Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1892 — NEW YORK IN RURAL EYES. [ARTICLE]

NEW YORK IN RURAL EYES.

1 Editor Republican: New Yorkers are not much given to travel anc hence think their own• opinions o 1 their own virtues is the generally accepted one. More than six times as many western residents of the same population visit New York as observers of sdfenery and social life as there are New Yorkers who make notes of the wild and 6 woolly west. We who enjoy good air, water and quiefr-as a rule naturally look upon dife here with unleaveened compassion and profound pity. The Pastor of our five from Rensselaer I fear was unduly impressed with the thought that New .York is a wicked place where people riot through this life and have a very slim chance for a calm future. We have spent two Sundays in this metropolis and it still seems "that social and business standing is not affected very favorably by the church going proclivity; at least not nearly as muclj so as in small towns and villages. Public Opinion reaches in every nook and corner of a rural town, while here in-

dividuality is lost in the crowd. Very few go to church here of a Sunday and scarcely any more then once. The parks and pleasure boats are howevef- all crowded. Sunday is here a day of rest in the sense of a change from a mad search for money to as eager a search for fresh air and sport. There are good people here; tine churches, and in these houses of fefuge we rurals feel a little, safer, especially on the Lord’s day. The pews howe.ver are quite empty while the gardens are full. We naturally go about the city as we do about our own town, for that is the only way we know to judge of the place. The staid New Yorkers regard this conduct as utterly reckless but no harm seems to come of our freedom in folowing the high, median and low lines of observation on the social maps. The gambling spirit shows itself on stock, races and games whenever and where ever the burghers rest from daily toil. Manhattan and Brighton and West Brighton beaches are samples of the three points of observation. There does not seem to be any mutuality in social endeavor letween the rural visitors and the City gentry. The cast of society is . so different here that a casual visitor rom the west can not always catch on just right. The great meeting of the C. E.s is favorbly mentioned in all the papers and will no doubt

do much good. In the city, in all the local pleasure resorts and all around we discover a littl stricter social classification than Hoosiers are used to at home. If the city lads and lasses would place themselves in charge of some wild west combination and stay a week or two with ua they would learn aa much and be looked upon as being as verdant as we no doulpt seem in this great city. Our idea of city dwellers, ,js derived from the commercial drummer who has learned much from actual contact with western ways and is hot by any means a typical New Yorker. We thus guess very wide of the mark. The more we observe

this great human hive of workers and drones, the more we are puzzled at the desire of human beings to rush into the great cities and there fight for a weak and indistinct individuality. I well remember in boy-hood of taking part in debating the relative merits of country and city life. I then knew nothing of the difference save what I read or heard. We have now been here long enough to be convinced that the only way to be happy is to be contented with our environment The cities of Brooklyn and Jersey will not likely ever unite in the same municipal government with New York and its growth like a giant in a straight jacket, must go north far beyond Manhattan Island. New York bay and the rivers ate filled with the vaned birds of commerce. The streets are very clean and we think thin is a pleasant city to visit, study and admire, and with all its short [comings we like It. S. P. Thompson. J Oly 18th 1892. ■w - I n TrJ L Dullam’s Great German 25 cent Cough Cure at Long A Co. To keep the beard from turning gray and Urns prevent the appearance of age use Bnckmgham’sDye for the Whiskers, the best dye made. egwafesggg r ■