The Arizona sentinel., 1886-07-17
CITY LIFE.
Why It Proves Fatal to Individuality ana
 the Sweeter Emotions.

why It Proves Fatal to Individuality ana
 the Sweeter Emotions.
 The tremendous growth of cites is one of the most striking phases of mod ern civilization. London already boast. population of nearly 100000 and the great English metropolis still grows with the rapidity which characterizes our Western towns. Paris continues to absorb a vast proportion of the wealth and energies of France. New York will soon be to America what London is to England. On both sides of the Atlantic numerous cities of the second rank con- stitute arenas in which the great battle of life is fought with pitiless rivalry and savage intensity. The proper and ade- quate government of great cities pre- sents one of the gravest problems of the time; for, behind all the splendor of the metropolis, there stalks the specter of the mob, whose fury is ever estimated by the contrast between boundless lux ury and hopeless squalor.
 GOf course, this phase of human life is almost as old as the ace itself, but in numerable circumstances have con- spired to intensity the strain of city life in our money-getting age. The means of intercommunication are so perfect that the denizen of the modern metropo- lis seems to throb with all the activities of the great world beyond. The neces- sites of the moment seem more imperious than they ever seemed before Little leisure is left for thought, action has almost come to be the cause, rather than the consequence of thought. In the modern city, as in ancient Rome, ''plain living and high thinking" have a bitter struggle for place. The ten- dency is toward the profitless luxury and vulgar ostenation which follow in the train of superabundant wealth. In cities more frequently than in the con- parative calm of county lite is present. ed the perplexing problem which Thack- cray has crystallized in the phrase, ''How to live on nothing year." and the de- sire to solve this problem lies at the bot tom of the frantic speculation which at tracts eager thousands to the worlds great commercial exchanges.
 The importance of the city to the development of civilization is not to be denied. It is in the great centers of population that the triumphs of hu- man genius are mostreadily recognized and most munificently rewarded. In cities money will command luxuries which the country can not give us at any price. Polish of manner, taste in dress, cosmopolitan tolerance of opin- ion, quickness and penetration of thought are the logical consequences of the daily rivalry of great bodies of men. Yet, after all that can be sad in favor of cities. it remains undenia- bly, true that the essential truth and beauty of life are to be found beyond the limits of unyielding brick and mortar. A vast proportion of the worlds poetry has been written in cities, but the true poets heart is always in the green fields and by the gentle streams which he has known in other days. The country air seems to possess a finer essence that fills the heart with nobler impulses than are to be felt by him who treads the pavement in his round of ceaseless toll. The most splendid pile can rouse in the soul no such sense of beauty as that which stirs us when we see the noun tains standing out against the matchless background of the sky, and the weary toiler will seek in vain, within the city's confines, for the per feet rest which comes to him who hears the murmer of the winds as they stir the fragrant pines. City life is luxurious and splendid, but it is almost invariably fatal to individuality and to the sweeter emotions which give to ex- istence the only enduring charm.-M O Tboooo C. Do1o1oc,.Df