Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-06-20
THE DESERTED VILLAGE.

verse. A village represents the center
of the isolated community, made iso-
lated by difficulties of transportation
both OF freight and person. Before the
/ days of MacAdam every mile of bowl
| der-inlested, sandy and muddy roads
exhausted man and beast alike who
were concerned in the transfer of wag-
ons over it. In England where, owing
to the very large proportional popula-
ton. travelling was extensively indulg-
ed in, the matter had become very
serious in the last century. The great
numbering stage coaches would be
dragged over roads which in the con-
! temporary literature are described as
absolutely inspiring terror. But Lon
don was not then the absolute metropo-
lis OF the country. All through the
land there were prosperous villages,
| whose inhabitants led cultured lives
and very rarely journeyed to the large
cities.
Then MacAdam evolved his plan of
making roads with broken stone. for
mulating the curious precept that no
| stone must be used which was too large
to 60 into the mouth. He would take a
piece OF road filled with powders, and
breaking them to fragments, would
make the road supply all or a great part
of the material required for its own con-
struction. William Cobbett, at the be-
ginning of this century, representing
the agriculturists, inveighs against the
use OF broad tires imposed by the au-
thorities upon those who travelled up
on the new roads which then began to
traverse England in all directions.
These roads enabled stage coaches to
make ten miles an hour, and the pOpu-
lation began at once to centralize more
than before, and we find Goblet again
ting the growth of the "Wenn,"
as he termed London.
When the railroad replaced the stage
coach. the growth of London and of
the other great cities began in earnest.
Meanwhile, in this country, the New
England States had become filled with
villages. The white painted gable
houses with green blinds, the village
green, with town hall, public school
and church facing it, had become char
tcteristic features of these settlements.
For the better intellectual develop
ment of the natives or inhabitants of the
villages, lyceums were founded, which
arranged for courses of lectures to be
given on various subjects. The life
seemed, to certain extent, ideal.
There is in humanity theoretical de-
sire for repOse and absence of strife, a
desire which in many cases is purely
theoretical, and whose exponent was
found in the New England villages and
communities of the same type in other
states. The intellectual element of
these places was responsive to the life
of the day, and it is surprising how
many Of our greatest men have come
from villages.
To-day the change is complete. The
villages are being rapidly deserted.
When factories began to be built of the
large scale, they were placed in villages,
| but Capitalization has affected them al
so. They have left the villages, and
Lynn, Fall River and similar cities have
| become great manufacturing centers,
each representing enough industry to
maintain all the villages in a state.
Some years ago the deserted farms of
New England were made the subject of
investigation by the government.
Farms, which long ago were the objects
| OF careful cultivation, and which
seemed to the owners to represent the
acme of progress, have been thrown
upon the market at ruinous prices.
They are gradually being taken up in
part by French Canadians, who seem
to bring with them some of the frugal
and industrious traits of the old country
French farmer. Now the deserted vii
lage takes the place of the deserted
farm as an object of interest and of soli-
citude. The young people used to
want to leave the farm, and did it.
Now they want to leave the village, and
are doing it. Steam railroads, supple
mented by the electric road, cause that
which is really an immense area to be
subsidiary to each large city.
Mechanical progress affects all classes,
and the inventor touches the life of
every class. The farmer and villager
at first sight would seem relatively lit
tie affected by modern machinery.
But improved tools made farming more
effective; steam was applied to its pro-
cesses, cheapening them greatly; the
railroads took the crude or raw pro-
ducts to steam mills, ending the work
of the country grist mills. And now
the railroad and trolley have taken the