The Kanzas news., 1858-10-09
Elegant Leisure.

y
enough, when arrived at an age when the
cares of active business become irksone,
to secure what they have gained and retire
to spend their remaining days in the quie-
tude congenial to their tastes or inclina-
tons. Many city dwellers, whose early
associations were with the farm. or. garden,
or who were born and educated in the coun-
try and retained throughout their business
career their early love for things rural,
choose them snug farm not far out of the
town, or city of their business residence
They retire upon this, intending, either by
its cultivation, or in some coHgeniai occu-
patton. to spend their time peacefully, and
agreeably, as either domestic or financial
circumstances may permit To the good
sense of this we most cordially subscribe.
There can be nothing safer, happier. and
more fraught with the resources of substan
tial enjoyment; and such conclusion we
recommend to all who possess the taste and
faculty of so accommodating themselves to
a change so different from the hustle and
turmoil of active business, to life of COM
paratiye ease, and physical inactivity. 4
Yet, this latter mode of life need be no
inducement to idleness. The active mind
can always find sufficient number of OBJ
jects to give it contentment, and the hands
enough to do to give health to the body
1t is only in the misapplieatiou of ones
means and time In the retirement they have
sought, which has proved the bane of ma
ny a ones choice-that of devoting his
time to Elegant Leisure"
These well intentioned, excellent, and
somewhat ambitious men, in society as well
as business-who are not of the Sparrow
grasses" either-have an idea that the hab-
its of tosCn leisure can be carried into coun-
try residence, and enjoyed with equal rel
ish and convenience. They fit up fine
country place, surround themselves with
all the appliances of town luxury, and set
out to continue their town society there;
having little else to do but enjoy themselves
and their friends at will, to circulate, as in
days past, with town associations. things
and people. Their occupation is ''leisure"
their living "elegant," We concede. But
what else?
harshly of such as have adopted life of
elegant leisure in the country, and whose
minds and circumstances, pecuniary and
domestic, are such as to permit them to
enjoy it in full But this latter is hard
ly supposable case; and having witness
ed several lamentable failures of the sort,
we know something about it; not in our
own experience, but in that of others.
American life of any kind, to be either
useful to anybody or satisfactory to the
holder. should have definite, positive OBJ
ject in it. We have no orders of nobility,
sustained by large fortune, and perpetuated
by primogeniture. We are born on an
equality, as to political and natural rights;
and the requirement of substance, and good
sense in using them, makes the man and
gives him his position in all classes of So
ciety with which he associates. If retir-
ed man of any profession or trade go into
the country, let him be something there, as
he was in the city. Let him be farmer,
gardener, or pomologist. Do as much or
as little as he pleases at it-but do some
thing. If he sets up ''elegant leisure" he'll
have hard and an expensive time of it.
He will 'keep boarding house, at an enor-
nous cost. and get no pay for it. Let his
family be ever SO happily disposed, he will
have any amount of domestic discord and
diffculty-in the worry of servants and
the vexation of striving to live in extraor-
dinary style, while everybody in his neigh
borhood is living quietly and at ease. In
short, his career will be brief one, and
all attached to him glad TO get out of it at
the first possible opportunity. It will cost
more than lhe same sort of life in the city
itself, because more distant from its wants
and necessities; and it will wind up with
Flemish account at his bankers, and many
a heart-ache with wife and daughters, who
will find that they have sweated and toiled
without end for thankless hundreds who
have enjoyed their hospitality for nothing,
and can give no recompense In kind, or 9th
erwise. They have enjoyed many friends,
it is true; but at the same time have given
sustenance and favor to secret, or open foes
Hospitality and kindness in private life
among ones real friends, are apt to be tho't
no virtues In one who sets up pretentious
style of living, out of place, and they be.
get no gratitude in the heart of the recip-a
;ent. s
On the other hand, he who goes into
country retirement after a career of active
toll, merely to exist TO pass away the re-
mainder of his days in doing nothing, usu-
ally makes short work of it, and dies early.
Having nothing to do,i disease soon makes
his acquaintance, and with death at his ell
bow. they make rapid finish of him.
Long years of activity cannot be discarded
with impunity. "Better wear out than
rust out,' is an old proverb. Occupations
may be changed, but not habits. IS far as
bodily and mental exercise is concerned
A merchant, mechanic, or professional man
may turn farmer, or orchardlst, with per-
feet inpunity, even to an increase of years
and the attainment of greater worldly hap
piness; but employment, congenial to the
mind, and the due exercise of the body is !.
indispensable. .-Anserican Agrseadtur;st.
The London Times has become excsed-E
iugIy anxious that the United States should
take care of Mexico. In recent editorial
on the subject, it concludes as follows: