Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-05-13
The Want of Sunshine.

"Your city horses don't get enough sunsnlne,
said a shrewed farmer, "and no wonder, there
fore, they are so often unhealthy. In the cold
est days of winter, when it was clear, my Old
father used to take his horses out of the stable
and tie them to the fence in the middle OF the
day so that they might get sunshine"
There was even more wisdom in the farmers
speech then he supposed. 1t is not horses only
that suffer for want of sunshine. Thousands OF
persons living in cities iniure their health be-
cause of the want of sunshine. The over-work-
ed operative, who is confined all day IN dark,
ill-ventilated room, owes not little of his fond
ness for dram to the absence of the light, JOY
Gus, exhilarating sunshine. The pale, sickly
child, that by and by is laid in its coffin, amid
the sobs of its heart. broken mother, might prob
ably have grown up to vigorous manhood II 1t
had been bred on its breezy, clover-decked sun
shiny hillside. Who can compute the adults
who died annually of consumption solely because
they have deprived themselves OF sunshine year
after year2 In the physical life of Americans
especially those who dwell in cities, there is no
deficiency so marked and fatal as that of the
want of sunshine. The human animal requires
sunshine quite as much as plant.
But we need sunshine in moral sense also.
We are too grave and serious a people. We
turely destroy our digestion by the neglect of
seasonable recreation, or by amusements that
are such only in name. AS old Froissart said Of
the English four hundred years ago, tive take
our pleasures sadly as is our fashion" Man is
a laughing animal-the only laughing animal
there is Nature intended that q due proper
ton of mirth and merriment should be his "All
work and no play" as the old proverb goes,
smakes Jack q dull boy" The English people
were never more heroic than in that almost Ar
cadian time when their country went by the
name of "merrie England" and when, after the
transition period during which Froissart wrote,
and in which civil war made the nation natural
ly sad even in their pleasures, they were pros
porous, happy and festive. 1t is impossible to
believe that what tradition says of the last fifty
years of the sixteenth century in England is all
poetic exaggeration. The love of music alone
a love which then existed among all classes, but
which, alas, has long ago died outs proof to
the contrary. 1t was an age when there was
sunshine, metaphorically speaking, all over the
realm of England; and the natural results fol-
lowed, great deeds and generally diffused happi-
ness.
1t is said, however, that we have too solemn
mission before US, as people, to be otherwise
than grave. But it is mistake to suppose a
serious aspect indispensable to success as fatal
as to confound long face and sour aspect with
religion. The healthiest man, all things else be-
ing alike, is not only the cheerfulest but the
best By onerworking our brains and denying
ourselves amusement, we become irritable and
peevsh, and therefore unjust. Our homes are
too often but gloomy dens, where we retire after
the days labor is done, to snarl at wives who
are fretful, because so aded, and to carp at chill
dren, who grow up in consequence with gloomy
shadow in their hearts that ought never to have
been there A little more relaxation, especially
relaxation of the right Sort would make US all
happier, and would fill thousands of households
with sunshine, where now the domestic atmos-
phere is grey and choking as wet November
day.
Give us more sunshine! Or rather let US all
seek sunshine. AS men walk out into the fields
to pluck spring flowers, and drink in the blessed
sunshine of this vernal season. SO we should not
wait for moral sunshine to come to US, for that
will never be, but 60 forth in search of it where
we know it may be found. 1t is only by OBJ
serving the laws of our organization that We
can hope to enjoy this moral sunshine Neglect
those laws, ignore the necessity of occasional re
taxation, and farewell to this joy-loving sun
shine !-Baltina0re Sun.