The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-03

it ought to be i'll view of the low price
 to which farm produce has fallen.
 It was this condition of the landed and farming interests which brought to the village Mir Rider Haggard, and it so happened that his visit occurred while the annual flower show was i'll progress. MT. Haggard has given up story writing for the present. He bas caled a halt to that fervid imagination out of which "She" was born and IS | gathering facts on the prosaic subject
 of agriculture. The author of King Solomon's Mines," himself an English country gentleman, has conceived the
 notion that there is a mine of inn
 measurable wealth right at the doors
 of the English people, which they are
 not working as they should. He IS making observations in every county, and under the title, Back to the
 Land," is writing articles for London
 daily the object of which is to point
 out, if possible, what is the matter
 with the country districts and then
 indicate by what new laws and methods the present depressed condition Of
 agriculture may be relieved. In taking
 alarm at the situation, MT Haggard
 has caught fever which properly of
 late has become common over here, and
 in his bugle cry of Back to the Land
 he is unquestionably calling for
 much needed reform. It isn't merely | the predicament of farmers and land
 owners that is involved With Euro
 pean navies ever on the increase the
 danger of a blockade becomes more inn
 minent, and that, under present con-
 ditions, as everyone is well aware,
 would reduce the country to starvation
 with few weeks.
 But it's an ill-wind indeed that
 doesn't bring good to someone, and it
 has seemed to nle that good Of cer-
 tain kind has already resulted from the
 pinch that has fallen upon these lords
 of English agriculture. They are not
 SO prosperous as they were, neither are
 they so independent and exclusive.
 The spirit of fraternity is abroad. In l the country districts as in London one
 cannot help seeing that the rich and
 favored are in these days showing
 themselves brothers to the poor and | lowly. To get everything in order for {. that flower show involved no end of labor, and what an inspiriting sight it
 was to see the rough work of the early morning. when all the eXhibits-419 there were-had to be arranged and ! numbered, cheerfully undertaken by those who are classed amongst the
 leading families The vicar was hard at it in his shirt sleeves The village
 doctor and the schoolmaster and the | leading farmer, who is always an im-
 portant parsonage, buckled down to work with as much zest as they after
 wards showed In disposing of the
 champagne that was passed around, and in all that was done that hot sum-
 mer morning the Squire from the Hall was as busy and sweaty and good na- tured and approachable as any man on 1 the grounds. The residence of this village notable stands far back from the road, emboW- | cred in foliage surrounded by beautf- | fully kept gardens, and is approached | through an avenue of trees as tall and symmetrical as one could wish to see.
 On his mothers side this affable gen.
 tleman is blood-kin to Bulwer Lytton
 He is forty and bachelor-a fine catch for some enterprizng American girl But unfortunately he hasn't title, though a not distant ancestor had one Through this titled progenitor char | ity was instituted by which for all 1 time the poor children of the village | are to be clothed and otherwise helped. | The boys and girls who share in this charity are always dressed in green. To keep up this charity and to main | tain the other generous traditions Of his family, has been at times fully
 as much as the present squire was equal to, for like other landed propri- etors his income has been reduced.
 But he is still the perfect gentlemen,
 generous and hospitable to fault. He | is always at church on Sunday, where he and his mother and sisters sit in | corner fenced off to themselves, sur | rounded by the mural effigies of their
 departed ancestors and for the rest, he
 is just as unassuming when every sec
 ond Monday he sits amongst the mag
 istrates to administer justice as when
 he lends a willing hand in the miscel- laneous work of horticultural show.
 This gentleman spent some years
 roughing it" in the United States and | C1nada. Many Ul llte SuLl9 pL SouhtlS l sauires do this, and it does them good
 In roughing it in America they them
 selves get smoothed down quite little.
 They never put on quite so many airs, and besides being more approachable they are also more intelligent. This reminds me how many in that English village have relatives on the other side
 of the big pond. Across from the lit
 tie cottage in which this writer has
 spent so many happy days is the vil-
 lage post office It is kept by two es- timable sisters, who have another sis
 ter in the United States, the wife of an Episcopal clergyman. On the same
 side. a little farther down, is one of the
 village public houses. It has been \ handed down from father to son for
 long years. Two out of that family are | in America. So one might go through 1 the entire village finding that the fam | flies which do not have some represen- tative near or remote seeking fortune
 under the stars and stripes are the small minority. Naturally these people | do not ask the silly questions about 1 our great country that they used to- Letters and the interchange of visits I have convinced them at last that Texas | is not a suburb of New York city and 1 that one who lives in Ohio is not neces- i with avervbo6v who