The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1913-01-28


Perhaps not so famous as the I'M
mortal Byron who penned first the
phrase since so freely used, but still
man of some importance.
And it was all because OF letter
he wrote.
Wefald comes from small town.
Has always lived in small town.
The city was new to him, new and
lonely. 1t got on his nerves. So he
sat down and wrote of cats and dogs
and CRYING babies and the rush and
roar of things.
Wefald is right.
The lonliest place in the world is
big city.
Also the most heartless until you
know how to touch its sympathles.
There are plenty of kind hearts in
St. Paul just as there are plenty OF
cats and dogs but you have to know
where to find them and how to ap-
proach them after being found.
After all city is simply an aggre-
cation of units.
1t differs from the country merely
In numbers.
1t has all the tragedies and all the
joys of the country.
Or for the benefit of Wefald you can
turn it around and say that the coun-
try has all the tragedies and all the
heartaches and all the loathsome mis-
erv and all the deceit and all the sin
of the city. 1t hasn't all the forms of
sin and it hasn't all the forms of plea
sure but it is extremely doubtful If
the morality and the virtue of the
country are higher for the same class
of people than they are in the city.
He has lived in the country to little
purpose if the only things for which
he signs when he goes to the city are
cats and dogs and crying babies.
He is wasting his time in the city If
the seething drama daily and nightly
enacted here does not touch something
deeper than vain longings and talks
of cats and dogs.
lola, the uncomfortable, defined art
as "a bit of nature seen athwart a
personality" If this be true surely
humanity is life seen athwart the per-
sonality of God.
Each of these men and women car
ries the germ of Immortality.
Thereby each is linked to the Great
or, is a sign of the power of God.
In part at least it is true you stand
face to face with God when you stand
face to face with an honest man OIL
woman.
These great souls may be found IL
the congested cities or they may be
found in the little towns. Emerson
lived in a village. Carlyle wrote Sar
tor Resartus in lonely cabin in Scot
land. Bryan lives on farm and Lin
coin lived in little Springfield when thu
call came.
1t is not the locality that makes tn
man.
The city can not destroy and tn
country can not create genius.
To him who has seen the beauty o
Immortality in the fading leaf of tn
rose there is neither city nor country
He who sees all the future with it
fears and hopes and terrors and pas
sions and loves and remorses an
agonies lying in the eye of loved on
has taken humanity into his heart an
made himself heir to the glories tn
human eye shall never behold.
Country and city are mere words.
They indicate locality, they do nj
analyze the human heart.
Cats and dogs and crying babie
may be very close to the lonely {
heart but they do not necessarily stan
either for loss or gain in civilization.
The city beats at your feet; til
country fans you, but tragedy is gel
main to each and grows swiftly on til
prairie as on the stone walled street
And after all tragedy is only of tt