The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-01-03
WHEN A TOWN BECOMES A CITY
Bertha Hayes Steitz)


town. unless dwarfed by adverse cir
cumstances or robbed of sustenance
bv some lustier neighbor, becomes a
city. That only small percentage
of towns do become cities, as only a
few boys in a generation become
president, does not alter the fact that
cityhood is the hoped-for and natural
destiny of every new town.
A dwarfed town and a young city
NAV be of the same size, but there
is a great difference between them.
The dwarfed town has deformed,
old young look and detected bear
ing, but the city, though it may have
some of the lankiness, some of the
awkwardness of youth, is bright-eyed
and red-cheeked, atingle with en-
argy, a-thrill with ambition.
But with city's maturity too Of
ten come changes for the worse. The
vigor of youth is replaced by slothful
opulence, and its optimistic energy
by a nervous activity, because of
which the unwieldly cody witches
and shifts but does not progress.
The realization that town is
growing up should call for deeper
emdtion than pride. Pride we may
we'll have. bnt we must gravely face
the fact that during these formative
years influences both for good and
FOR evil are at work Strong forces
are operating, many of them slowly
and slbtly, many of them for the
worse. These are the days when are
needed men, alert of mind, strong of
heart, earnest of tongue, if we would
have our town attain the vigor and
glory of maturity without acquiring
the faults and vices of the city.
Just how, we may inquire, does
the city differ from the village from
which it grew and the question is not
answered in a breath. Business life
social life, religious life, political
life, all take on different hue when
village evolves into city. Every
department of human activity be
comes bigger and more complex, be.
comes different in form answering
the greater and more insistent de-
mands of the city.
In the business world, the buyer
and the merchant grow farther apart
In the village they are separated by
the counter; in the city they are held
apart by great space in which move
and have their being a few hundred
clerks, wrappers, cashiers, floor
walkers, heads of departments, com
plant clerks, and the general man
ager. Ut is the result of one of the
queer" streaks of human nature, nj
doubt, that we make the small towr
merchant, whom we see and know
who Is carefully earning his dali,
bread, the object Of more suspicion
and abuse than we give the million
aire merchant prince" of the city
1t reminds one Of the witty mer
chants sign, Don't ask me to trus
you; l know you too WE'LL" Yet
either merchant, in village or city
is as honest, we may assume, as you
and perhaps more so. Because To-
the little store, or for the big store
honesty is the best business policy.
OF course. the growth of the store
means vaster field from which tn,
buyer may choose, but it Is a curious
fact that this does not change tn
iency Of tho Snobbish to shol
somewhere else. Those in the vii
lagos go to the small cities; those il
the small cities to Atlanta and Chi
cago, Atlanta and Chicago go to New
York, New York goes to Paris, an,
Paris laughs at them for doing so
Partisan snobbishness takes new
form, and boldly declares that moth
Ing outside of Paris Is worth tn
having.
Most Of the changes that take plac