The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-11-10
socIABlLlTf RLDIyIyus.

tions of city life are returning in some
degree the conditions that only few
years ago made country life preferablos
1t is only few years since the dwell
lers in cities were able TO live more than
half mile away from the centers. Now
it is possible for all but the most abJec'-
ly poor TO choose a section where there
is plenty of good air and open space.
The charm of village life-the inti-
mate association of small communities
is now feature of city life, made pos
sible by the rapid building up of what
amount to independent social entities
on the parks" "plats," etc; such as
Washington Park, Wayland Park, and
other sections just within or without
the city bounds.
The enterprise that makes groups of
homes on these new-opened tracts is
generally largely mutual The owners
contrive to enlist the sympathy
and active aid of purchasers Of
home sites. One settler brings his
friends. When few families
are living in their new houses. there is
little hall for social events and religious
services on Sunday. Then come the
chapel, the school house, the lodge room.
the fire station, the ward room, the local
club.
All this promoted intimacy, and init
sNF l,a ,NI
that made the earlier country life so
redolent of good fellowship, so perme-
ated with cQnsorting humanity, so
idyllic, and SO fondly and regretfully
remembered.
These satellite centers, revolving
around the big city center, are doug
great work for us socially. They are
helping to restore our great social sys-
tenn that has been mourned as lost.
Their influence is being felt in the city.
Summer life at the nearby resorts is
contributing also to the breaking down
of city conservatism, indifferentism and
snobism. The social life at the little
summer cottsge-village, with its free
and cordial swing, has an influence
extending through the formal winter
season In the city, and neither the asso-
Citations nor the influences of the associa-
tions are wholly thrown off.
Even the street cars contribute to
the social Renaissance. Every car ply
ing between the center and some arc of
the circumference becomes, during GER
tain hours small social club. The
same people ride, and they
gravitate toward social plane
at least approaching familiarity.
They come to recognize the fraternal
influence of common purpose, even if
that purpose has dinner or tea for its
objective. They come to know each
other, though not always able to greet
each other by name, and they know the
tastes, the politics, the conversational
powers of each other.
So each ear speeding toward the out
skirts becomes, for 10 minutes or half an
hour, club, a lodge, sewing-circle, a
church or Sunday school. Il serves in
place Of the old New England husking
or quilting bee, spelling or
singing SCHOOL, of the noon-time
chat in the country church, or even the
solemn excitement of the rural funeral.
1t may not be reckoned as adequate to
restore that free and familiar tone we
are told has left our lives since we took
TO city life, but it at least serves to
tighten the burden of the day spent in
the smoke and rush Of the citys busi-
ness.
The tendency of city life in nearly all
its aspects is toward simplicity. Even
the richest people are now esteemed
vulgar if they display their wealth and
the cliques and congenial coteries into
which smart society people divide tend
toward restoration of the simpler and
heartler life of our grandffathers and
their grandfathers.
There is field for study opening to
social scientists indicated here, that
would yield rich -haryests of observation
and great quantities of data for the So
Geological theories. For such plain and
simple folk as The News is
concerned with it is gladstone
to note that the neighborhood
spirit that made life thing of concern,
TO all about in the good old times is re-
turning; and as potent influences that
are helping to bring it about says: All
hail to the suburban plat, and the social
electrics that take people thitherward!
WE ARE BRETHREN ALL.