The germ of unrest is busy in the village this spring. Not that it is
wholly new, for unrest is wherever people congregate. But this year the
key is altered somewhat. The sight of careless ease, life without
labour, and a constant change of pleasures, that obtain in the Bluff
Colony, is working harm. True, the people can always read of this life in
book and paper, but to come in direct contact is another thing. Father
said the other day that he wished that conservative country places that
had lived respected and respectable lives for years could have the power
to socially quarantine all newcomers before they were allowed to purchase
land and set a pace that lured the young cityward at any cost. I, too,
realize that the striving in certain quarters is no longer for home and
love and happy times, but for something new, even if it is merely for the
sake of change, and that this infection of social unrest is quickly
spreading downward from the Bluffs, touching the surface of our little
community, if not yet troubling its depths.
The leading merchant's daughter, Cora Blackburn, fresh from a college
course that was a strain upon the family means, finds that she has built
a wall four years wide between herself and her family; henceforth life
here is a vacuum,--she is misunderstood, and is advertising for an
opportunity to go to New York and the independence of a dreary back third
or fourth story hall bedroom.
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