Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1879-02-06

''The city is no worse than the
country. The vices are more rank
because there are more people to be
bad if they wish. The merchant in
his counting room is as good as the
farmer with his broad acres about
him. The countryman will some
times prevaricate about the age of the
horse he is selling or the size of the
peaches in the bottom of basket.
AS for villages, in some respects they
are worse than the cities, because
they copy the vices of the cities in
pettiress and meanness and as for
gossip Ga long pause, during which
the speaker seemed swelling with the
magnitude of the mine be had struck)
'sits heaven is a country village.
daughter. } Everybody knows every
body's business. The grocery and
the blacksmith shop, by day and night,
are the grand depot of masculine gos-
sip, and there are half dozen wo-
men who keep their sun-bonnets so
handy that, at the very first touch of
news derogatory to anybody, they
can rush off and tattle it all over
town. The plough must not run too
sharply against the yard-stick. Cain
was the first founder Of the city, and
it has taken after him in its general
character; and so of a city founded
in honest faith there is lasting flavor
of the origin through all of its life. 1t
will take New York generations to
get rid of the odor of those devoted
old Dutch churchmen; and on the
street where banks discount and
brokers shave, and companies declare
dividends and smugglers swear Gus
tom-House lies, and where, above
all, is heard the crack of the a6c-
tioneer's hammer and the cry to the
local divinity, 'We worship thee, o
thou Almighty Dollar There the
ID church that used to stand in Wall
o. + is to day flowing its blessings
stre.; his traffic, baptizing it with
on all l. ~oma of afar-off godliness
the ialnt a. possible for US to think
and making l. germs of redemp-
tnat there may b. the average citi-
ton In the future Oh ii necessarily.
zen. Cities are not et. of ,;fted its
In them popular liberty fil> Ven;ce.
voice-witness Genoa, Pisa anu ho-
1t IS strange to see the rivalry VI
tween American cities. New Yo.
taunts Philadelphia, and that said
city in return finds excess for carica-
turing New York. The country is
large enough for Chicago and st.
Louis. (Waving of ears and shuf-
fling of feet in the audience.) Each
city can carry out its aim and motive.
We find city with large forehead
and gifted brain in Boston; one with
deliberate step and calm demeanor in
Philadelphia; a city with pocketful
of change in New York; two cities
going with rush and astonishing the
continent in St. Louis and Chicago;
a city that takrs it's wife and children
along with 1t in Brooklyn. They
have life in common, too; and
Laurel Hill and Mount Auburn and
Greenwood are but bonds which
show a common destiny. In the
streets of city is the place to study
men. Each has his burdens and his
heart-break. Ought not we, the church
people go with a heart full of prayer?
Things may be dark, but God will
explain all after while. Look as
though you had homestead in heav-
en-. Do that now, and at another
great day you will be the centre of a
great crowd singing about your feet;
and when yer say yer don't know 'em
Christ will say, Yer did it ter them
and yer did it ter me-" (When Mr.
ralmage's enthusiasm gets the better -
Of him his pronunciation vanishes.)