Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1891 — Value of Country Life. [ARTICLE]

Value of Country Life.

What, then, are the means of perpetuating good family stock in a democracy ? The first is country life. In this regard, democracies have much to learn from the European aristocracies which have proved to be durable. All the vigorous aristocracies of past centuries lived in the country a large part of the year. The men were soldiers and sportsmen for the most part, and lived on detached estates sparsely peopled by an agricultural and martial tenantry. They were oftener in camp than in the town or city. Their women lived in castles, halls, or chateaux in the open country almost the whole year, and their children were born and brought up there. The aristocratic and noble families of modern Europe still have their principal seats in the country, and go to tow n only for a few months of the year. Next, a permanent family should have a permanent dwelling place, domicile or home town. In older societies this has always been the case. Indeed, a place often lent its name to a family. In American cities and large towns there are as yet no such things as permanent family houses. Even in the oldest cities of the East hardly any family lives in a single house through the whole of a generation, and it is very rare that two successive gene.atidns are born in the same house. Rapid changes of residence are the rule for almost everybody; so that a city directory which is more than one year old is untrustworthy for home addresses. It is almost impossible for the human mind to attribute dignity and social considerations to a family which lives in a hotel, or which moves into a new flat every Ist of May. In the country, however, things are much better, in the older States there are plenty of families which have inhabited the same town for several generations; there are a few families which have inhabited the same house for three generations. The next means of promoting family permanence is the transmission of a family business or occupation from father to sons. In all old countries the inheritance of a trade, shop, or profession is a matter of course. Under right conditions a transmitted business tends to make a sound family more secure and permanent, and a permanent family tends to hold and perfect a valuable business. This principle, which is securely founded on biological law, applies best in the trades and professions, in ordinary commerce, and in the industries which do not re quire immense capitals; but in Europe many vast industries and many great financial and mercantile concerns are family properties, and there is in our own country already a distinct tendency to this family management of large businesses as being more economical and vigilant than corporate management, and more discerning and prompter in picking out and advancing capable men of all grades. — President Eliot,'in Forum. Charity covers a multitude of sins, but most of them contrive to kick off the covers.