Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-03-17
WITH THE ADVENT OF SPRING.

prevalent with the advent of spring
is the recurrence of that restless
ambition among many people to
undertake change in their mode
and place of living. Many farmers
who have spent lives of toll in gain
ing a competency for their declin-
ing days, and others who are still in
the prime Of life, make prepare
tions for buying, or renting house
in town" with a view to spending
the remaining portions of their
lives in what some term brick
vaults" walled off in the midst of
the hustle, dirt and noise Of cities.
In nine cases of ten, these rural
residents, who forsake their farms
for the peculiar attractions of an
urban life, care nought for any
garden plot connected with their
city residence. A lawn has no in
terest for them, and if they can get
steam-heated apartments, and thus
save the shoveling of coal and the
carrying out Of ashes, they are well
satisfied.
At the same time that the granger.
old and young, HES himself to the
city, the spring fever takes pos
session Of the man whose best years
have been spent in modern
dwelling with all conveniences,"
and he solemnly announces his I'M
alterable intention Of shaking the
metropolitan dust from his shoes,
and renewing his youth in the
pastoral delights of the countryside.
Let u.s." he lsays to his wife, get
out where we can breathe pure air,
hear the birds sing and see the
trees bud and the plants bloom,
where our children can have good
pure food and grow up with robust
bodies and minds, uncontaminated
by the mixed juvenile society Of
the city street"
These two great movements in
crease each year and who can CEN
sure the participants in either of
hem? Tired Of a life of comparative
drudgery, that to him is almost a
treadmill in it's dead mOnotony, tie
aged farmer looks forward with de-
eight to the time when he can lie in
bed of a morning, go to an entertain
ment in the evening and see things
and people throughout the day.
The anticipations Of the younger
man, or woman who turns his or
her back upon broad acres are as
glowing as those of the city family
that takes the place left vacant, but
broadly speaking none of them
come to realization.
Both classes find that life, in
either city or country, is not all
sheer and skittles." Each misses
the associations to which he has
been accustomed, and which have
become a part OF his daily life. The
city mans $15O-Jersey dies with
pneumonia, he finds that fowls
cannot live on air, the garden pro-
duces weeds where he expects to
reap a daily harvest OF fresh and
succUlent vegetables for his table,
and he mutters maledictions at the
old oaken bucket when he compares
it with the water company's con
venient faucet. Similarly, the rural
resident becomes dissatisfied with
city life, He wants to sleep until
nine o'clock, but he awakens at
$3.50 just the same. Time hangs
heavily on his hands, the higher
prices for inferior food astonish him
and his meals don't taste as they did
when he spent the day with the
wind, and the rain, and the sun.
In view of the general dissatisfac-
tion with change of base, it would
seem at first thought as though he
of the city should stay there, and
the country resident continue on
his farm; but a moments considera-
ton shows that this latter course
would imperil the vitality of the
laUion. 1t was the desire for Change
that brought the cavalier to the
south and the roundheads to New
England. The same thing brought
10 America the splendid Teutonic
strain, that has done so much for
Ghe stability of our institutions.
The migratory spirit has builded an
empire in the west and has caused