake music in his
lome, and to assist in keeping his
lomestead.-[Prairi Farmer.