Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1885-10-31
SOCIAL LrrB1N AMERICA.
Its Bau4lful ana Admirable Characters
ties the Country over.


ties the Country over.
New York Tribune
But whatever may be true Of society in
New York, outside of New York there is
q great, wide, independent world which
not only receives no law from New York,
but never thinks of New York, does not
know that there is a New York. It's In
the city, In the country. 1t has all the
convenience, all the refnements many
of the luxuries of modern material life.
It has as much intelligence as New York.
It reads more, it thinks more, it deals
more with real things. 1t speaks as
gently, it stands more firm. Perched on
my sunny hilltop 1 survey the wide
wooded hills and the far stretching
fields, and I suppose there is not sin
gle dress coat within my great circling
horizon. Can civilization be without
dress-cOats2 see yonder in the south
western heavens the skylight Of social
club which gathers every known flower
and bird and bug all summer and CLASH
fies and analyses them all winter. Here
is a president Of q bank who leaves his
carriage to pluck a green knob, cuts 1t
open with his penknlfe and shows you
the worm that nestles at its heart. A
tradesman points out IN the smooth rock
under your horses hoOfs the track Of the
y
sWOop of Mr.. Donnelly's comet? From
yonder shoemaker's little, square, grace
less shop comes a man, learned in snakes
who will lay down his lap.stOne and
teach you as deity how snake walks
as Ruskin teaches you the falsehOOd and
ignorance of the LAGOON. On the north
east I see a man to whom the light Of
heaven has been darkened these thirty
years, but before whom on that account
all the ways of the world seem only the
more clearly outlined and to whose ar
dent patriotism the manifest destiny Of
this country is strangely blocked by the
most hopeless blindness of all-the
blindness of those who, having eyes, see
not. But fearing lest, in that new world
to which we are fastening, he shall ind
light again only to learn that his beloved
classics have no circulation there, he is
having his dearest old Greek plays and
Latin epics and Hebrew songs read over
to him by every man and maid whose
mouth is fashioned to frame those IN
accustomed WOrds-and they are not feWl
Yonder is the simple, sweet home of a
woman whose domestic virtues and gay
private benificences make you forget
that the most chill and WintrY scenery
Of New England will grow gorgeous,
vivid, sentient under her glowing pen.
On that western slope gathering now
the amethystine tint Of the setting sun, a
young girl breathed the breath of Italy,
drank the wine of Maecenas, distilled the
honey of Hymettus, and in this new,
fresh world, wrought from the older
worlds such sweetness and light as dared
shine out full and free and bold even in
to Matthew Arnold's face. Time and
type would fail me to name the names
of those around me, poor and rich, who
have turned from the mere material
pleasures of wealth, who have forged
their way out from the stern restrictions
Of poverty and by home study, by for
eign travel, from pure love, have Joined
and have added their own clear candOr
and white radiance to the sweetness and
light of the world.
It may not be civilization, but it is a
most endearing and exalting form Of bar
barism.