Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-06-18

We commend the following article from the
Mirror and Farmer to the attention of all who
contemplate leaving a country home for res
idence in the city.
With perhaps half the men who have de-
serted the old homesteRds of New England
and hocked to the cities, the controlling mo-
tive has been desire 10 get more Tor their
labor. In considering their condition and
prospects they have compared their receipts
with those of their city acquaintance who
work regularly for wages, and have jumped
to the conclusion that working in mill or
store enables a man to support his family and
save something for a rainy day much easier
than he can do it on a farm. How wrong this
conclusion is, many of them have learned
when it was too late when their farm had
passed into other hands and their habits and
tastes as well az those of their families
have so changed that return is impractcable
if not impossible for it is a fact that the
great majority of those who move from ooun-
try to city make no more than living, and
are often very hard pushed to get that. The
demands for money are so multiplied that,
though their receipts may be two, three or
four times what they we're on tho farm, they
have nothing left when their bills are paid.
The man who comes from the farm to stu
alton in factory or store does fairly well il
he earns $3.50 year, and If he gets 5000 he
is much more fortunate than the average. If
he hires in the city such a house as ne left
he must pay from 5000 to 800 year for that.
His fuel bill will call for $50 more and the
cost of milk, meat, fruit, vegetables eggs
and poultry, will eat up a good share of the
balance. In other words, when a man buys
in the city what he gets without buying in the
country, his earnings are generally nearly
gone and what he saves for other expenses
for groceries, recreation, physicians bills and
the like, he must get by living in poorer
house and otherwise denying himself what he
has on farm.
Another large class of men change from
farm to factory life because of their idea that
they and their children have few advantages"
in the country compared with those who live
in the city. These advantages are schools,
churches, entertainments sidewalks, gas
lights, and those which are only possible
where people live close together, and they are
all desirable. Taken together they form the
chief reason why the city is attractive, but
when man forsakes the country in order to
secure them he leaves others which in nine
cases out of ten he does not half appreciate
until they are gone. The farmer whose home
is on Vermont or New Hampshire hillside
lives in a pure, invigorating health giving,
and life-prolOnging atmosphere which all the
wealth of the Vanderbilts cannot secure in a
blAg AoblucuCts oilNchi Noot ~ tho Lnlubt VI
scenery as beautiful and enchanting as any
that nature has produced anywhere, and far
superior to any which the resources of man
have ever placed in the town. He drinks wa
ter fresh from springs that have never known
the contamination of sewers, stables and
vaults, or been made dark and heavy by long
passages through artificial waterwoTks. He
is greeted in the morning by sunshine thai
does not have to struggle through clouds Of
smoke, or creep through narrow alleys and
crawl around big buildings to meet him. He
goes to and fro without having to force hii
way through the pulverized dust of the streets
and much of his food comes fresh from the
garden, the poultry yard or the dairy tooth
some and healthful beyond anything tina
money can buy in the best of markets. WheI
he wishes TO ride, his team is ready to carry
him. He may go to mill or to meeting il ht
pleases in his everyday clothes without pro
voking criticism, and he can act himself ev
erywhere without being considered a crank
II he has children who live with him he may
generally know where they are, aud il ht