Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1895-11-12
The Drin into cities.

ioalh iIolh ner recently competed
decennial census that, whereas the
population of the State has in
creased 28 per cent during the
last ten years, the gain is con.
fined entirely to the manufactur-
ing cities, and that there has been
a great falling off Of the rural po-
pulation. This means that the
farms are being abandoned, and
that farmers sons and daughters
have gone into the factories of the
cities.
The press of the State discusses
the problem from numerous points
of view. One is the old cry that
rural life is hard and uninviting
under present conditions, and that
it could be made more attractive
by instituting a higher and better
form of social pleasures. This
is undoubtedly a leading cause
for DESERVING the farms, but one
equally as potent is the hard and
wearing life Of farming in the
Eastern States. There the farms
must be large, and hence a com.
pact rural population is impossi-
BILE. Again, the nature of Eas.
tern teamwork virtually prohibits
summer indulgence in social
pleasures, and the winters are so
cold as to make them task.
1t is proper aim in life to live
in comfort, aud to invest the en-
vironment with as many whole
some pleasures as possible. No
young man or woman who finds
farm life burdensone and city life
pleasant can be blamed for exer-
cising preference for the city,
even though the income may be
smaller. For there are pleasures
in life apart from money-making;
and, considering even this phase
of the matter, there lis rarely q
chance to make more money on
an Eastern farm than in some
humble capacity in the city. The
Massachusetts case would not be
deserving of so much attention
did it not represent a general con-
dltion throughout the Eastern
States.
In California the situation is
radically different. In spite of
the fact that for the last few years
until recently the profits of farm
ing have been small, there is no
tendency 10 drift cityward. A
visit to any one of the favorite
agricultural communities will ex-
plain the matter at once. Here
the farms are small; the people,
living close together, can mingle
on terms Of intimacy impossible
in Eastern rural districts; there is
no time of the year, summer or
winter, when the conditions of
rural work or of climate place re
strictions on social Intercourse;
and all the conditions combine to
make farming intrinsicalIy so at
tractive that there is no induce
ment to abandon the fam for the
city.
A striking illustration of this
practically unheard of in the East
lis the abandonment of the city
for the farm by wealthy families,
who establish themselves on large
orchards or vineyards, preferriug
the delights Of rural life to those
offered by the city. This Is so
common and so remarkable that
1t deserves the consideration of
those Eastern young men and wo-
men to whom farm lif. is distaste~
full. One might think that
wealthy persons would be insane
to leave the city, with all its al
lurements, to seek greater pleas
Ire In the country, and So they
would be regarded in the East.
Not so here; and if a census of
wealthy business men should be
AIKEN it would likely develop the
act that very large portion of
hem would gladly exchange city
lie in California for the pleasures
II the country if they could do 80
without sacrificing their business
90 heavily.-San Francisco Call.
NENar hnua nnu trnnhlo ,rith