The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1908-06-20
Pulling Up Stakes

Two years SlFdlgLt from LHt ItdIl
OF a city 10 the seclus!on Of farm
There could have been no more vivid
contrast. no more radical change. We
bad gone from the clane OF gongs. the
toliing OF bells. the shrek Of locomo-
tiyss the blare Of brass bands the
do!eful piping OF corner bands, the
cries Of newsboEs, and the oboe houk
OF the automobile horn TO the piping
OF crickets and the mathis OF thrush
and robin. the warbiing OF bluebirds
and orchard orioles
We had been thoroughly forgotten
by our friends in the city, and had
stepped tacitly to an unrecognized
place in the human procession where
there was no possibility OF our being
numbered with those who are sup
posed to lead the strenuous life"
Society, so-called. was merely an ab-
straction. we were like those who
have been lodged on some secure
shelf on a clif where they could see
the food go by while they watched
and waited. Two years before We had
been of that clamorous and unreflec-
tive mob. We had never lived for
reached out for some beckoning to-
morrow. We had yearned for repose,
but the everyday grind Of trivialities
had burned up our time and eaten
away our yitalities.
lnsensibly. in the city. we had
learned the lesson of imitation For
however men and women hold fast to
their individuality, a constant attri-
ton OF numbers of their kind will
wear them TO a certain extent alike,
as all pebbles are worn smooth by
the waters action. Custom, custom,
how that artful tyrant cows even the
boldest How many a jeans-cad con
gressman succumbs at last to the
Simian contour of the dress suit. The
days are very much alike in a city,
always the frame presents the identi
cal grays and blacks. the hard. bald
finish of metropolitanism.
The happiest natured take their
pleasures sadly there. The Mephis-
topheles of cynicism mocks them with
the old refrain. Eat, drink, and be
merry, for tomorrow you die The
young grow old too fast; and the old
grow hardened rapidly, AS in certain
chemicals all things harden to petri
faction. so the steady immersion Of a
man or a woman in city leads to the
deadening OF the sensibilties. Apart.
ment life Was there ever anything
more artificial? Apartment life is
more than ordinarily similar in the
penitentiaries and the modern flats.
But TO live on a farm? How can
you live on farm and not vegetate
or go crazy? Nine miles from
lemon What shuddery thought,
And yet remote as We We're from the
city. there was a sadness in the eyes
o; the friends who at rare intervals
came to see us How quickly the
crows feet seemed to creep about the
eyes of men whom | had expected to
see buoyant and hopeful as in bygone
DAYS. What was that tiresome re-
fraln I had preached to me SO often.
We're getting old" Who's getting
old' Speak for yourself John" Yes.
they do grow old in cities, and the
fountain of Ponce de Leon will never
spou: from a public square.
Is Is worth a mans while to grow
old? ! doubt IT. Rarely. In city
even, you will find a man who has
steadily refused to give in to the
years: but | believe you will always
ind, on Investigation. that this man
has renewed his youth from the fields
and woods. Age is a chilling of the
heart. not a whitening of the tresses
''S-v.-. my heart wilt thou grow old.
nv hsir is white my blood turns cold.
And ole by one my powers depart
But y'tUth sits smiling in my heart"
But the spirit of youth is just as ap-
paren> in the mind as in the body.
and you cannot preserve youthful
ness Il spirit by communing with the
beast, OF the fielo nor by turning
herm',; nor even by having those
near rou who are dearest to you. In
lesa ''ne Is serenely ox-like in ones
disporition, the stage. music, litera-
ture, 'culpture, war, peace, strife, in a
word life-will always hold an at
tractipn which keeps the mind alert to
the changes which are going on, and
which. by giving the brain its needed
s1erc Sc. keeps elastic and vibrant the
tissues of the mind.
Runge in a river invigorates the
body. dusty and inert from toll and
waste of bodily energy A dip In a
new hcok mingling for a short
space In a crowd, night at the the
ater, an afternoon at a concert, even
. gay supper at some brilliantly light
ed ard music-strred cafe will send
the dell blood spinning through the
veins. and drive away perplexing
thoughts Of time and mortality.
But there amid those wide fields.
surrounded by hills and forests, there
was he touch of peace. and there
was sjso the lethean menace of Mir
vana. The march Of the seasons was
one lesgering panorama Of green and
gold. or dusty scarlet and barbaric