The Greeley tribune., 1906-04-19

porary trials of country life as do
mestics in rural homes with clean,
healthful surroundings, they will
pine away and nearly die until they
can get back once more into their
beloved slums. There it is again:
"God Bless Our Home" 1t is all a
matter of taste. it seems, as to
where and how we live.
And that reminds me that young
member of our energetic little
boosters club'' was asking me the
other day II 1 supposed the statement
in the Tribune regarding our popula-
tion was really true, and that we
actually had six thousand inhabi-
tants; and Furthermore he wanted
to know If 1 thought we would reach
ten thousand in the next five years.
And what do you suppose l told
him? Why the truth of course: and
being as am, both confirmed
crank and terrible heretic, habit
ually standing in the path of So
called progress with big P, said
that did not care an irrigation dam
or any other variety of the dam
whether we have six thousand or
five, or whether we ever became a
city of ten thousand. mere inhabi-
tants. or even of comparatively civil
lized human beings. Nor do I; and
why should 1? might care, II l
was a speculator in city lots or a
real estate agent; but am neither.
Or 1 might care If l desired to sell
out and get away from here just as
soon as the Lord would let me, in
order to live somewhere else. But
you see am not proposing to leave
the place, aud have nothing to
sell. And II really desired to live
in big city and have a street car
bang, slamming under my window at
all hours of the day or night; or the
gong ringing In my ears at every
crossing whenever / travelled from
five to seven miles down into the
city from my suburban residence in
order to purchase new necktie or
half a dozen collar buttons. Icould,
and would 60 to Denver. For l
have survived indigence, and could
ape opulence, for a time at least, If
1t suited either my constitution or
taste. But you see, 1 prefer Gree
ley. And moreover let me observe
now that l prefer Greeley pretty
much as it is ana has been, in many
respects in the past, to the Greeley
that we are at all likely to have in
a city Of ten thousand inhabitants.
Just let your uncle Satiricus remind
you now, for that matter, that bet.
ter men are dead who once lived
here than any who now live here !;
and that majority of the people
who now live here are better people
in everything that makes life really
desirable, respectable and enjoyable,
than majority of the people will
be who will live here if our popula-
tion ever reaches that figure.
Suppose, to illustrate, that we can
manage to secure few manufactur-
Ing plants, requiring for their opera
tion many laborers. Suppose that
we should secure one or two more
lines of railroad, a thing we all
think we need, and perhaps repair
shops with the class of labor neces-
sary to operate them. Suppose that
to accommodate increased business
we require many more business
houses, and that to accommodate the
increased population we cut up the
spacious lots originally furnished by
the colony and build little houses for
cheap tenants on twenty-five foot
fronts and thus sell our colonial
birthright, in the place for that kind
of mess OF pottage. Then suppose
we have a slum below the railroad
tracks after the approved city fashion
and that ultimately we have the
concomitants, labor strikes, dyna-
mite and whisky. Then suppose our
newspapers pander to that sort of a
thing because they must, and our
merchants and business men tolerate
it for fear of losing custom. Sup
pose, in short, that we gain the
whole commercial world and lose our
mean little souls in the chase after