Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1903-12-19
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For years public-spiritcd people
have been preaching about the benefits
of soap. Some men have even gone No
far as TO say that soap IL the real
emblem OF civilization. Whether this
Is so or not. 1t is well known that In
countries where the people are savage
there Is no soap. II has been difficult.
however. to get some people 10 accept
soap as q blessing or as q bulwark OF
the home. In spite Of the good work
the magazines have been doing by way
of disseminating soap advertisements
there are many inhabitants Of our
splendid country who continue to re-
gard soap with suspicion II not with
! downright adherence. Hut something
happened at Lancaster, Pa. the other
day that Is likely to bring soap to the
front, to make 1t dear to the heart OF
many Il man who has heretofore pre-
ferred to be soapless. Mr.. James VII
son, a burglar gentleman who had
been shut up In the Lancaster Jail. sue
ceeded, after stripping and thoroughly
sOaplng himself, In squeezing through
hole which had been supposed to bc
80 small that no man could possibly
escape by 1t. 1t must have made the
burglar shiver with horror to think OF
putting soap upon himself, but there
was nothing else for him to do IL he
was to gain his liberty. How can the
people who have In the past shrunk
from soap continue to regard with II
fear or contempt? The experience of
the Lancaster burglar should serve to
make soap precious to most of those
who have been spurning 1t. The man
who Is an enemy Of soap never can
tell how soon he may be shut In behind
bars. In fact. he usually gets there.
sooner or later, ana always deserves
to. He should therefore gradually ac.
custom himself to soap before the
crisis comes. II Burglar Wilson's OK.
periencc serves to increase the popu.
larlty Of soap his escape will have been
far from Il public misfortune.
&~
The time is not very far distant
when this country will have to deal
with congestion of population In the
cities and consequent inadcluacy of
the rural population. Indeed, the prob.
lem even now presents itself urgently
every summer when farmers vainly
seek help to harvest the crops, though
thousands of men are idle In the cities.
The tendency is more and more toward
the cities. Farmers sons no longer he.
come farmers. They disdaln the slow
and unevehtful routine of life on the
farm and as soon as they become their
own masters they are or to the nearest
city or large town to make their for
tunes. In Il large majority of cases
they fare far worse IN the city than
they would have Jared on the farm,
but their i'll success does not deter 9TH
country boy comes to the city, but the
city boy never goes to the country.
Fortunately for the nation the agricul-
tural population Is considerably,
though inadequately, recruited from
abroad. A large proportion of the i'm
hiRiuh'S iioih HoItuCth to-
gether with some Germans ana Irish,
enter upon farming either for them
selves or for others Immediately upon
their arrival In this country. Most of
the Scandinavians become tlllers of
the soil. In this way the growing dis
position of Americans to fOrsake agri-
culture for urban pursuits is rendered
less of Il menace TO our national fu-
ture. 1t cannot but be regretted, how
ever, that the native American farmer
seems destined to disappear almost en-.
tirely, leaving the cultivation of the
soil entirely to immigrants. There Is
no life so independent and vigorous
as that Of the farmer ana it Is upon
the agricultural class that the prosper
ity OF the nation depends. When the
farmer is prosperous we all flourish;
when he falls upon evil days we suffer
with him. The condition of the farm
ing population is an index to the con-
dition OF the country in general. and
the higher the type of that population