Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1908-04-08
Neighboring
in the Country

Vel&n0OTlng
IL, the Country
"cood-morrow, Neishbor PlimsoII,
what's o'cIock?"
In the city there is no such thing as
a neighbor. In the suburban towns
outside of the cities you have what
may be termed as "near.neighbors."
One rarely knows, for instance, in a
large city, that the people in the fiat
next door have even sickness in their
family until maybe some morning
there is the conventional signal swung
out which shows that soul has hailed
eternity, and been taken aboard.
Who lives overhead" caller asks
you, seated in your modern apart
ments. They're Swedes, I think" is
your reply. You have not even had
curiosity enough to examine the little
porcelain tab below the letter-box to
ascertain their names.
Now this is not to assume nor argue
that people in the cities are neces-
sarily more callous or less gregarious
than the jewellers in the country, but
it is quite true that the habit Of
'neighboring," in the various ramifica.
tons of which the term is susceptible,
is more or less of lost art in town
and city life. You have acquaintances,
even friends in the metropolis. You
may have only very casual acquaint-
ances in the rural districts, and posi-
bly, only a couple of friends in an en-
tire township, but neighbors you must
have if you wish to make life at all
tolerable.
Not because you are compelled to
depend upon them for mental compan-
ionship; not because you cannot get
along without them absolutely so far
as material necessities are concerned,
if you will get right down to farming
on a small scale and keep your COW
and horse, your pigs and chickens.
But solely because it is right that you
should, in going into community,
show yourselves to be normal and
democratic, ready to lend helping
hand where you can, asking nothing
more for your own rights than you
are willing to corcede to others, and
so conducting your life that you will
be able to compel tho respect, even if
you fail to secure th9 affection of the
community.
It is not at all comfortable to be lit
orally "maroOned" on some farm,
looked at askance by an entire neigh
borhood, and not able to hire for love
or money any little accommodation
which you may happen to sorely need.
The horizon in farm community is
not particularly wide nor distant
one. The farmers see quite plainly
within that limit, and you will not be
able to fool them for any length of
time as to whether you ara sincere in
your desire to hold up your end of
the log" You may be able to make
them think you are all right for a few
days, but they will judge you shrewdly
and Complementary by the time you
have been in the township for six
months or 80.
The absolute independence of the
farming class, whether they own or
rent farms, makes them quite indiffer-
ent as to whether you like them or
not. And in the main, all things be-
ing equal, while visitor from the
cities is looked upon as nothing more
or less than someone out for a good
time, they view with a searching eye
the inhabitant of a metropolis who
comes to sojourn among them. I take
1t that the advent of Cecile and in
the township where we located was
the occasion of considerable good-na-
tured speculation as to Just what
crazy schemes we were up to, and
that we were regarded, in the begin
ming, as people who would bear watch.
Ing. Why, for instance, should a city
man come out to the country to live?
1t was suspicious circumstance.
People went from the farms to the
towns and on to the cities, but to
leave a seething metropolis and dive
into the depths of life on farm-eh!
1T looked trifle fishy, to say the
least.
think am fairly accurate in the
assumption of the definition of a city
man in the mind of the average farmer
as "a person who does not work." The
city man may, and indeed often does
the whole year round, without the
| sign of a vacation
Look out on landscape of smoke
and bricks
From seven to IL, and from one till
six"
but that isn't work in the minds of
many farmers. ITS in the shade,
amt it," And this being the usual as.
sumption that the urbanite does not
labor, presupposes him a man of
means. Our books and pictures, max.
ing up the bulk of our furniture. the
piano, my habit of getting up quite
regularly at from nine to II a. M. con.
firmed public opinion, for time at
least, that I was on "easy street" so
far as finances were concerned, and
some rural wag dubbed me "the mil.
lionaire"-half in derision, half in a
possible belief that was really there
with roll,' to borrow from the slang
| dictionary.
There was plenty of time to dispel
this illusion, and we did it in a per-
fectly natural manner, neither resting
nor making haste. "Neighboring" was
the recipe for dispelling all illusions
Of wealth or alleged superiority, and