The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-22
RURAL CHARACTERS IN
 NOVELS FALSE TO LIFE

l have often wondered why the rural characters that slouch ungainly through the fiction of the last 40 years or so are so different from those whom I have known in real life. small boy who had said that he didn't want to be a little girl was asked why. Well" he replied, If you, start in being q little girl you have to keep on" Perhaps this is the reason why writers keep right on'' representing rural people as awkward without appre- citation of the beautiful in art of nature, narrow. parsimonus mean selfish and altogether unlovely.
 No doubt there are such rural charac ters in real life but it is not true of rural communities as whole What I have to say is supported by a wide experience covering many years. I was born in country village. and spent all my youth there. My parents were born and brought up in still more rural districts, and I went visiting with them many times among their old friends and acquaint- ances. l have met many quaint people. and l have known of some unpleasant re- lations in these quaint neighborhoods; I have heard, indeed, that such conditions have been known even in the society of large cities. But l have never in all my experience seen a rural community like those which are described in many books Ol llcllOn. The communities WHICH 1 nave known have had as q whole entirely op- posite characteristics.
 Cheery Social Gatherings.
 I remember very clearly the fraternal and neighborly relations which existed in the village of my boyhood; the meetings of the womans circles; the little after noon parties that my mother used to make inviting her neighbors to supper, II. srlN 1 the close of their work. Such comforta- ble. informal, hearty enjoyment. How wish that | could attend such social gath erings now And I could if I lived in the country; for in many places the condl- tions continue as they were a generation ago The grange of the church is most often the center of this social life. Two summers ago I was visiting again Tn the town where my mother was born It has less than one-half the Inhabitants it had when she was d girl, but faithful few manage to keep the church from going out of existence. There stood the meeting house newly painted and in pro cess of being slated The friend whom I was visiting was the postmistress, sort ing the mail twice a day on her Kitchen table and also clerk of the little church.
 Abby" I exclaimed "how do you man. age to keep things going here?''
 
 have pretty good times; We had a social at the church last Friday evening and there were 2S present" And instead or being surprised at the smalness Of the number. I fell to wondering where they could all come from. At any rate they worked in harmony I saw another mem Der of this little hamlet not long ago when. she was visiting down below as they call our part of New England. She was having d good time, but sne was also in a hurry to go back home, because she had received letter from Abby, notifying her of Sunday school class that mourned her absence, concert that was in preparation and Grand Army social where her presence was needed.
 Local Paper Attracts.
 There is another source from which | can draw many facts to show the essen tjal friendliness and neighborliness of most of these country communities l recommend 1t to the attention of modern fiction writers. Ever since left the home of my boyhood l have been subscriber to the local paper We will call it the Riyerdale Tribune It has correspond ents in nearly every town of two or three counties, who send in a weekly budget or local happenings. When l get blue read the Tribune to see what the good people up there are doing. Many of these cor respondents are elderly people, and they make the Tribune sort of family con ference: so much so that when one or them, an old friend of my parents and