Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-15
BACK TO THE TALL GRASS.
Marked Tendency to Move From the
Crowded Marts of Trade.


Saturday Evening Post.
The cities are growing more and more
crowded every year as people are attracted
to them from the country. and year by
year men are learning better and better
the truth that II is in the country that
one can live the sanest life.
Thus we can account for the remarkable
exodus OF city people to the country and
the tremendous influx OF country people to
the city. Brooklyn. for instance. was never
so populous as now. and there are whole
Jersey suburbs made up to the last man of
people who have fed from Brooklyn and its
conhnements to breathe the fresh air of
the Oranges.
1t IL easy to understand why this is so.
The city holds out inducements to the
country boy that his own environment will
never yield him. and he comes to the
metropolis, works at his business as few
city boys can work, and in course OF time
he marries a girl who has also come In
from the country to earn her living and
they settle down in a cosy fiat up in Har-
lem or out in Brooklyn, and when his
means at last permit he builds himself q
house on Riverside Drive or the Park Slope
and is happy. His children have all the
advantages Of the city that we're denied
him when he was a small boy, and II
they do not grow up to as lusty a man
hood as his, II they do not amount to as
much as he did, there are two reasons for
Il; they have a rich father and ne did not,
they we're born In the city. Now. It IL
an ~undeniable fact that few city men rise
high in the councils OF the nation. II a
great man is wise he is born In the coun-
try.
Yes Il Is easy 20 understand why there
has been such an exodus to the country,
The city boy, born and brought up in
brick-walled dwellings, getting a smell OF
the life-giving country air only during an
all too short vacation, envies his country
cousin who can breathe ozone all the yeaI
round and who has all outdoors for his
playground, and he determines to go tC
the country to live II ever It becomes
possible. To be sure he Is only a clerl
and promotion is likely to stop when hi
has reached a certain point, but perhaps
he can get an ideal little house not toe
far FROM the city and lead there an idea
life-and perhaps an ideal girl.
In course Of time he meets and marrie'
the latter, also a city denizen. but witt
longings for the country. For the FRS
months, or perhaps years, they must put
up with a cramped city fiat, although heI
| father owns his mouse in the vicinity Of
Washington square. But In course OF time
| children come to them and then they see
the absurdity, the criminality OF bringing
up children in the city. They remember
their own childhood and how physically
dwarhng It was, and they go a-househunt'
ing in the suburbs and at last find a COSY
little house, not 80 far from New Yorl
but that he can commute, and they mov'
out there, and he raises his own vegetables
and she goes in for chickens and becomes
something OF a botanist, and her sons grow
up lusty and broad-minded.
And the end OF IL all is that when the
sons are of IN age to a X up business the
20 into the city with a country education
and they take the prizes from under tn
very noses Of the city-bred children who's
eountry-bred father won the prizes Of hii
generation before, and so the city and tn
country are changing inhabitants all tn
time, and who shall say that 1t is not 70
the best?
But he is wisest who, having fed from
the city as soon as he was able, keep
his children in the country, there to lfvI
and die. II every one lived in the corn
try the city would be a very good plae'
in which TO live because there would b
plenty OF room. Pending that time It ver,
better for all city people to live In tn
country, for there is always lots Of room
there.