New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-05-20
ONT OF TOWN.


and we will tell You what he is. The neces-
sity of bread (buttered or otherwise) keeps
the majority of Americans in the gaol-bounds
of shop or Office for tho greater part of the
wear: but there is usually week or two OF
freedom when the mans tastes and desires
being unloosed, assert themselves, and he
shows the real bent of his nature. The hon-
day which custom has established falls slgnlh-
cantly in the heat of Summer, when the body
most needs the tonic Of pure air, and Nature,
in every highway and by-way, calls, compeis
us to come back to her, to learn that there Is
a higher work in the world than mOney-get-
ting. and another use to be made OF life be-
sides fighting with or even helping our fellow
man. Apart from other men the highest souls
come closest to God. He speaks to them, as
to Moses in the mountain, or in the bush that
burns "a with fire. The wish for country
life generally shows itself in cultured men
and women simultaneously with O cOmprehen-
sion of music or art. As the man goes up the
social ladder he learns nobler languages. The
best American society, therefore, is never TO
be found in tho crowds that lnfest the
watering places in Summer. Familles VINO
can afford it have ordinarily their own
retreat among the hills or by the seaside;
and men and women who have not money, but
that highest knowledge which can interpret the
hidden meaning of tree or cloud, know that
to them. as to no real estate owner, belong
the landscapes which lie between sea and sea,
and are apt to spend the short holiday In
searching out some yet unexplored corner Oh
their possessions. Even the shrewder part OF
the fashionable world is beginning to suspect
vulgarity in the perspiring, tawdry hotel mob
at Saratoga or Cape May, and to withdraw
themselves into cottages, where they may be
"a far removed from the crowd as the higher
actors on the stage are from the audience IN
the pit. They are keen enough to see that
the nobler human nature withdraws usen
apart when it would rest; but they keep the
staring pumpkin in the background to wonder
at the fine clothes and finical airs with which
they celebrate their repOse. A certain kind OF
vulgarity, however, is born In the DloOd as
surely as scrOfula. There is no use IN prescriD-
ing for hopeless diseases. Like any other fever,
they all run rankest in Summer.
The class really to be pitied as the holidays
approach is the lower, striving grade OF fashion
able life the mechanics, tradesmen, poor pro-
fessIOnaI men aud women. tn whom niSSardly
fortune has given neither money nor the ability
to live nObly without it. Their souls are de-
yOured by carking care through the year to
make the plated ware, and dyed, vamped up
stufis of their belongings, counterfeit the silver
and royal purple of their Weather neighbOrs.
Half of the middle class of American men are
growing old and gray in needless drudgery,
and the women bilious and sOured in idle
penury, to sacrifice to this god of appearances.
When the week or fortnight of vacation does
come, the poor clerk or mechanic has been
educated to no higher idea of enjoyment than
to take his wife and daughters, hot, anxious,
gaudily dressed in gowns for which they have
stinted and saved for months, to some hotel
filled with a sweltering mob of other hot,
anxious women, who stare at each others
clothes, tipple champagne, dance their indecent
waltzes and by the solemn sea, or the grave,
eternal silence of the mountains drive unre-
buked their perpetual, unwearied trade OF
husband hunting
Now we have plain word or two to say to
this class. Among the men, at least, there is
latent keen-sighted common sense, which
shows itself in politics and business-in every
way, in fact, but in their social relations. In
week or two, the yearly holiday will have
arrived. Make up your mind to discover what
manner Of man you are, apart from all grading
of style, acquaintance or income. Pack up
your old clothes, leave Mrs. Grundy on the
street, and take wife and children to some
quiet farmhouse in the hills or by the sea-
shore. There are countless such places in the
Pennsylvania Dutch counties or along the
Jersey coast within half a days reach from
New-YOrk, where q whole family can be kept
for month for the price which two days
display at Long Branch or Newport
would cost. Farther off, but cheaper, ex-
cept as to time, are the New
York wild lands, the Virginia Cheat counties,
the Allegheny range, in all of which board
ing, plain but plentiful, can be had at from
three to five dollars week. Give your body
a chance 4: swim, fish, shoot take your soul
back to Nature, "that eternal antique and
4" eternal novelty" and know the message
which she has kept for you these many years.
1t is not of salary or of clothes. Give your
children a chance for other teaching than that
OF streets and schools There is no educator
SO liberal and ennobling as the sea. Dry
goods and men nowadays fill up the affairs
of the old gods but eleven months in tho
year is enough to spend in sacrificing to them
Let us keep one in which to make the ac-
quaintance of ourselves.
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