ous and educational establishments and institutions. The
facilities for reaching these country homes are already adequate for
general purposes, and will be increased every year, as the demand for
them grows. Railroads and steamboats are built and run for the purpose
of profit on freight and passenger transportation. According to the
general law of trade, the supply will equal the demand, and as the
population increases along our lines of travel, the facilities and
accommodations for transit will be multiplied.

Why, then, should the man who loves the country, and possesses tastes
and capacities for its enjoyment, and yet is compelled by circumstances
to practice economy in his mode of living, be restrained to the city
limits? It is quite a practicable thing for him to realize his
wishes,--live in the country and enjoy its best luxuries, without
abandoning the city as far as its commercial advantages are concerned.
There are localities _within an hour_ of the city hall, where land can
be purchased at reasonable rates, and where all the advantages of health
and beauty, of retirement, pure air and attractive scenery can be
enjoyed for less money than is now expended in the narrow house in the
crowded street, where every sense is offended--with no open sky or
distant horizon tinged with the glories of the dying day or rising
morn--no grassy lawns, or waving trees, or fragrant banks of flowers.

For such accommodations as he has, he pays, we will say, a rent of one
thousand or twelve hundred dollars. In the country he might purchase two
acres of land and build a cottage, which would afford him all, or more,
conveniences than he now has, without the necessity of climbing four or
five flights of stairs--at an outlay, at the usual cost of building, not
exceeding six thousand dollars. The interest on this sum would be four
hundred and twenty dollars. The difference between this amount and his
present house rent would in a few years pay the whole cost of the place,
and he would have a _home_--a centre and gathering place for his
domestic interests and affections.

And this is no fancy sketch--no exaggerated statement of possibilities.
We know of localities which can be reached from Wall Street in as many
minutes as would be required to go to 50th Street, where land can be
obtained for about five hundred dollars an acre, where there are all the
conditions of health, good water, pure air, extensive and attractive
views, and whate