The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1861-03-13
5flisfeIlaueoQs,
Recreation.

"Recreation" is one of the best abused
words in the English language. How sb
surd the applications that are made Of it =
As he who has been crooked like on inter
rogation point, over some heavy book Oh
other, goes solemny out and cuts quarter
of a cord of wood with dull saw.
Strengthening up like note Of exclamu
tion, he returns to his effectionate friends
and announces that he has been indulging ir
recreation !" That is, he has been making
himself over, and has the sweet assurance
that he is another and better man, in the
name and by the virtue of-sawing aoood
Just as il the evil spirit of dullness would
90 out Of q man into a saw or growing
woodplle F.; just as if he could sunder the
thread of his thought with the small round
sticks he cut in two.
Those who break away, now and them
from sedentary pursuits, let themselves down
into long boots and 90 hunting, do not al.
ways get precisely what they 90 for, but the
cheeriulness, the lite, the mental elasticity
they come back with, are worth more than
the power they waste. A real tired ache is
sometimes luxury it gives new value to
ret and puts more thsn one e ther into q
hard pillow.
s me mems heads are full OF cute a9-
glpd ideas, everv one of them ga fret uI D r.
upne" with one qnilI NV put such a
m'n or high trotting hnrse +; OK. or II
nothing nuber, prairie vol, in the dis
tance and ten miles to catch him in, and
those ugly angles will be so tossed about
and ritursted, that y u can handle any one
OF his ideas without gloves.
A good shaking has ben known to rattle
out an atom of knowledge that rolled away,
like bead from broken striog, into some
dark corner of mans mind, and had been
given up for lost. We believe it was Tom
Moore, whose verse came to three days
halt for want of a word, A rude jolt in a
through. going vehicle shook the missing
syll,bles out into the light, and SO the en-.
comped verse folded up its tent, and moved
musicaliy on.
Exercise" is something more than work;
it is working out; md the most natural ques.
tion in the world, waits answer; out of what?
Who, out of The old round of mans think
ings out of the mental strength jacket; ou,
of the shell of self. "Amusements," "di
version" "elation," az any respectable die
tionary will tell you, convey, and most ad
mirably, the exact doctrine If you want t
be recreated, and be "brant new, "run awa,
from yourself. Be . fugitive from the Mu
ses, that is, from sober study, COUNSEL
"amuse )" turn aside from the old path, il
urged in "divert )" leap out Of yourself ex
claims "exult;" at least be lifted out plead
"elate" if you are too lazy to leap. r..
Such words, if one will only listen Il
them are as wise as whole armful of"Phy
siologies." They involve the precept ant
tell you how to practice it.
Some one has said, and we'll said, tina
Gray's young man Of whom "some hoary
headed swain" says
Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,
Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove
Now dropping, wosful-wan, like one forlorn,
Or erased WITH care, or crossed In hopeless love
would not have been missed one morn "or
the accustomed hill," if he had understood
the true philosophy Of recreation. Neithe
would bis digestive organs have been in goot
working order: ''' 3.
Sand Melancholy marked him for her own."
=. ia Chicago Journal.