---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Riser, S. E.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 13
number: 4
published: 1910-02
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Riser, S. E., "Uncle Hyrum on City Life," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 317.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1304unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1304unse
start_page: 317
end_page: 317
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1910-02)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1304unse
  publication_year: 1910
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1910, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Uncle Hyrum on City Life


<!-- page:317 -->

THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY.                                 317

out of the broken ranks of failure, and, despite           all   odds, fight on

calmly, courageously, unflinchingly, serenely confident that, in the
end, right living and right doing         — must triumph.
(The   next   article   in   this    series,"The Sculptural     Figures     of

Society," will appear in the March         number of the Era.)

Uncle Hiram on City Life.

Yes, it's lively in the city where they've got their 'lectric lights,
And the people soon have wrinkles from their stay in' out o' nights;
They've got shows and things to keep 'em from a-gittin' lonesome there,
And they look all-fired stylish in the costly clo's they wear;
But I guess they have their troubles just the same as me and you,
And I reckon that they're often ruther worse'n ours, too.

We've got wood piled in the woodshed that'll last a year er so,
And there's more out where that come from and more saplin's still to grow;
We ain't worried over coal strikes, let the cold winds blow away,
We can carry in the billets and not have a cent to pay;
While they're shiverin' up yonder where they've got so much to see,
We can heat up fer the babies that the Lord sent you and me.

There is always somethin' doin' to make city people sad;
If it ain't a sausage famine, why you'll hear the water's bad;
When the strikers stop the street cars then the mischief is to pay,
And the people have to foot it, gettin' clubbed along the way;
And the fever epidemics and the small-pox every year
Keep the city people stewin', and I'm glad to live out here.

Oh, it's quiet in the country and there's few uncommon sights,
And God's moon and stars up yonder have to do for 'lectric lights;
But with 'taters in the cellar and with wood piled in the shed,
When there's hay stacked in the hay-mows for the stock that must be fed,
They can have their noisy city, with the sights up there to see,
And the kind old quiet country will be good enough for me.
—    S. E. Kiser, in Chicago Record-Herald