HOW TO COUNTERACT THE EVILS OF TOWN LIFE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9039, 14 February 1891, Page 6 (Supplement)

HOW TO COUNTERACT THE EVILS OF TOWN LIFE.

Writing in tho December " Forum " on " Family Stocks in a Democracy," Professor C. W. Eliot says :—

Country breeding gives a vigour and au endurance which in the long run outweigh all city advantages, and enable the wellendowed country boys to outstrip their citybred competitors. A very practical question, then, is how to resist, in the interest of the family, the tendency to live in cities and in large town. For families in easy circum- j stances there is no better way than that which European oxpoiience has proved to be good—namely, tho possession of two houses, one in tbe country and the other in tho city, the first to be occupied for the larger part of the year. Tho chango for the better is the adoption of Isuburban life by great numbers of families, both poor and well-to-do, tho heads of which must do their daily work in cities. The advantages of suburban residence may, however, bo almost neutralised for the mon, if the daily travel to and fro is mado wearisome, annoying, or unwholesome. It is always to be wished that tho ride home from shop or office should be a refreshment instead of an added labour. In many American cities the means of communication between the business quarters and the suburban residence quarters are so thoroughly bad that for the men it is positive hardship to live in the suburbs. It is said tbat in some of the new cities of Australia parks have been laid out between tho business and the residence quarters, so that the daily rides between the two districts may always be agreeable. A third mode of combating the ill-effects of density of population, and of giving city families some of the advantages of country life, is by increasing in cities the provision of public squares, gardens, boulevards, and public parks. The^city open square or garden is one .thing, and thecity park quite another; the former being properly only an open-air sitting room or nursery for tbe neighbouring people, the second being a large piece of open country brought into the city. The foreign custom of half-holidays in the various trades is an excellent one. To promote healthy family enjoyments among the labouring people, 10 hours' labour a day, with a half-holiday onco a week, is a much better industrial arrangement than nine hours' labour every day in the week. An important advantage which country life has over city life is that it requires, permits, or encourages out-of-door occupations for men, womon, and children. The farmer and his bo>s habitually work in the open air; the mill hand, clerk, machinist, teacher, lawyer, and minister workin-doors, often in positively bad air. To offset tho evil effects of indoor occupations, every city family which aspires to vigour and permanence should assiduously seek fresh air and out-of-door pleasures or occupations. All children in well-to-do families should be taught to walk long distances, to swim, and to row, and to ride on horseback. Girls need these accomplishments as much as boys. If modern democratic families aro to be perpetuated like ancient aristocratic families they must livo as robust and healthy lives. If the family occupations are not manual, the boys should learn to use some tools—the gardener's, carpenter's, turner's, blacksmith's, machinist's, founder's, or plumber's—and fche girls should learn to cut out, sew, knit, and cook; and whether the family occupations are manual or not, out-oE-door life should be cultivated to tho utmost. Americans have not tho skill of Europeans in availing themselves of every chance to eat or work in the open air, under the shelter of a tree or of a vine-clad arbour. Neither the poorer sort nor the richer possesses this skill, or feels an irrepressible desire for such opportunities. One often sees, in the suburbs of our cities, large and costly houses placed in lots so small that there is hardly more room for out-of-dojr pleasure than in a city block. The Germans, in their native country, excel in the out-of-door habit. Public squares and gardens in America are often not provided with seats, shelters from sun and wind, sand-heap 3 for little children, gymnastic apparatus for older boys and girls, and open-air restaurants at which simple refreshments may be obtained.

Next, a permanent family should have a permanent dwelling place. The human mind can scarcely attribute dignity and social consideration to a family which lives in an hotel, or which moves into a new flat ■ every May 1. In the country, however, things are much better. ... In America we build cheap, fragile, and combustible dwellings, which, as a rale, are hardly moro durable than tho paper houses of the Japanese. Nevertheless, our families might at least do as well as iho Japanese families, which are said to live a thousand or fifteen hundred years on tho same spot, although in a scries of slight houses.