The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1920-07-01
Life in Country Today Compared
to Twenty Years Ago.
Custom Of Sleeping Outdoors, for In
stance, Is Growin0-What the
"Movies" and "Canned Music"
Have Accomplished.

Twenty years ago the inhabitants of
entire villages, up in New York state
at least, seemed to fear fresh air O
nights and slept with their windows
closed. Night air was not healthful,
they said-and q lot Of them lived to
be ninety-seven even on that theory.
The window sashes we're nailed down
and stuffed with rags at the first sign
Of snow and we slept under those con-
ditions.
In those days If anyone had prac-
decd sleeping outdoors, even in sum-
mer weather, it would have caused
sensa ton. Cracked, swami" the old
farmers would have said.
The change cane gradually, presum-
ably because the sons and daughters
OF the old residents went to work in
the large centers where opened win
dows WERE if not the rule, surely not
the exception, remarks q writer in the
New York Evening Sun. Now the COM
plete change hits one fairly in the face
when he returns ITO the once airless
districts Of early youth.
Night and day now the windows are
wide open and sometimes even doors
are never closed no one thinks Of liv-
ing without screens and mosquito net
ting, even the poor in hollows and BY
lanes. The families frequently eat out
doors under the old apple tree, on red
and white table covers or oilclOth or
bare scrubbed board. Like the omni-
present flivver that carries the clerk
and his family to picnics along the
roadside, the collaborating habit has
done wonders for the health and hap
p1ness Of all, particularly the country
folk.
Out-of-doors sleeping is now we'll
nigh habit. Hardly a porch In that
country nowadays Is complete without
khaki swing couch, made-up cot or
one of the old time hard, haircloth
"sofies" with pillows and patchwork
quilt or two, ready for the sleeper
Most Of these were hung with mosquito
net curtains, Topped back by day.
Nowadays on these outdoor couches
are seen reclining in daytime the old
man of the family, lying at full length
with his bare feet toasting In the sun.
Twenty years ago he would have slept
in the darkened parlor behind closed
shutters; or, If very foolhardy, he
might have been caught by watchful
eyes Of his family mapping under the
old apple tree.
Yes, the country has come on!
But outdoor sleeping by rural chill
dren has not yet arrived. Here the
farmers wife draws the line 1t may
be all right for grandpap and herself
and husband, but she is not yet sure
about the night air for little lungs So
children's cots are not seen upon the
porches. They still sleep within four
walls and a ceiling.
The city and large towns have come
TO this airy regime through years Of
propaganda in newspapers, in churches
and in social centers. The country alb
sorbed It through newspapers and mag
aZines.
) But If there has been notable
change in the attitude of farm and vii
lage folk toward fresh air there has
been an even greater change in their
social life. The small town Of twenty
years ago is not the small town Of to-
day. Then they had church sociables
They may still have them but do not
know where. There used to be buggy
rides and prayer meetings, and the
greatest dissipation Of the younger vii
Layers was "going walking" with a pos
sfble "sody" at the corner drug store.
Booth Harrington depicts these rural
scenes truthfully, but his pointed view
is now out Of date.
The movies and Canned" music have
recreated village life. Even in those
families where there is no automobile
life is a far pleasanter thing than 1t
was twenty years ago. The movies en-
terrain the whole family. And in the
evenings, when the movies fail. the av-
erage soda fountain draws not with
ice-cream cones and candy alone but
with a rollicking, jazzing mechanical
player. The drug store has become
largely refreshment parlor; 1t is now
social center. Young and old meet
there and strolling and loafing have
gone into the discard.
The closing Of saloons may have
helped, but even before prohibition the
Fitting notes of music boxes in ice
cream parlors began to WOO the VII
layers.
Twenty years ago never was there
such joyousness in country life, such
clothes worn by the young girls, such
sang-froid among the boys, such naive
sophistication upon all. There spoke
the screen in Mary Pickford curls, in
styles of an extremity, in a youths
cane, in a girls vampish SLOUGH. And
all the Joy life. That Is the secret
Of the change that has come over vii
7age habits Of living. The cheap cost
of the photoplay and the graphophone
has taught the public in out-of- the-way
places to get into the game; to live JOY
ously.