Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-02-13
PROVlNClALISM OF NEW WORKERS.
4 Visitor to Manhattan Island Who Thinks Its Inhabitants Unaccountably Narrow.
 ISDocinl CnrraCDop6npcn


 It's Inhabitants Unaccountably Narrow. | Special Correspondence] | KANSAS CITY, Feb. 5.-"I have just re- | turned from my first visit to the big city at | the mouth of the Hudson river" said a | western born business man to the writer to- day, "and l want to tell you what it was ] that impressed me most strongly during my New York visit.
 Ut was not Broadway, or Central park, or the Battery, or the Bowery, or any of the | things admirers of the eastern metropolis love to talk so much about It was the provincialism of New Workers. The pro- vincialism of the man or the woman in the middle walks of life who has always lived in New York is past belief. They do not seem to understand that there is anything worth knowing west of the North river, | east of the East river or north of Harlem | My friends there are relatiG0S in retail | trade, well to do and nourishiay. I felt a little diffident about going to call upon them during my visit, which was primarily | made for business purposes.
 II thought that I would perhaps be lack l ing in some way. These folks who had al ways lived in the big city would be so much better posted than I that it would not be | easy for me to keep up a conversation with them. But bless you, if do say it, the shoe was on the other foot. could talk on a dozen subjects that they couldn't. Their | interests were altogether local. They were not concerned in national topics of any sort | They knew little or nothing of any other l city of the United States than New York; | they were even densely ignorant of Brook | lyn. In 10 years, the head of the family said, they had made no journeys of greater | extent than to one or two nearby seaside re sorts, and they hated to be away from home | fNVs | mer
 ''Their lack of knowledge of the west | wasn't quite so pronounced as that of the | proverbial Englishman who fancied there might be wild Indians and buffalo in Chi cagO, but it approached it so closely that it made me ashamed. And more noticeable still was the lack of what we in the west call public spirit. This doesn't mean lack of pride in their city-bless you, they are all puffed up with that-but peculiar state of mind I never have met with before, feeling that the town is already perfec tion.
 II know half dozen farmers in half a dozen states, no one of whom has tithe as much money as my New York relatives, who know more about our common country in a minute than the average stay at home middle class New Yorker does in a year One friend of mine lives in Ohio on hun dred acre farm. He has one son here in Kansas City, another in Chicago and an other in Boston. Now, every winter, when things are slow on the farm, my Ohio friend and his wife go to see one of their boys. It isn't very costly, and the old couple are good ! travellers. The result is that they can sit down and talk of the interesting scenery, the different cities and the types of people to be found in different places with the cer- tainty that comes of knowledge. And be- ing somewhat familiar with different states and cities they take much more intelligent interest in the news of the day than do my friends who have always lived on Manhat tan Island" HUGH MCKITTRIDGE.
 The Figures Against Him.
 Lawyer Gin a whisper)- Here comes the