If any one doubts what kind of men slouching youths develop into, let him look when he travels, at the dejected appearance of the farmhouses throughout our land.Surely our rural populations are not so much poorer than those of other countries.Yet when one compares the dreary homes of even our well-to-do farmers with the smiling, well-kept hamlets seen in England or on the Continent, such would seem to be the case.
If ours were an old and bankrupt nation, this air of discouragement and decay could not be greater.Outside of the big cities one looks in vain for some sign of American dash and enterprise in the appearance of our men and their homes.