The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-09-03
Eitlmond 1ispatth.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9. 1882
life IN the Country and in the City.

kind Providence has vouchsafed us q
p,e,sant and hcalthiul summer, and sea-
son so favored with nins that even the
nearest lands are bearing crops that will
Generously reward the labor Of the hus-
bandman.
whatever brings prosperity to the coun-
try brings II TO the city, and no enduring
foundation for metropolitan greatness can
be laid that docs not rest upon agriculture.
In Richmond we are nearly all from the
country. II we are not, our wives and
cousins are: further than that, the corpo-
ration lines are in some places so marked
by Nature that 1t is hard 10 tell where the
CITY ends and where the rural districts
begin.
DemagogucS may howl their curses
acains; the bloated bondholdcrs and merci-
less monopolies Of cities, and may seek to
arouse the passions OF the ignorant, but
here where the majority OF the business
men are country-bred-whcre everybody Is
connected with the country by fragrant
memories OF youthful days, and where
marriages and intcr-marriages are so com
mon and colossal fortunes so uncom-
mon-thcre can be no antagonism between
CITY and country except such as Is Tor the
moment raised by some person who Is per-
haps smartng under wrong inflicted by
one. and for which he would punish all.
Blessed be the day when, under an i'm
proved system OF agriculture, or from dis-
coyerics vet 10 be made, or peculiarly pro-
pitious seasons, our lands shall all yield like
garden spots; when the farmer shall have
more than enough to make both ends
meet when he may furnish his house with
modern conyeniences; when he may give
his daughters a piano, his wife q carriage;
keep q >adde-hoTse for himself, and come
with "all his tribe" to spend Fair-wecL
with relatives or friends IN Richmond, and
have plenty at Christmas TO make merry
with The city people who 20 TO return his
visit.
The farmers OF Virginia have suffered
much. No houses. no horses. no fences,
no reserve in the barns, no credit at the
stores-thu> they began life anew after
war which wruug the women with sorrow
and wore ont the men with wounds, anx-
iety, and disease. Then came an unsettled
labor system, oppressive revenue laws, sea-
sons Of drought, times Of food, and. worse
than all, the presence OF the pestiierous
politician. Thousands fed to the cities,
other thousands to the West, and many,
tired Of conflict which seemed beyond
their endurance, bowed down with care, If
not with age, welcomed death.
Things are not quite so bad in the coun-
try now. Much practice has perfected the
wife in what is miscallcd SmaN economies.
The husband has learned to labor in and
out Of season. and il does not 20 so hard
with him. A dad year" and the stntng
has to be severe; "goOd year" and the
household may provide itsolf some few Of
the Injuries Of life, and indulge the hope
that better times are coming.
Meanwhile in the city. how goes it:
There are some who are gathering for
tunes; there are others making both ends
meet and living in fair comfort; there are
others struggling for food. There are,
especially in the winter, men who are sick
and who cannot work, and their families
do not always know one day where bread
will come from the next, and often the
cold wind bowls about fircless fire,idcs.
Many occupations are oyer-croWdcd, and
those who were content to guide the
plough or weld the axe on their own farms
ind it desperate resort to become mere
aborerS in The city.
IL we could strike q line with exactness
We would be surprised to find how evenly d,
he Kind Father has balanced the good and |
The bad and that the countryman and t
he clty-man are the one just about as well !
DT as the other.
However. we are not arguing TO show
that every man ought to be content with ,
his lot, and 40 man is. hut to say that \
Richmond halls with pleasure whatever OF ;
GOD comes to the country. We are happy !
When You have fair crops, not that You NAV :
re the better purchasers Of us, but that YOU !
nay thc better provide yourselves with /
Omforts, 20 where you will to buy; that
our labors NAV have greater reward and +
hat your life be II. ore hopeful and cheerful. c
Good luck to you ~. '