Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1866-08-17
"Walk i'm the Light"

the light comes III, the doctor goes out"
which hns in it both truth and poetry. The
blessings of light, we don't half appreciate
them, because they are so common and so
unfailing; but try to imagine the sun with
drawn for one single day, and the earth left
in darkness, and you would then see the
greatness of this common, everyday bless
ing.
What makes the "best parldr'' usually so
forbidding? Because, as a RUE, it is kept in
darkness. What is the terror of the dun
geon? Its darkness. Where doyou find most
diseases, idiocy, madness? In cellars, base
ments and dark rooms. Under the shadow
of high mountains, in valleys where the sun
shines but few hours day, or not at all,
there you have cretinism, goitre, and all
dreadful forms of mental and physical dis
ease.
Live in the light let the sun shine on you
and on your children. Let the light of the
sun shine into your rooms. Keep your house
dry. l have two pictures before me, one
staring, glaring house out in the field, with
no tree or shrub near barren and baking.
The other white nest, "embosomed in trees
and shrubbery," as the saying is, so shaded
that the rays of the sun can hardly reach
even the roof, much less the windows Nei-
ther of these is the house for me. Shade is
grateful; cattle gather under tree in the
heat of the day, in the desert man will get
into the shade of his camel, if there be nei-
ther tree nor rock. But with us, trees have
a way of growing, and before you are aware
your house is quite shut in, all which may
be very picturesque, but it is nevertheless
unwholesome.
No time was ever better spent than in
| cutting away trees and shrubs that shut out
the blessed air and sunlight from habta-
ton. 1t may make all the difference be-
tween sickness and health in family. Have
shade-plant trees along the road, in your
streets and squares, everywhere, but not so
as to shade your houses. In the city those
who are on the sunny side of the street do
best; the dwellers in Easements and cellars
are the first to fall victims to disease-men-
tai, moral, or physical. Those who sleep in
dark middle rooms very seldom are really
well, and men whose offices are down be-
tween deep, high walls, where the sun never
can penetrate, are pale and cadaverous, and
subject to all sorts of ailments.
"Where the sun comes in the doctor goes
out" which is not only gain as regards the
doctor, but is an assurance of good health,
of freedom from suffering, and of a life of
vigor and energy 1t is not without reason
that slight" is an emblem of everything that
is healthful morally.
Another application is becoming better
understood, that animals want light, and
many man commits now the extravaganza
of having windows to his stable. Those who
would have resented the accusation of being
guilty of cruelty to animals, used to shut up
horse in dark hole and then suddenly
bring him into the glare of day without a
thought that the change might lead to blind
ness; or would shut up cattle and sheep in
dark pens and keep them there without re-
membering that light is as essential to their
health and well-being as to our own. But
these things are beginning to be better un-
derstood, and the fact that as a mere matter
Of economy it pays best to keep animals
comfortable and in good condition is begin
ming to secure for them kindness and justice
and does more than any argument.
Some persons who have delicate plants
put them into the cellar during the winter
to keep them from frost, but they do not eX-
keep them alive for the spring and summer
growth, and even then see how feeble is their
existence, how pale and bleached they look
and how they stretch out to any glimmer of
| light in their dark abode. To animals no
less, is light essential, and we are learning
that all things that have life depend upon
the sun. Some day we may have come to
understand the reasons chemically and phi
losophically, and learn just what it is that
we desire from the suns rays. For the
present we have the fact undoubted to 20
upon, that if we would have health we must
"walk in the light" ourselves and our chill
dren, our focks and our herds. However
grateful shade may be, shaded houses can
only breed disease and DEATH
There is a town we all know, celebrated
for its beautiful trees; but they are too
dense. There are streets where the sun
never penetrates; the town is not healthy,
and doctors flourish "Where the sun comes
in, the doctor goes out" X.