Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-11-30
RURAL ENGLAND
Changes Taking Place In the So
cial System.
Agricultural Pursuits Being Abandoned
by tho Young People and tho
Farming Interests .....t ..
Suffering.


a series of letters on English "Village
Life" in various parts of the island,
which go to show that the villages in
all the agricultural districts are b2i,lr
rapidly deserted by the young men nad
women to such point that, in spite of
the aid derived from machinery, the
farmers find increasing difficulty in
sowing and harvesting their crops, and
the parsons are left with empty
churches and Sunday-schools, and the
squires with few to rule over but the
aged and infirm. In fact, it looks as if
the economic decay which for fifteen
years has been slowly going on in rural
England, was receiving its fiual impulse
from the dislike of the younger genera
ton to country life.
1t is not simply agriculture which is
threatened with ruin, however, but n
social system which has conc down to
our day almost untouched from the
middle ages. In this system the Ia
borcr was born and was expected to
rcmGin in the village, as Hodge" or
''Chawbacon," and work on the adj
.jaccnt farms in absolute content. The
schooling he got consisted mainly of
the church catechisp1, and he was OK
pectcd to attend church regularly on
pain of the severe displeasure of the
parson and tho squire. The latter
owned most of the cottages, or the
Whole village, which was then called
''cloSc village" and could drive any,
body he pleased out of the parish, and,
besides this, he was apt to be Justice
OF the peace, with large summary
powers, an Office so often held by Ghc
parson. When Hodge got old or sick
the ladies of 'the great house, or
the parsonage gave him and his wife
fuel and blankets in the winter and
preached resignation to him, and when
he got too old for any work they both
took refuge in the worllhousc, in
which. like the great bulk of their
class, they died with the consultations
of religion.
All this has of late years been great
ly changed. The new schools, the
railroads. the ocean steamers, the cheap
newspapers and the political agitators
have opened up tho world to HodTe's
aStOnishcd gaze, and he refuses any
longer to live under the parish tri-
umvirat2--thc squire, the parson and
the farmer. He goes off to the great
towns or cmigratcs, and If he remains,
+ is SO sancy and Independent and 80 UNI
! grateful for tho coal, the blankets and
tao workEouHc that he is practically
manageable. The vote has given
, the final touch to his imputlcncc, and in
, many part; OF rural England the end of
the world seems t. the little circle in
the manor house and the vicaragc to be
very near at hand.
There was a great deal in the old or
der that was attractive, only there was
no place In it tor the mental growth or
, the social advancement of the laborcr.
, 1t was Il delightful arrangement FOR the
: farmer, the vicar and the squire, and
, was probably the best ever devised
since the Roman republic fell for the
supply rf great statesmen, soldiers and
judges to the state, but it was full of
elaborate provisions for crushing out
hope and ambition in the poor man.
Certainly no modern community has
ever bad such supply of firstratc pub
| lie servants to draw on as the manor
houses all over England, Scotland and
Ireland furnished. The younger
sons" may be said to have made Eng.
lard great and bnllt up the British err.
pirc, but their day is done. Hodge ro.
fuses any longer to be sacrificed to the
national greatness.
There is something pathetic in the
swarm of letters the Daily News is re.
cciving suggesting ways of making vii
lagc life attractive and keeping thI
young men and maids at home, but tlcy
have all futile air. The Spectator
brushes aside all the little devices fol
saving the old village by frankly ac
knowlcdGing that tho tendency of pop
ulation to the towns is Irresistible, rnt
That the world must accept the fact tfut
agriculture has become, or is fast be
canning, ndiscrodited occupation which
none but the laEgards or invalids of the
industrial army will hereafter consent
to follow.