Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-18
ONE FORM OF THE REST CURE.
City Men Who Buy Farms and Let
Others Work Them.
From the Chicago Record Herald


Most city men are going to retire to the
country some time If you may believe what
they say, and they don't propose to wait
for a fortune either. All they want is the
assurance of a fair living. The unanimity
Of sentiment Is remarkable, and so is the
cause from which it springs. an infinite
WEAKNESS that seems well-nigh universal in
city life and that Is felt not in old age
merely. but by active. energetic business
and professional men in their prime. 1t is
anything to get away from noise and close
confinement and the strenuous competition
that produces ceaSeleSS friction.
There Is something rather pathetic In the
progress of the disease, and when IL is so
bad as to induce an investment in farm
property the pathos is very apt to increase.
The city work Is now contemplated as
passing phase of existence, useful only as
1t may contribute to the upbuilding of the
country estate, and the citizen of the world
becomes as simple as child. He would
consult the authorities, and having pur-
chased land for an orange ranch In Cali
fornia bethinks himself to write the editor
of one of the farmers weeklies on the
coast for statement of the profits that he
Is going to make when his trees are grown.
OF course he has had statement already
from the promoter who sold him the land,
which was worth $50 an acre, for $780, but
he has been a little unsettled by the COM
ment of pesSimfsts and wants confirmation.
The editor, however, Is a person of vast ex-
perience in such cases and the wisest of
oracles. He intimateS that California is a
large state and that there may be differ
ence of soil in an acre lot. Oranges do well
In some localities and not at all well In
others. Sometimes the market is good and
sometimes it is bad. Evidently this oracle
is admirably equipped to head safe and
sane ticket but there is a real compassion
In his heart, and he suggests that long
distance orange culture has its dfsquieting
aspects. Can't the anxious inquirer per-
sonally conduct operations
Unfortunately it is not often that he can,
because he has to keep right on earning
enough at the old trade to make up the
deficit. and only recently we saw one OF
his letters. which was written twelve years
after he had begun the rest cure. and which
showed that he was still inquiring. IL not
learning. He said that his place had never
come anywhere near paying expenses, and
indicated that his susceptibilities had been
shocked by certain unexpected and DIS
agreeable developments. The promoter,
who 1t is to be hoped has reformed by this
time. had laid particular stress upon the
fine quality of the oranges in the particular
district where his land was and also upon
the marvellous propensity to rlpen early
when prices promised Independence and the
delights of foreign travel But as matter
of fact they were among the last on the
market and no better than punk.
This is really very pathetic, but let US not
forget the benefits in the annually renewed
hopes and the satisfaction of knowing that
the private Sanitarium was pretty near
ready for occupancy any time. Who would
say that there Is no rest in a twefye-year
pipe dream?