The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1886-12-02
EMPTY CASTLES.
THEIR RICH OWNERS NOT FITTED
TO BE COUNTRY GENTLEMEN.

~ BE COONThT 16A rEmEN.
1t is One Thing to Have q Country
"seat," and Quite Another Thing to be
ut Home and Happy ia TIA Remark
phle Exhibit.
There is a tendency among men OF large
wealth. said real estate dealer down
town, "to establish big country houses
near New York and live after the English
fashion. They seek to make their country
place the home of the family, give it q
high sounding title, dream of establish
ing family WHICH shall stand high in the
county and make q name for itself IN o
dozen honorable ways, They take q fur
nished house In town for the season, just
as the Englishman does for eight weeks
in London. This is growing more pfac-
ticable here than formerly, as the season
grows shorter every year. We can all of
us remember when society came back to
New York on Sept 1 and stayed till
June Now November is considered early,
December acceptable, bnt Jan, ! the
really proper time. This gives an Qppor-
tunity Tor spending Christmas at the
country house in the old fashioned way.
BY May 10 half Of society Is OH the move
again to Europe or elsewhere. So, you
see, O great city establishment is sup
ported all the year round by the old plan,
though occupied less than five months out
of tho twelve 1t is very expensive run
ming town house ell the year round this
way, but when furnished dwelling is
taken and only fourmOnths are spent here
the expenditure is greatly reduced: The
other eight months ore spent at the cOlln
try house.
TIE TROUBLE WITH AMERICANS.
Goa the other side of the water this
is easily accomplished. because the real
home of en- EngliSnman is in the
coun 'ry, and he looks upon city life as an
excursion. The trouble heGe is that
Americans look upon their Out=Oftown
life as a vacation in the country, and
hence they grow dissatisfied If it is too
much prolonged. They feel themselves
above their neighbors and do not make
acquaintGnccs, SO that there is no visit
ing and calling among them. Thus the
family gradually bCrc3 itself to despera-
ton. Friends are invited ont from town
only at rare intervals, and there is gen
eral stagnatiOn. The women do not in
tercst themselves i'll the churches and
schools of tho villages nor do the men take
a hand in politics or local imprQRenGHts.
The head Of tho family is usually a bust
ness man who hes been accustomed to the
drive and rush OF the city, end who is
quite at sea if thrown on his own re-
sources. He has no inclination for read
ing is not interested in farming, and
thinks constantly about his interests in
the city, If it takes three generations to
make q gentleman, Ii takes five at least
to make country gentleman Or gentle
man farmer
1.-THE New Yorker who is anxious to
become country gentleman does what
the Londoner avoids. Our merchant
seems proudest when he can boast that
his residence is only fifty-four minutes
out of toHn-or something like it. lie
cannot give UP bis town life altogether.
and in trying to sit Oh two stools at onre
he tonnes to grief The only way to live
in the country IS to give up the city alto
gether, and make the rural place the
home. Running in to goto the theatre 1T
night, and then travelling home, IS no way
to establish a cOntented feeling, you
know The big estates that are good
Journey from New York are always sue
cessful, but all that hays in this book
and many more have failed. Society has
something to do with it, of course
4 REMARKABLE EXHIBIT.
"Away from New York the residents
make their own society, and are content
Such places as New Haven, Hartford,
Elnira, and other small cities often have
DELIGHTFULLY."- cultivated and cordial So
ciety, while poihts nearer New York are
very unsatisfactory, because they arg
made ND of boarding houses, commuters,
and summer residents only. Now we'H
run through this book-and it Is only one
of eight devoted to this style ct property
and you'll see what remarkable failures
few hundred of our ambitious million
aires have made"
1t was remarkable exhibit The man
who has dreamed of a eountey home===iantdl
where is the man who has nOt?-wCuld
be hard TO please il something in that COD
lection of stone palaces, castles, rambling
old gable-roofed houses, picturesque VII
las and Queen Anne dwellings did not
please him. Perhaps the most striking
thing about the collection to the average
citizen was the amount of money
spent on every place. The agent had
been particular to get at the actual
capital expended in every instance,
as that was this only basis On which
u pTlCO COulu ~ SES IL to.esfistSS
with which he was unfamiliar: 4
place that had cost less than $4,000 or
500, 200 was very rare, and there was
any number that had caused the quarter
million mark to stink in the background.
II have O word of advice for all
| wouid-be country gentlemen. They
should renonnce New York foreyes OK"
| cept as place for yearly visit and set
tie far from it. They should take up
| farming, cheese making, Or some other
pursuit, and they should not consider
themselves above their country neigh
bors. New York Sun
| The Dragon In Chinese Joss Houses.
Perhaps the most familiar form of all is
, the dragon, that seems to have an es-
peciaiiy strong hold upon upon the Chinese
as well as St. George. Some houses of
worship, called popularity !'jess houses"
are known to true believers as temples of
the "Dfagop King" The dragon in some
shape is seen about nearly every house of
worship. To it the Charleston laundry
men, if there were any, probably laid the
earthquake in August, and the San Fran
cisco devouts call to mind this terrible
monster whenever any convulsian occurs
here. The ordinary dragon would pass
for the American sea serpent as depicted
by the average landlord about September