Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1900 — LIVE IN THE COUNTRY. [ARTICLE]

LIVE IN THE COUNTRY.

The Beat Literary Work is Done by Men Whose Homes Are Outside the Cities. “See for a moment how the matter of residence affects literary people, with whose- work, naturally, I am familiar,” writes Edward Bok, In th# Ladies’ .Home Journal, of “The American Man and the Country.” “Pick out the successful writers of the day and see where their homes are. Scarcely in a single instance will you find one of them living in the city. On the other hand, look at the work done by your literary denizen of the city and see how it suffers in comparison with that of the man or woman whose mind rests on God’s own handiwork. Such writers are like pigmies compared to the men who with fresh minds look over God's landscape«and reflect the deepest and truest thoughts of real men and women. See how an author—and this is a constant occurrence—living in some remote country place does a great piece of work, and then, allured by false prophets, removes to the city and continues his work there. Is his work the same? Verily, it is not. Degeneration takes place as soofl as he removes himself from man’s truest surroundings. And what is true to-day of mem in literary work Is equally true of men in the kindred arts. The great work of the world is being done to-day by men whose Lives are spent away from the great cities.”