St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-27
LIFE IN THE SUBURBS.

LIFE IN THE SUBURBS.
The local newspapers, few. weeks ago,
published for several successive days in
their'' want columns" an advertisement
which attracted considerable attention,
and told its own story with great COM
pleteness. 1t is not necessary at this
time to repeat its exact phraseology,
but its general purport was an ap-
peal for relief against the mOnotony of
life in the suburbs. A man who claimed
to have a comfortable home and pleas
ant physical surroundings, in a settle
ment not many minutes removed from
st. Paul, offered to share his advantages
with some one at a nominal cost be-
cause his wife was lonesome and longed
for society. The repeated appearance
of his petition may be taken as proof
that he was seeking for a person OF eX-
ceptiOnal attractions, or that the num-
Der of applicants for such openings is
exceedingly limited, especially at this
season of the year.
Perhaps both of the things are true,
but the second is in any event. During
the summer, when the twilights are
long, men do not object to travelling a
considerable distance to and from their
business; and women do not find the
days desOlate in the country, because
there is living nature about them If
there are no humansbeings. But when
the snow falls it is like a protracted
night closing in, and everybody shrinks
from the cold, the exposure and the iso-
latiOn incident TO such a manner of
living. To rise by candle-light that the
city may be reached betimes; to spend
the whole day as though prisoner, be-
cause the eXertion of going out is too
serious to be undertaken. or TO return in
the darkness, exhausted, not only
with the days toll, but by wearisome
journey in addition, are experiences
not particularly alluring.
In spite of these things, however, the
suburbs are at once the hope and the OPP
portunity of our contemporary civiliZa-
ton. The growth of big cities is the
most characteristic phenomenon of the
age of which we are parts, and, although
the fertile lands of the country are oc-
cupied by farmers until there Is none
left vacant for the newcomers, at the
same time a larger proportion of our
population is dwelling in towns of con-
siderable size than ever before in the
history of the world. When place gets
as big af New York or Chicago in de-
velOps capacity for further expan-
sion which is nothing short of amazing.
1t stretches out its antenn8 in every di-
rection. and no spot is SO remote as to
be beyond Its reach. 1t goes OH and Oh
in a progress of growth every step in
which eQuips it for further strides. And,
unless some machinery is provided so
that the increase in its number of in
habitants may be accompanied by a cor
responding automatic spread of its Dor
ders, men and women are soon hud-
died together with density inimicaI to
their health and happiness.
By an expansion of its borders, the
GLOBE does not mean simply the plat
ting of new additions and the opening
of new streets, but it means the actual
construction of suburban towns and
their equipment with the things needed
for the enjoyment of existence accord
ing to the modern standards. The trend
IN these days towards great cities is
partly the result of the present methods
of transacting business, but it is largely
due to the prevailing tastes and pre-
objections of the average man and
woman. The primitive type of human
gregarlOuSneSS was the gregariousneSs
of the family only. and as individuals
matured and intermarried they were
content to start new centers of life, of
which they and their own offspring
would be the sole members. But in the
nineteenth century we depend on each
other in a wider sense, and are not
happy without seeing new faces and
varying the circles with which we come
in contact.
The modern man lives on the noise
and confusion of the crowded avenues
as much as he does on the air viii oh he
breathes and the food which he eats.
The bright glare of the electric lights at
night is as soothing to his eyes as the
sun to those of an earlier age. He
misses the theater and the concert halls
when shut off from their neighbo rhood,
and INDUCES in earnest longings for
them with yearning which amounts to
affection. A new creature has been
brought into being during these ye ars
of our Lord, like men of old in some re-
spects, but possessed of all sorts of &C
quired and recently inherited tastes of
an unusual character, the qualification
of which is quite essential if existence
is to be pleaSurable.