The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-19
THE CITY AND THE COUNTRY.
The Longing of City Men for Rural
Scenes and Of Country Men for Cities.
A Contrast of the Effects of Life in the
Country and in the City, and the ADJ
yantages offered by Each.


The pastoral life set forth wildly in Genesis
may be seen to-day. Less than a week will place
you in the condition for seeing the outward life
of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Possibly,
also, you will see Ishmael, whose hand is against
every man. The scene is not very dssimilar.
The low walled towns and sharp edged mount
aims Of New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico are
very like the ones the patriarchs knew | have
seen mother strapped to donkey with child
in the fold of her shawl The family goods were
corded neatly on the surface of the animal, and
her husband was foot at her side
urging the patient little beast on
toward the hills. 1t was a good enough
copy of the first wood cut l had seen IL an old
primer-Joseph's flight into Egypt There are
wells like Jacobs in the same region; the same
way OF drawing water, a similar group of women
waiting at the we'll, and then a long line Of
straight figures, with the filled water jugs on
their shoulders stepping stately in single file
homeward. The oldfashioned threshng floor,
known to Gideon, is still in use, and the
commandment, Thou shalt not muzzle the OK
that treads out the corn" still seems merciful
necessity The character of the people is not
much different. The herdsmen of Abraham
and Lot had quick tempers and were ready to
quarrel for their masters interests. There was
in the days OF Joseph the same feeling as now be-
tween herdsmen and shepherds, and for the same
reason. Joseph, about TO introduce his father
and brethren to Egypt, cautions them as to the
fact. when Pharoah shall call you and say
What is your occupationF We shall say, Thy
servants trade hath been about cattle from our
youth until now, both we and also our fathers "
and then Joseph explains, For every shepherd
is an abominaton to the Egyptians"
Doubtless most of the pictures of Genesis are
tabeauxed now somewhere between here and
the isthmus. Old the race is nothing has
been that is not now. Neither city nor country
satisfies. Going over the range, we met people
coming out, glad to leave what we were glad To
find.
Both city and country have their illusions
One thinks of the competition, envy, strife and
scandal of the cities and longs for the innocence
of the hamlet and village.
But in the Kankakee marsh / heard my host
say that he carried two guns on the marsh
one shotgun for ducks, ana one a rife for his
neiGhbors.
The maxwell land grant" and its complica-
tlons seemed to exist in small copy, among
men whose revenue comes from ratskins and
from hunting city men who visit the marsh to
get away from the strife of tongues. On the
Fourth of July, in town of 700 inhabitants,
L found the little community very
much divided on some social question
There were two rival balls" in the
evening and good deal of heat in the converse
ton. There is no earthly range that one can
cross that will shut out human nature with its
good and its evil. Grand Lake is no worse than
Denver, and probably no better. 1t is too easily
conced d that the city is more wicked than the
country country hamlet has no Pail Mall
Gazette to flash light i'll on dark place One
of the remarkable books of the year is Mr.
HOwes STORY of a Country Town" There is
tragedy enough in it to form the story Of big
city. For stupid, stOlid. Senseless wickedness
the country holds its own There are places in a
city where one can hear rough conversation, but
there is some edge TO it, some wit that redeems
It, But take the early morning train at some
station fifty miles from a city of the interior and
ride In the smOkingcar and listen to the CONVEX
sation of the young men who board the train at
the little stations bound for town. You do not
need to listen, there is voice enough for acre of
car. 1t is not that the subject matter is of the
worst, but the narrative is clumsy, pointless,
and the laughter is like that of a lot of tin pans
1t is both vulgar and brainless There is
nothing like it in any city alley. | remember
that the first murder was done in the country,
and by farmer, and with club. The hermts
of the first centuries found there was sin in the
desert They fed from the temptation of the
city and found another kind. We hear good
deal about the healing influences of nature.
There may be these for sorrow, but for the
transgressor nature can do nothing. Bill Skies,
after the murder of Nancy wanders off into the
open country. There is no comfort for him in
the green fields and under the clear stars. The
next day he goes back to London again The
banks and braes," and birds of Bonnie Doom are
not In sympathy with the folly and sin of Robert
Burns-or the folly or sin Of anyone. One must
be good company for himself to be decently
happy, in market or Ill a>canOn.
And Isaac went out to mediate in the field
at the eventide The country has some advant
ages 1t is better, think, to have been born in
the country; as {. child, to have made the &C
quaintance of sheep, and oxen, and horses, of all
the gentle folk of earth and air. The acquant-
ance may be made later, but not well.
There is a great gulf between any man and
any beast of the earth but it is narrower when
men are children. There is certain education
in out door knowledge that can better be &C
quired in childhood Acquired then it gives a
certain valuable quality to all that a man says or
does No one heard Daniel Webster speak with
out knowing that he was born and raised in
sight of natural things. The garments of his
thought were homespun. Born in the country,
he was glad to die in sight of the things he had
earliest seen. Tho oxen were driven to the open
window, that he might look at their great pa
tient eyes Garfield, sick unto death, asked,
more than anything, to be taken to Mentor out
of the city and away from the crowd. His mind
reverts to the country from which he came. The
mark OF LIincons speeches in their LONELINESS,
naturalneSs Riding with a farmer, he told me
",
he said, very smart, but he don't know enough
to hook up horse
There are not in the country so many middle
men between one and God, men that block the
direct view. The relation seems closer to the
Giver of Every Gift. One sees the growing
grass and corn, and the work of the sun and rain
and the prayer Give us this day daily
bread is more pertinent. The providence of the
little child of the city is the grocery, and
the market wagon. Water and light are the
affair of pipe and hose. The loaf of bread is
not so directly from the hand of God as in the
country, Not altogether evil were old days of
the spinning wheel and the loom when the boy
could trace his first coat back to the living sheep
Stocking knit by his mother not only lasted
longer, but meant more. The Psalms of David
could not have been written by city man. He
had studied the hoof of a deer going from him.
The garment of the thought of David is made
from knowledge gained as shepherd boy and
hunted prince. He had looked on the noun
tains and rivers and curved heavens. He had
Il