The times., 1901-05-19
Salaries i'm city and Country

/ It has become serious problem, TINS
/ tendency Of all classes Of people to flock
/ to the cities. Naturally. before any
thing can be done to remedy the evils
arising from such a tendency, the
/ causes must be discovered. That the
! overcrowding in the cities is an evil
there is not much doubt.
One reason is. or used to be, the large
! salaries paid in the cities. Even four
dollars a week looks large TO the girl
who nas been working for two; and she
does not always realize that out of that
four dollars must come all her living
expenses. At first, the countryman
coming TO the city is SO fascinated with
the glitter and dazzle of it that he is
willing to live almost anywhere, but
when the sights and sounds become an
old story he begins to want more COM
Portable living. This consumes his sal
ary in merely giving him the ordinary
necessaries of life.
The fact is that ten dollars in a y-iI-
lage is better salary, in nine cases
out of ten, than twenty in city. The
wage-esrner does not have to pay so
/ much in rent, which is one important
point another is that as a rule The ex-
pense of dress is not so great; and as
rule the work is less trying to the
nerves
There is a good deal of false rride
mixed up with moves into large cities.
The countryman becomes shamefaced
when the city dwelier unfolds the vast
stores of his knowledge. The city man
treats the countryman's standards as
of no account, and even if he says moth
ing the luckless farmer feels that he
is being laughed at He may have
twice the brains of the dapper Young
clerk, or salesman, or lawyer, who
smiles at him: he may. in the true
sense of the word, be more Of gen
tleman; but he does not always know
it. He feels in a dim, sub-conscioUs
way that if he were TO go to the city
and have that fellows advantages he
could meet him on even ground and
best him. So he goes to the city: and
sometimes his feeling is justified. Some
Of the brightest business men of New
York are boys who were brought up
on farms.
The fact is. however, that in most
cases the cOuntryman needs dose Of
self-respect, and the city man needs to
be inoculated with respect for others
He who has not learned to esteem
others rightly is himself not worth es-
TEEN. for that is one Of the first prin-
ciples in the book Of character, and It
Is a book which does not owe all its
pages to city-bred authors by any
means If a man or woman is sure Of
being in the right place. IN a place
where hts or her work is needed, that
is all that there is to worry about The
place may be in the kitchen or the
counting room or the salon; there are
a good many opportunities for self-im-
provernent in any one of them. The
country farmers wife may have to
spend her days doing housework, but
that need not prevent her reading. and
thinking, and being. in many cases, as
true and gentle and refined an influence
among her neighbors as a gran1e
dame could be. There is 10 reason for
not respecting ones self because the
means of living are small. but that is
about the attitude of many more or
less foolish peopIe-that mere poverty.
inability 10 live in a certain style, is !
disgrace. There is no more false idea |
on earth.