Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-04
TAKING A FAMILY
BACK TO THB SOIL
Being the Experiences Of a Gov
eminent Clerk Who Sets Out
to Lower the High Cost Of
Living.

1t was a year ago last March-eight-
cen months now gone-that we cut
loose from the mornings Of lifetime
In Washington and adventured forth
on what, to us, was a new experience
in a strange world. We went forth
with high hopes and exalted expecta-
tions-hopes that were born chiefly of
inexperience and expectations aroused
by dreams of lurid literature on the
beauties and advantages of going back
to the soil.
Now. after a year and a half. 1t
seems to me 1t were time and end was
made Of our story. To continue it
would be but to go again over ground
already covered. I do not mean there
would be no new experiences Or that
there are not a great many things we
have yet to learn. but all the novelty
has been squeezed out Of our adven-
week after week, the narrative of our
do1ngs could be of value to the reader
IN this final chapter. therefore, 1 am
going to ask that you go back with
cannot follow all the twists and turns
OF the road along which we have come
so far but we can scan its open spaces
and view from a safe distance some
OF Its quasmires and its pitfalls. We
Will recall some Of the more costly of
our mistakes and try to account for
them; and, 1t may be. we shall crow
a little over some Of our successes
Two Purposes in View.
Let it be remembered that, in taking
my family back to the soil, I had two
chief purposes in view. The one upon
"hlch, perhaps, we laid most stress
was to reduce the cost of living, so to
readjust our scheme Of domestic econ
omy that my salary as government
clerk would stretch to cover growing
needs of my family and in addition
e eh Jane and me to lay up some
would be not even a government sal
airy to safeguard US from the wolf
that comes, sooner or later. to the
door OF all who grow old In IMPROVE
this consideration. no doubt. weighed
most heavily with us; but back of it
there was the desire for a larger and
ruler life for ourselves and our chill
oIen. Especially were we impressed
with the need that Margery. our little
girl. frail child whose health al
ways had been delicate, should be
taken from the apartment where she
was born and always had lived into
the air and sunshine and the freedom
After search that extended over
several weeks and was filled with many
dlsappotntments, we found Sunny
Knoll. I don't know, unless it was be-
cause we had grown weary of the quest,
why we decided to end 1t here. Ger
tainly, there was nothing about the
place itself to make an appeal. 1t was
about as different from the home of our
day-dreamings as could be imagined.
There were eight acres of poor. un-
fenced land, most of it grown over with
scrub brush. The house was poorly
planned and unattractive, and lacked
every one of the conveniences we al
ways had been used to in the city, and
which we had come to look upon as
essential as air and food. And that
February day when we first saw it,
standing there in a yard grown high
with weeds. paint peeled off, shutters
hanging from broken hinges, hopeless
~ dirty inside and out, it was appall-
ing in it's ugliness