Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-04-14
The ..Decline" Of Rural New England.

whites being evolved in these states. as
has happened in Tennessee and Ala
bama? Have the allurements of the
cities so drained rural New England Of
its best blood that its moral and social
ruin is inevitable? Have the factors OF
quick and cheap transportation made
prosperity and happiness impossible
among New England hills and valleys?
These are great questions, though they
are not new ones, and they present
serious problems. The answer Yes Is
given TO each by Rolln Lynde Hartt in
a long descriptive article in the cur
rent number of the Atlantic Monthly.
we differ with Mr.. Hartt and answer
most emphatic No"
| Mr. Hartt's article is an interesting
study of an old New England town Of
what he is pleased to term the de
cadent" type. His pictures are not all
| of a sombre hue, and unlike Governor
Rollins of New Hampshire in his now
famous Fast day proclamation. he
holds that one of the chief interests Of
the country people is in religious mat
tiers. But he dwells al length on the
''snail-sh dumesticity" which has
been evolved. He says that New Eng
lands rural communities now contain
only the ambitionless and the chill
dren of The ambitionless. Ii IS
natural selection. the other end to-the
survival of the unfittest." He declares
that the people of New England are
rolling down hill ana holds NJ this
picture Of country fair:
If you would see country life at its
worst, pray visit the RelchertoWn cat
tie show There you may mingle with
AS wicked a throng Of human creatures
as ever congregated in Whitechapel or
Bellevue or Five Points French
Canadians? "Polanders?" Foreigners
Of any breed or birth whatsoever? Not
they, That loathsome rabble-gather-
ed from 20 decadent hill townS-are
they not, every s0ul of them. descended
from the Puritans? Their pre- Reyolu-
tiOnary blood is as good as your own.
The upland has reduced them to bar
barism they do but bespeak the future
Of rural New England"
What shall be said 10 all this? Mr..
HART is right at times. and then he is
utterly and nopeiessly wrong. There is
another side to the story, another view
of the picture. He libels the intelli-
gent. industrious. happy men and
women. the sons and daughters Of the
Puritans who are now, as they We're q
century ago, the bone and sinew Of
New England's rural communities.
man creatures" "a ioathsome rabble"
reduced to barbarism.' Nothing
could be more complete misrepresen-
tation Of the conditions Of rural Maine.
and. we believe, Of all rural New
England.
1t is true. too true, that rural New
| England has not held its own in popu-
lation. Almost every farmhouse. as
we ride over the roads Of a Maine
country town, has its representatives
in the cities of Massachusetts or in the
West The drain has been something
enormous, and the cities and the West
give back nothing in return. In his
article Mr.. Hartt is inclined to be
! r,-i+ nit this
| do not see how Boston or Chicago car
| repeal the laws of nature. The mair
economic causes Of the decline Of rurl
| New England are. Of course. TOO vel
| known to need extensive recapitula-
| ton Cheap transportation tells tht
whole of this story. The farms have
much less than formerly to sell to the
cities which the cities cannot sc
earlier and better from West or South
These two phases of decline must be
admitted. The conditions are too evi
dent to be disputed. But the Other
species Of decline are in the dstOrte,
imagnations of the magazine writer.
and not in rural New England. Ii il
not true that there is a moral, socia
and intellectual decline. The manhood
and womanhood of rural New Englan,
is Of as rugged and noble n type a
when the tide began 10 turn toward tn
great cities and the West. The foreig!
element may have appeared, but tn
old American stock. unauthorized ant
Undecided. is ll-predominant. Their
may he abandoned farms, but Their
are also better farms. There may b
smaller families, but there are also NOR
intelligent families. 1t may be that
smaller population and differences O
sect result in the maintenance of feWe
churches than in the old times. but tn
hearts of the people are in the RICH
place ana God and religion We're neve
more revered in rural New Englan
than today. There may not be s
many lyceums and spelling schools
but there are more newspapers, book
and magazines. There may not h