and trimmed,
the fields ready for their crops, the outbuildings well kept, and the
woodpile stout and trim. A girl with a long braid of black hair came
from the house to greet us. An hour before, I had seen her sewing on
buttons in the factory. She recognized me, and looked questioningly at
the superintendent. When he spoke my name, she held out her hand with
frank dignity, and bade me welcome on her father's farm. He was a
clothing-cutter in New York, explained my guide as we went our way,
but tired of the business and moved out upon the land. His thirty-acre
farm is to-day one of the finest in that neighborhood. The man is on
the road to substantial wealth.

Labor or lumber--both, perhaps--must be cheaper even than land in
south Jersey. This five-room cottage, one of half a hundred such, was
sold to the tenant for $500; the Hirsch Fund taking a first mortgage
of $300, the manufacturer, or the occupant, if able, paying the rest
The mortgage is paid off in monthly instalments of $3.75. Even if he
had not a cent to start with, by paying less than one-half the rent
for the Forsyth Street flat of three cramped rooms, dark and stuffy,
the tenant becomes the absolute owner of his home in a little over
eight years. I looked in upon a score of them. The rooms were large by
comparison, and airy; oil-painted, clean. The hopeless disorder, the
discouragement of the slum, were nowhere. The children were stout and
rosy. They played under the trees, safe from the shop till the school
gives up its claim to them. Superintendent Sabsovich sees to it that
it is not too early. He is himself a school trustee, elected after a
fight on the "Woodbine ticket," which gave notice to the farmers of
the town that the aliens of that settlement are getting naturalized
to the point of demanding their rights. The opposition retaliated by
nicknaming the leader of the victorious faction the "Czar of
Woodbine." He in turn invited them to hear the lectures at the
Agricultural School. His text went home.

"The American is wasteful of food, energies--of everything," he said.
"We teach here that farming can be made to pay by saving expenses."
They knew it to be true. The Woodbine farm products, its flowers and
chickens, took the prizes at the county fair. Yet in practice they did
not compete. The Woodbine milk was dearer than the neighboring
farmers'. If in spite of that it was preferred because it was better,
that was their lookout. The rest must come up