St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1868-12-18
From Hours st Home for December.
HOBBIES.
BY REV. T. DE WITT TALMADGE.

cheapest thing to ride Is q hobby ii eat:
no oats, it demands no groom, it break.
no traces, 1t requires no shoeing. More
over, 1t Is safest: the bois.erous out.
break of children's fun does not startlt
1t; three babies astride it at once do not
make it skittish. If, perchance, ON some
brisk morning it throw its rider, it will
stand still till lie climbs the saddle. For
eight years we have had one tramping
the nursery, and yet no accident though
meanwhile his eye has been knocked out
and his tail dislocated.
When we get old enough to leave the
nursery we jump astriJe some phiIoso-
phic, metaphysical, literary, political, OF
theological hobby. Parson Brownlow'
hobby is the hanging of rebels; John
L. Calhoun'S, South Carolina Wendell
Phillips's, the right of the negro 3; Daniel
Webstcr's, the Constitution Wheeler's
the sewing machine; Doctor Windship's,
gymnastics. For saddle. book for
spur, pen; for whip, the lash of pub
lie opinion; for race-course, platform,
pulpit, newspaper-otiice, and senate
chamber. Goodyear's hobby is made
out of lndia-rubber, Peter Cuuper's out
OF glue, Townsends out of sarsaparill;.
bottles, llecnan's out of battered noses.
DE Witt Clinton rode his up the ditch OF
the Elie Canal, Cyrus Field under the
sea, John i. jackson down the Railroad
from Amboy 10 Camden: indeed, the
men of mark and the men of worth have
! all had their hobby, great or small. The
philosophy is PLAIN. Men think great
while upon one topic, and lis importance
increases till it abSorbs everything else,
and, impelled by this high appreciation
of their theory, they 20 ON 10 words and
deeds that make themselves thoroughly
telt. We have no objections to hobbies,
but we contend that there are times and
places when and where they should not
be ridden. \ few specifications
We have friends who are ailopathiss,
homoGopathists, Thompsonans, and
eclectics. We have no more preiudcc>
against one school than the other Let
them each set up their claims One of
Our friends about five years ago became
homeopathic. All right, But
since then she has been able to talk of
nothing else. She insists on our taking
the pellets. We say, We leel some
what tired tonight" she cxclaims.
'cinchuna or cocculus," We sucrze
quite violently, and she cries .'belladon-
ma. We suggest that the appIe-dump-
ling did not agree with us. and she pro-
81, H.,
seem to hear the rattling pellets. Dis
covering my prcJuiice against pills. she
insists on my taking it in powder.
icll her that ever since my chapaincv in
the army | have been afraid of powder
She says | will rue it when too late
Perhaps | may, but cannot stand these
large doses OF homeopathy. | had
rather be blcd at once and have done
with it, than be everlastingIy shot with
pellets. She talks it day and night.
Her Sabbath Is only a Sanctltied homuT-
opathy. She prefers theology i'll very
small doses. Her hope OF the reforma-
tlun ot society is i'll the fact that minis
tiers themselves are sinners. ".Smiiia
sHuiIbus CuuHt,lr.' She thinks it easier
for Il camel TO 90 through the eye of u
needle than Tor old-schoul doctors to en-
ter into the kingdom of heaven. Alas
how much calomcl and ,ialap they will
have 10 answer for, How will they
dare to meet on the other shore the null
titudes that they let slip before their time,
when they might with few pellets have
hrlbed Charon to keep them this side OF
AchcrOn and StyX. She reads to us ,
Chron. xvi. II, Is, ASA sought to the
ply ysicians, and slept with his fathers"
You see they killed him, She considers
herself II missionary to 90 out INTO the
highways and hedges OF allopathy and
cclecticIsm to compel them TO come in.
She is an esimable lady. We always
like to have her come to our house. She
Is more interested in your health than
any one you would find in all the hard
hearted crew OF allopathy. But five
years ago she got Il side-saddlc, threw it
ON the back of "a hobby, and has been
riding ever sinCe-tramp,t tramp, tramp
round the parlor, through the hall, up
the stairs, down the cellar, along the
street. through the church and | fear
that in her last ''will and testament" she
will have nothing to leave the world but
Il medicne-chest, well-worn copies of
''llahnemann's Chronic Diseases" and
",ahrs Manual and directions as to
how many powders are to be put in the
tumblers, with the specific charge TO
have the spoons clean and not mix the
medicines.
We notice that many have mania
for talking of their ailments. One queS-
tion about their health will tilt over on
you the great reservoir of their COM
plants, They have told the story so
often that they can slide through the
whole scale from { above TO & below
For thirty years their spine has been at
discount, and they never were any bet
ter of neuralgia till they took the rheu-
matism. At first you feel sympathy for
the invalid; but after awhile The story
touches the ludicrous. They tell you
that they feel so faint in the morning,
and have such poor appetite at noon,
and cannot sleep nights, and have twitch-
Is in their side, and lumbago in their
back, and swrlines in their feet, and
ringing in their ears, and little dots float
ing before their eyes and have taken
ammoniacum, tincturc of cantharideS,
hydragogue Julep, anthelmintic powder,
golden syrup of antmony, leaves OF
scordium, and, indeed, all hepatics, car
minativeS, antitebrles, antiscorbutics,
splenetics, anthri,ics, stomachics, oph-
thalmics; they have gargled their throat
with sal ammoniac, and bathed their
back with saponaeeous liniment, and