The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-06-23

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cases in the drug store Of this little
trolley town. Ny curiosity was arous-
ed and an inquiry directed to the pro-
prietor elected the information that
for ten miles in either direction some
one of every farm household, with a
single exception, was subscriber to
that library. "And we'll get 'em
north and south, too, when the new
line goes through" he added.
"What sort of books do the people
seem most to care for?" I inquired.
well, pretty near all kinds" he
replied. Zone week it will be a novel
for the young folks, one of the new
ones, yor know, and the next week,
likely as not, it will be a volume of
history or biography. or book on
some economic subject"
"And the magazines?"
eyes, right there"
The rack he indicated contained
that months issues of at least twenty
of the more popular periodicals.
"The farmers buy these inciden-
tally, do theyl" I asked.
"Yes," he told me. the distinctly
agricultural journals they subscribe
for the year."
All of which it seemed to me pos
sessed a certain significance and bear
ing upon the assumption that the rural
trolley has acted as a social uplift in
the country through which it operates.
During the period of a newspaper
connection in Detroit, I once boarded
a car of the trolley line operating be-
tween Detroit and Ann Arbor. 1t
was an "after.supper" car and was
crowded with men and women who
obviously were of the farm. Curl
Gus to learn where these people were
going at such time, I inquired of a
young man standing beside me on the
rear platform, himself clearly country
bred.
"Going into Detroit to see Mans
6eld," was the terse reply. Then I
recalled that "Henry "" was being
played that week at the Detroit opera
house.
That was four years ago. To-day
every trolley line radiating from the
Campus Martius in Detroit runs regu-
lar theatre excursions, and the inter-
esting feature of the plan is that these
theatre cars are not operated so much
for the benefit of dwellers in the out
lying terminal towns as they are for
the farm households along the right
of way. Indeed, the theatres of De-
troit have for some years carried ad-
vertisements in the village newspa-
pers published within thirty miles of
tine city.
That the trolleys of the Middle
West have made theatre-goers Of the
farmers was stated to me with the
greatest frankness, last summer, by
Mr.. James A. Bailey, proprietor of
the Barnum and Bailey Circus.
"Ten years ago this country" said
Mr.. Bailey, twas the richest circus
country in the United States. 1t still
is, for that matter, yet circus receipts
have fallen off appreciably here in the
past seven years. blame the limit
merable trolley systems you have in
this section for it. They have placed
the farmers in easy touch with the
towns and this has resulted in their
paying fairly frequent visits to the
town theatres. The familiarity with
professional entertainments has served
to lessen their interest in the circus
which, ten years ago, offered them the
only entertainment it was possible for
them to enjoy"
The young people were the first to
perceive the social advantage afforded
by the trolley that crossed the door
yard. They became its regular pa
irons. Their minds received impress
sions from frequent contact with the
city lying at the end of the rails, that
in turn served to awaken parental
interest. That this is true was illus
trated, it has seemed to me, by little
incident that came within my own
knowledge very recently. A certain
well-known manufacturing town in
Michigan which is something of a
trolley center, has for three years
given a musical festival in May. At
one of the afternoon concerts this year
1 encountered young girl Of my ac-
quaintance who, though member of
a farm household eight miles west OF
town, graduates next June from the
city high school. Being musically
inclined, she had brought her aged
mother, a type of American farm
wife, to this concert. From the theatre
I walked with them to the interurban
waiting-room. The old lady. bit
dazed, but with eyes as bright as those
of her daughter, could not say much,
but the girl told me how great her
mothers delight had been.
"And we're coming in for the con-
cert tomorrow afternoon, too, she
called to me as she helped her mother
up the steps of the car.
This girl, as I have said, will gradu.
ate next June from the city high
school, this despite the fact she has
not spent one night in town since hei
entrance. That hers is not an iso'
lated case, inquiry among high-school
principals in trolley towns" of the
Middle West will clearly show. The
trolley has made it possible for the
country boy or girl to obtain a higher
education, at least an academic edu
cation, without severing the farm
home ties. Believing this to be the
case 1 directed an inquiry not lone
since to Judson @. Pattengill, princi
pal of the high school at Ann Arbor