The morning call., 1891-09-20
RURAL new HAMPSHIRE.
Some Of the Transformations Now Going On in
That State.

It must be remembered that the older
regions of our country are undergoing one
of the greatest social transformations ever
seen. The American visitor to Scotland,
who expects still to find Rob Roy in every
glen, and Helen McGregor striking a dra-
matte attitude ON every crag, Is bewildered
when there is put into his hands stout
annual volume in which all Scotland is sub
divided into lettings for summer spOrtsmen.
Yet even in this newer country we have an
experience not unlike this when, on visiting
that New Hampshire from whose granite
peaks the voices of Stark and Langdon still
resound-at least in Whittier's verse-we
are provided with pamphlets issued by the
State itself, and Offering farms by the hun
bred for the disposal of summer visitors. If
there is pathos IN the Scotch glens and
their groups of deserted hearth-stones,
so there is pathos in the sixty abandoned
cellars to be found within a radius Of two
miles at one point In the very town
where | write The very views from
the hills offer, to one who remembers them
a dozen years back, distinct increase OF
forest and dimlnutl0n OF cultivated land !;
and when we find State official, in pub
lished report, pointing with pride 10 park
of $4,000 acres now created in New Hamp-
shire, and peOpled with deer and buffalo.
where once we're fifty farms, 1t is impossible
mol 10 ScG Illhl lu6 Sdu0 DlUCCoe WIZ lltS
transformed Scotland is now at work among
Americans. 1t makes, of course, vast diff
ference that the Scottish peasantry were
tenants, and were largely evicted and trans
ported by no action OF their own, whereas
the fifty farmers displaced by Mr.. Corbin
sold their lands willingly, it is to be pre-
sumei, because they thought they could do
better elsewhere. But the result on the
social life Of the rural community is the
same; the buffalos cannot vote, the moose
cannot belong to farmers grange" and
the whole popular life of the township and
the county is impoverished Just the same.
Moreover, if one man to-day holds 5000
acres for a deer park, why should not an
other man few years hence hold that
numbe of square miles for the same pur-
pose?
Apart from the remoter solicltude, there
is temporary satisfaction in the thought
that this shifting Of ownership tends, on
the whole, to cheaper the summer; that is.
it gives room for multitude whose means
are scanty to avail themselves of the changes
going on in community thus shifting The
official pamphlet of New Hampshire offers
farms Of 500 acres for $500 and of $50 acres
for $500, and this with buildings standing
and within few miles OF railroad and post
Office. Secure home in New hampshire,
il says, cheerfully, on the title page, where
health, comfort and prosperity abound.
The scale of prices seems hardly compatible
'
but perhaps 1t is the purchaser who Is meant.
Aud when one considers the number Of
modest households for which few hundred
dollars may thus furnish permanent sum-
mer retreat into purer air and outdoor
existence, the suggestion OF pros
perity for them seems not unreason-
able, after all Lowell was right {;
it is not the summer itself that is
costly, but the accessories we choose to put
with il. II we once adopt ThOreau's motto,
simplify | say, simplify" June is free to
tolerably poor Corners after all. Why should
people De unhappy because they cannot
drive fUur-in-hands at Newport, X. l., when
at Newport, n. H.. they can buy for 5000
farm of 100 acres, a house with twelve
rooms, barn. se-barn. w00d-shed, car
riage-house and twenty-five grated fruit
trees-all within three miles of railroad sta
ton and postoffice, and within easy reach
of Mount SunRpee and Sunapee Lake? Why
cannot n reasonable family spend "the law
ish summer very cheaply in such farm
house. providing the household includes
girls enough to look alter the chickens and
boys enough to drive home the COW? They
can be guaranteed some visitors which the
utmost wealth of the Rhode Island New
port cannot secure - as, for instance, the
wood-thrush and the whippoorwill. - L.
W. Higginson in Harper's Weekly.