New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-08-31

public gardens are poor makeshifts for
the quarter section which any Nm may
claim for his own. But what chance in Sum-
mcr is there for the middle ranks, whose ties
bind them inevitably 70 the cities? If Mr..
Lowell still labors under the delusion that
there is no price for the lavish Summer, and
"June may be had by the poorest conner" or
even by the man with one or two thousand
dollars year, let him only put himself in the
place of a bookkeepcr or salesman, and try to
get two weeks country lodging for his wife
and five children. Our word for it, he will
waken up to the fact that there are a great
many middlemen between Nature and her
children who have to be consulted before they
can come to rcpose upon her bosom.
The matter is not one for jest. The natural
tendency of American life is Overwork
for both men and women, and oyer-ten-
sion on the nervous system Now,
rest is az absolute law of nature
as labor, and the man who persistently vio-
lates this law pays the penalty in unable mus
cles, brain, and digestive organs, and mostly in
that impalpable, swift, fatal decrease OF vital
energy, most dangerous of all. Our defenses,
physila and social, against Overwork or trouble
are naturally weak. We have fewer holidays,
fewer amusements among us, than any other
nation. We have neither the lightheartedness
of the Frenchman, the elastic indifference of
the Celt, nor the logged stOldity of The En-
glshman. The stroke of i'll luck or the grief
which a Frenchman would dance and an Irish
| man drink away, and John Bull never feel at
| all, the American fights his way over. But 1t
wears and cankers long in his brain. He is
bilious, morbid; he conquers Fortune at the
cost of torpid liver, dyspeptic stomach, and
! irritable temper. The great social need OF the
nation as it is represented in the cities, is rest
and amusement. The noon of the year seems
to be offered to liz for this very purpose. Disease
and ntOlerable heat on one side drive the tired
workman and his wife with their sickly children
out of town, and the bOundless quiet and rest
of woods and pure air and sweet-smelling
harvest fields wait to give them cure ana
strength. Now what does the workman or
clerk ordinarily do in this case? Say that no
| can afford week or fOrtnights time and fifty
or hundred dollars. In nine cases out OF
| ten the money is spent in a new gaudy dress
| for his wife, and two or three days at hot
over-crOwded watering place, where Nature
was never heard of, and the poor woman gapes
open-eyed at fashionable toilets, her heart
bitter with envy, and her brain aching to de-
wise means to initiate them in her own cali
Goes and delaines The children, if they have
any part in this chance for fresh life and
strength, are dragged into the same vulgar
treadmill, and they all go back to the old
routine in town with fresh anxiety and dis
content, and body and mind exhausted and
debased. The Summer is ended, and they are
not saved. The story repeats itself in the
great mass of city families. Its results are
trite and grave enough. 1t is not chronic
disease nor epidemic, our physicians attest,
which shortens the average American life, but
abuse and overwork. 1t is greatly owing to
the lack of the softening, liberal and whole
some influences of Nature on our children and
youth that they harden into sharp, narrow,
and vicious men.
A few words of practical advice to end this
dreary summing-up of facts. poor mechanic
| in this city last Spring saved enough to allow
him couple of weeks holiday. Eight dollars
bought a tent, few kitchen utensils, and the
work day clothes of his wife and children were
| packed in q box; ten dollars conveyed the whole
party, by railway and country stage route,
to a wild part of the jersey coast. Fish, crabs,
game (and that of the besD were to be had
for the taking; butter, potatoes, &c, were
cheaper than in town. John came back to his
work bench rudy and stout, his shoulders back,
head up, talking like very Nimrod of
the chase and began the years work with an
impetus of fresh vigOr that would carry him
half way through it. His wife went singing
to her work with an insight into the beauty of
| life and Gods goodness that never had come
into her life before; the children, born and
bred in sitting alley, babblcd of the sea and
green fields all through the year. Another
family people of education but small means,
hired an unused cottage of three rooms. A little
whitewash and mating, books, print or two,
made home. The region was wild and soil
tary; for a month the mountains belonged to
them. In both cases they were far removed
from the route of ordinary pleasure-seekers;
consequently the rates of living were cheaper
| than in town, and there was no tawdry CLEAN
of Fashion to come between them and Ma
lures steadfast face. We only throw out these
hints to show that the poor man as well as
the rich can find his rest if he Obstinately
ignore Mrs. Grundy. Ponce de Icons foun-
! tain of health, ard youth, and life, is yet to
be found in the secret Businesses of Nature,
and no hotel-keeper has yet set price on it.
WAR TOPICS.