Norwich bulletin., 1921-03-25
Cwrittsn Specially for The Bulletin)

correspondent. whose writing looks feminine but who was too indignant to sign her name. wants to know of me in an envelope postmarked 'Brooklyn, N. T.s.@how I expect city people to buy of farmers by the bushel or barrel when there isn't room enough in an ordinary city tenement to store peck Of potatoes and two leaves of bread at the same time"
 The point is well taken. though far from new It has been matter of somucn knowledge for many years that senements, flats, apartments etc, in the larger cities are so sslnted of space as so afford practically no opportunities for Horage of any sort. Even those people fch enough to own their own homes md lots in New York find "lot' barely wide enough to permit a corridor and a stairway side by side on the first floor front of their houses.
 Ts,e average renter is compelled to take iRts up more or less stairs. with no. cellar privileges outside of coal hole and nc storage room at hand. The in eeitable first feeling of any "countrx cousin" when he first steps into one of these flats, is that of slow suffocation in 2 straight jacket. He can't extend his arms without sticking them through window. He can't stretch his legs without first measuring the inches from wall to wall. to see If he can do so witfl- put pushing the partition down. Ho ran't take a full breath because, first, there isn't air epough in the clcset-like room to supply 1t and, second because there isn't space enough to permit or 2 normal chest expansion.
 -aa. +f- whose store-room stands a rooz1y refrig- orator and ample space for half dozen bobarrels, while beneath is a big cellar Htfed up with bins and shelves, all filled with various stores-the ordinary coun- try housewife has little concdption of the domestic i1iconveIifences which are daily companions of her city sister. She is not dependent upon the morning visit of the groeer's boy for her noon dinner. She doesn't have to-go without potatoes because the market happens to be "out'' that day. She has indeed, a somewhat sontemptuous term for that method of ex- istence. She calls it living from hand to mouth" and frankly expresses her 1isapproval of 1t.
 We'll. every one to his or her taste. You and I. brother farmer. live in the country because taking all things .sby and large" we prefer it toN the city. 1t has it's inconveniences and it's hard ships; it's deprivations and it's ever-pres- ens limitations. We know them ali, noEe hetfer. It has also, it's conpensations- Reckoning up both debit and credit col uinns ~e Incline to believe that it's ad- vantages outweight it's disadvantages We are not disposed to minimize it's dis comfcrts certainly not to deny them. But we recognize that every rose has ft hot "a fey a11 -.sn ..7 pudding and ice cream. So we take the bitter with the sweet and. if we are wise, find iss a tonic invig0Tation even in that bit
 Anyway, having decided upon our med icine. we take. 1t and look as pleasant al we can.
 Per contra. want to suggest. In th, most courteous way in the world ana with no implied rebuke, that those who having canvassed the situation, decid' the other way and choose city life shouit likewise take their own chosen medicin, without making too wry faces over 1t.
 Every intelligent human being know that The congestion of the big cities i such as to necessitatte crowding to th' last bearable limit of squeezed comprea sion. That is one of their disadvantage That they offer compensatory opportun ities is equally undonab1e. If those lat ter opportunities arc 50 attractive to certain sort of minds as to outweigh tn disadvantages then. naturally, such vii choose an urban residence. But the. ought not to forger-they have no mora light to forget that, when they ehoos city comlorte they also St the same tim and inevitably choose city deprivation. The two go togethe-.
 The Kates of old Eden wore shut whe, Adam and--Eva proved themselves uni for residence therein. Nor has any othe Tden yet been developed in either city Q country. There are gains for all osl l5sses." sings the poet. Aye, and losse for all our gains Life is always
 somewhat acrobatic balancing betwee the devil and the deep sea.
 Tn this matter of which my unl<now critic writes. for instance, the farrne may often be, as Sydney Smith one said his parsonage was twelve mile from a lemon" The city housekecpel on the other hand can always or airnos always get a lemon at the store on tn next corner. But the city housekeepe, having no storage room. can buy but hal a. dozen at time, just what she need for the day, and must pay the highe. retail price John Farmer. however, ca lay in a whole box at Aime, payin lowest wholesale rates, md store thcl away for any and all possible futu1 needs.
 This is just one Item of endless fist ( contrasting conditions between whil every life has its choice. No one W; sver succeed in finding an unalloyed jEoc