Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 165, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1920 — BIG CHANGE NOTED [ARTICLE]

BIG CHANGE NOTED

Ute in Country Today Compared to Twenty Years Ago. Cuetdtn of Steeping Outdoors, for Inotanoe, Is Growing—What the and "Canned Music* Have Accomplished. Twenty years ago the inhabitants of entire tillages, up in New York state at least, seemed to fear fresh air o’ nights and slept with their windows dosed. Night air was net healthful, they said—and a lot of them lived to bo ninety-seven even on that theory. The window sashes were nailed down and stuffed with rags at the first sign of snoW and we slept under those condjttSM. - In those days if anyone had practiced- Sleeping outdoors, even in summer weather, it would have caused a sensation. “Cracked, I swanl” the old farmers would have said. The change came gradually, presumably because the sons and daughters of the old residents went to work tn the large centers where opened wlndowd were, if not the rule, surely not the exception, remarks a writer in the New York Evening Sun. Now the complete change hits one fairly in the face when he returns to the once airless districts of early youth. Night and day now the windows are wide open and sometimes even doors are never dosed; no one thinks of living without screens and mosquito netting, even the poor in hollows and bylanes. The families frequently eat eutdoors under the old apple tree, on red and White table covers or oilcloth or a bare scrubbed board. Like the omnipresent flivver that carries the clerk and his family to picnics along the roadside, the outdoor-eating habit has done wonders for the health and happiness of all, particularly the country folk. Out-of-doors sleeping Is now well nigh a habit. Hardly a porch In that coutitry nowadays Is complete without a khaki swing couch, a made-up cot or one of the old time hard, haircloth “sofies” with pillows and a patch work quilt or two, ready for the sleeper. Most of these were hung with mosquito net curtains, looped 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 napping under the old apple tree. Tas, the country has come on! But outdoor sleeping by rural children has not yet arrived. Here the fanner's wife draws the line. It may be an right for grandpap and herself and* husband, but she is net yet sure abdkt the night air for little lungs. So ChlMieu’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 Hits airy regime through years of propaganda in newspapers, in churches and tn social centers. The country absorbed it through newspapers and magasifim. At if there has been a notable ChAge in the attitude of farm and villagg folk toward fresh air there has booh an even greater change tn their social life. The small town of twenty yesitw ago la not the small town of todaft Then they had church sociables. Th|y may still have them, but I do not Witto where. There used to be buggy ridto and prayer meetings, and the gisiliito dissipation of the younger villagers was "going walking,” with a possible “sody" at the corner drug store. Bodtt Tarttagton depicts these rural ■ceMeetruthfully, but his pointed view Is tow out at date. Ae movies and “canned” music have recreated village life. Even in those faAllM where there is no automobile UMI is a far pleasanter thing than It wa| twenty years ago. The movies entortoto the whole family. And In toe evenings, when the movies fall, the averate soda fountain draws not with cones and candy alone but with a roßteklng, jawing mechanical rtojhw The drug store has become refreshment parlor; it Is now a toctol center. Young and old meet there and strolling and loafing have gene Into the discard. The dosing of saloons may have helped, but even before prohibition the MMng notes of music boxes In ice atom parlors began to woo the vllTwenty years ago never was there sdto joyousness in country life, such ■Abes worn by the young girls, such Spngfrold among the boys, such naive ■rfphtotlcation upon all. There spoke fife stress! Mkry Pickford curls, in ■Ates df an extremity, in a youth's ■Ae, Ma fihTe vampish slouch. And di die joy life. That is the secret M the chknge that has come over vilMha habits of Mvlnp. The cheap cost OT the photoplay and the graphopbone Mb faugte-tow public in out-of-the-way pfecee to gat tato ths game; to live joyk.