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

a number Of passersby, as It was SAT-.
urday, and number of rigs were
coming back from town. "Oh, yes"
was my reply, and it was quite true
as I meant it. Some of them we're
neighbors, some of them perfect
strangers, and some men had seen
but did not know personally. But by
the rule Of the road I knew them
all. Something suggestive, perhaps, in
this still living custom of the friendly
wave of the hand; this "good-day," or
"good-morning" to total strangers.
Something little more than a mere
empty salutation, and more nearly
reminder of the old days when log
houses were scattered sparsely through
the timber, when the deer and wild
turkeys roamed the hills and when
every man really knew his neighbor.
The people visited us and we went
to their houses, and as the hunting
season drew on I was allowed to go
into posted" farms and do little
shooting because 1 was a neighbor
and had been "neighborly." No money
could have bought this privilege, for
the farms were closed tight against
the townspeople. So, too, the farmers
going into town were always ready to
bring out package or a bundle from
town for us, and we in our turn
showed that either in their sickness
or health We had the spirit of neigh
borliness" naturally within us.
One thing is absolutely certain.
You cannot 60 into a farming COM
munity and compel anything like a
show of neighborliness unless you
have 1t in you yourself. Money can
not buy even the semblance of friend
ship, and once community gets you
on it's black books, it is time to get
out. Like a man who is out with q
camp of hunters, you have got to play
your hand "face up" Go into any
county in the land and try to carry
things with a high hand among the
farmers, or try to hoodwink them with
a show of genuine democracy and
good-fellowship, and see how easily
and unerringly they will see through
your little game. This is one of the
refreshing things about living in the
country. If you are really capable Of
striking a good average of neighbor-
Illness you will win out, in the long
run, with a large majority of your
neighbors. If you can't do this, you
will get an opportunity to move which
might be long time coming in the
city.
l lost little bunch of my neighbors
at one time by taking Sides" There
was quite collision at little country
schoolhouse between two opposing fac.
lions of the men and larger boys, and
after the smoke of battle had blown
away various and sundry warrants
were sworn out, and divers combat
ants retired to the dry docks of friend
ly beds to get the better of broken
heads.
AS a perfectly consistent neighbor
chose up" with my nearest and most
friendly acquaintances, and in the
legal action following on the wager Of
battle in the schoolhouse, l became an
active partisan of ''our SIDE" BY do
ing this I gained the bitter enmity of
the opposing faction, but escaped the
curse of trying to please everybody"
Pickwick's advice was, "shout with the
largest mob;" it is safe to advise that
you shout with somebody. Don't try,
especially in the country, to remain
strictly neutral. If you do, your
enemies will despise you, and your
friends will not care for YOU"
I know very we'll that in our sin
cere efforts to be neighborly we grad
ually broke down the inevitable bar
riers which must have seemed aligned
between city and country, on first
glance at the experiment we were try
ing. We had dances at the house on
two or three occasions, and we went
to dances in the neighborhood. AS it
first appeared, we had predjudices to
overcome, owing to the novelty of the
situation; as it eliminated, the nov.
city wore of, and we were making
friends.
There were some people in the
neighborhood who curled up in their
shells and made friends with no one.
They were like Noah on Mount
Ararat; surrounded by their family
and the animals, with the water never
going down. They realized their isola-
ton, but were either too stubborn or
too timid to try to be obliging and
neighborly. They lost out by the
process, and knew it, and yet with a
strange tenacity, chewed the cud of
bitterness alone.
In country communities the men are
very much more companionable than
the women. The men are willing to
give you the benefit of the doubt, and
would rather you were good fellow
than not. But among the feminine
portion of the community, the view
point is extremely cautious, not to say
incredulous, and it takes longer for
woman to impress her sociability
and qualities of being neighborly than
1t does for man. A man gets about
more, too, and from the city" is not
the best recommendation a woman
can carry to farming community.
Taken by and large it was most
interesting and instructive experience
to 60 out to regulation farming dis.
trict, and see how the sheer force of
uninfated democracy and neighborli-
ness will break down the barriers of
prejudice which necessarily separate,
though needlessly. the peoples of tho