St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-01-25

/ big newspapers. Just as every day
contact beats superficial observation
SO does life and the living compare
with heresay or book knowledge.
To US born and bred in the rural
districts the conditions are very
| real indeed.
4 As an instance of what long years
of Withdrawals will do, take the old
hill where yours truly first saw
the light" his first pants and a
long list of boyish scenes and casu-
alities. Here, on country road
of two miles or so where he tramped
to the old schoolhouse and chased
knowledge and butterflies, there
used to be, some thirty
years ago, population of
nearly one hundred-good, bad and
cupied, most of them by large famil-
les, while even at that date the
school varied from twenty to thirty
or more, as the older boys dropped
i in for the winter term. These
were not all from the same street,
but partly drawn from higher hills
and crossroads. Earlier than this
the school population had been
much larger in that section, but
about this time two districts had
been consolidated, making an un-
years later, when teaching the same
school, the total attendance had
decreased to four or five in summer
and a dozen or SO in the winter, and
! figures will hardly do as well today.
The population, too, has shown a
larger rate of decline. From one
hundred or so on two miles Of coun-
try road it has declined to about
thirty all told OF these, by actual
! count, about the same number have
gone to their long home, while the
others have moved to town, the
birth rate and increase from out
side just about balancing the remov-
ais to other country communities.
Several houses are empty and in
ruins, some are reduced to tenant
houses, while help is just as scarce
as in other rural districts.
At the same time the country
hamlet Of my boyhood days has
/ grown to a fair sized manufacturing
town, with a strong population of
shop men and toWnspeople, many of
whom were friends and playmates of
| that time or drawn from other dis
tricts of the surrounding country
side. These, of course, are enumer-
ated as the total population Of a
rural county, while as a matter of
fact they are no longer rural resi-
dents, but just as much members of
! the consuming class as if they. lived
in Pittsburg or any large centre of
/ population.
| The number at the valley school
! has declined from some sixty-odd,
according to old inhabitants, to
/ two or three scholars, while the
cost of running the same has doubled
and doubled again, until it is becom-
ing a serious tax on the community.
| The population shows about the
same decrease. Formerly there
was store, blacksmith shop, a
mill, etc., with a thriving population.
| Today, even with the addition of sew
eral new families, there are scarcely
men enough to do the necessary
labor. Such declines are not shown
punched with the county seat and
railroad towns, which are growing
nicely every year from the losses
of the countryside.
From observation and experience
[ am inclined to think that rural
communities generally in the back
districts will show the same rate
of decline. Prosperous communit-
les along the rivers around the
towns are holding their own or
better, while the hill roads are
/ Il.
poorer sections are becoming al
most abandoned of the native or
old stock. Some of this land is
being Occupied by Bohemian families.
About forty of these have settled
south of here, and are really good
! farmers and desirable adjuncts to
the rural population Whether the
younger generation of foreign fam
lilies will follow the natives to town
is a question for the future.
The boys from the farm go to
town because of the easier labor,
! shorter hours and the chance for
denied to the dweller on the backhills.
Some marry town girls, and, of
! course, that means town life. Others
study telegraphy, bookkeeping or
take a college course and go where
i there is employment in these partic-
ular lines. Among my own friends
private telegraph line was a pow
erful inducement to desert the farm,
while from other communities the
boys leave because some one has
made a success as trainman. Boys
with backing or education seem to
do well in town, while without it
their chances are better in the
country districts, such having little
chance in city life, except to swell
the ranks of the day laborers. OF
those whom / have personal knowl-
edge, without exception they own
their own home and "hold down
good jobs but also we who stay
/ here have our own farms, and are
! doing quite as we'll as we would in
town. Boys in town without back
ing or a trade are at a serious disad-
vantage, but here one can learn
/ his trade from books and farm pap
ers, while practical experience comes
as one gets his start by working fo-
some one else. But as a general