New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-03-16
BOYS FROM THE COUNTRY.
BISHOP POTTER TALKS OF TIE RURAL
REINFORCEMENT OF CITIES.
ITS CHARACTER AND TRAINING AND WHAT 1T
EFFEcTs UPON THE AIMS, METHODS AND
RESULTS OF A METROPOLIS.

EFFEcTS UPON THE AIMS METHODS AND
RESULTS OF A METROPOLIS.
Copyright: The tribune association 1900
When, March II, 1858. the memorable
blizzard buried Ncw-York in the snow it
stated that there was hardly food enough within
The limits of the city TO last it more than four
days. The statement probably needs some quail
fcation, but, substantially, ii doubtless true.
There is never. in any great city, unless 1t Is
anticipating a siege. enough in the way of food
supplies To last it for more than n week: ana
large part of the activities of thousands OF people
are tak,n IN with This very business The
Tribune has been discussing lately tic milk
question:" and has gathered mass of most IN
terestng and impressive information as to the
relation of that traffic to the life of a great c'J
and TO the adequate remuneration of those VINO
are engaged in it. One could not help think
ing, he read il, how promptly the question OF
a paying price" for milk would be settled. II
only the farmers could agree upon an citcicnt
and thorough combine. For we can get along
without some things. but we cannot get along
without milk. New-Nork would make Short woIk
of the middle men" if it found that they stood
in the way of the babys breakfast But, after
all, milk is only of the things on which
great city depends for its llfc and which 1t must
needs receive largely from without. Blood and
rrawn and brans-it consumes these, too faster
than in adequate quality al any rate, it produces
them. On public occasions in Ncw-lork, such as
any one of two or three of which the celebration
Of the centennial of the Supreme Court
very conspicuous and brilliant instance one looks
I'D and down the tables at the men who seated
about him at some thTonced and stately banquet.
Where did they come from? Well, they
doubtedly native and to the manor born, some
Of them. There are clever and successful law
yers, merchants manufacturers, and the like, who
are the sons of cleverer men who were here be-
fore them. But every now and then, one catches
d glimpse of some face and figure that plainly
enough ike young Lochinvar, has come out of
the West and the derivation of whose stalwart
proportions and breezy eloquence there is no mis-
taking. Or. there is slender and somewhat
dyspcptic-looking figure, whose nasal tone,
struggle be may to conquer or TO conceal 1t. IN
evitably gives him away" as a Now-Englandcr.
Or, Yet again, there is that litheicss of figure
and prolongation of the vowelsounds and slight
softcning or elision of the consonants in spoch
which tell that the speaker is a Southcrner. None
,f these people was born in Newly ork None
Of them came here because there estate
bequeathcd To them by a benevolent uncle wait
Ing 10 be paid 10 them They came here
because, in the competitions and rivalrics Of
great city, they believed That there was the best
chance for such gifts as they conceived themselves
TO have If some resident cync answered them,
in the words of Daniel Webster, when he
asked if there was any room in the profession
for more lawyers, Plenty OF room at the top,
they believed though probably they did not say
So, that that was just where they were bound
THE FEARFUL ACTIVITY OF AMERICAN LIFE
To the top-ah yes, that is it, That is the
dream OF every man ana boy, Of every young
girl who seeks chance in New-A ork And out
of that dream there arises O condition Of things
Of which both country and city may wisely take
note. The drift from the farm TO the town is
one of the most marked characteristics OF our
American life Indeed il may be said that
almost nobody stays in the country if he can help
it, and that that elder love for ancestral acres, and
that traditional attachment TO the old homestead
which was very real and potent thing with our
fathers. and which contributed immensely 10 the
stability and, in very real sense the dignity Of
rural communities in earlier generations. have
largely disappeared. "What is the difference be-
tween the civilization of England and America ,"
asked an American of an Englishman. This, at
any rate, said the EnClishman that in America
there is not foot of land that is not for SALE
while in England there millions Of acres which
cannot be bought In a sense the remark was
true and in far as it is, II involves an element
of pcrmanence in those communities IN which it is
true which among us is largely unknown. And
whether it is the loosening of this tie, the de-
pressing influence of the isolation of rural life
the love of excitement. that drift Of which have
spoken increases instead Of diminishing, until IL
comes to pass that very considerable element of
the activity of almost any large community in
America is composed of those who are not native
to it,
We'll. it may be said, it is not only unavoid-
able, but indispensable. that it should be
The waste of any great machinery is enormous.
and of no mechanism is that more true than of
that complex social order which makes up the life
of a great city. II is here that We find the cx-
planation of that increasing demand for young
men which our modern life. in all great cities
especially. so conspicuously illustrates. Most OF
those who will read these lines doubtless saw a
recent paragraph to the relative endurance Of
the engineers of express and freight railway trains,
in which il shown how driving locOmo
tive al the rate Of fifty-fivc or sixty miles an
hour impoverished the cnginc-drivers nerve, 50
that in a little while he could no longer run his
train on time and was taken of and put TO slower
work. II is very significant incident, and IN
decd may almost be said TO be typical. Wcll-nlgh
every body in a great city is driving an engine
He is running himself on a schedule, and the de-
mand upon linn all the while is TO crowd just
little more work, sport, or excitement, into
the day than his nervous machinery Will stand
And so. presently, the machine goes TO pieces.
The man gives out to his brain. or his stomach,
some other organ-sometimes gradually, oitcner
suddenly. but almost always before bis time.
And then II do not stop now to ask what becomes
of him. but here, by the way, is a whole region
which. it seems to me, literary people have
scarcely touched and what tragic realms there
are in it land then. the first question is. Where
shall we find somebody, tough, cheap. and with all
the fine audaciy OF youth to fill his place - Cities
do not ordinarily breed such people, and you
have the next step in the rural evolution. Here is
n lad youth, who is burning to get into the
swim. of great city's life. lie is willing to do
almost ANYTHING for almost nothing, and often he