New-York tribune., 1870-11-02
kUTTJSG.

Perhaps, after oil, her AhernS ana Haggef~
tys are not the representative :nen OF Phila-'
delphia, and ahe' has other claims TO be known
as the City Of Rrotherly Love apart from the
alluring Establishments of her police, with their
billies, to win votes for the Democratic ticket,
or the pleasant, though eccentric, amenities by
which her thievesiand ReturIIsJudges lately set
tied the election. Now and then the genial
CHARITY and refinement of thsold Quaker ele
meat make themselves felt through she strata
of eut-throats and petty ward politicians that
have the rule at present in the city Of Penn.
A. touching little incident occurred the
otler day in prof of this. Some good
Brother Cheeryble aIsOng her school directors
conceived the idea a year ago OF an annual
nutting party, by wiach the children OF the
public and charitable schools would be taken
out and turned lOO3e into al the solitary
places near the city far one day.in tlse year,
tn find themselves freg from th3r streets and
alleys, from human trade and human triekery.
and face 10 face with Nature. Cae day last
week the idea was ca Tied into oilect- Old
Mother Nature it seCms, kept one OF her
kindest emiles in the damp days nor the little
| ones {; the sun was warniy the air braone, and
| yellow October haze turned the road-dust
into sifsed gold, and every stubbly hilltop
into the dcleetable mountains. Upward OF
seventy shousand children made = happy day
of it.
| This school holiday seems an ordinary affair
even to the Philadelphia press lat we find it
more suggestive aud worthy of note than the
most horrible Of the recent murders and adul-
! teries A day in the woods for 10000 children.
half of whom most likely, never had gathered
| .T., ,Ln1 f,p ch.lI -!,arl hnf
!, TO the big people, the teachers, and even old
Brother. Cheeryble himself, it was, no doubt
| only q ride IN the cars at half fare, anxiety,
noise, damp grass, to be followed by q night OF
aching head and legs. But to The children IL
was something which in after years would ap-
| pear a big. bright slice of their childhood It
was g. new song in the dusky niarket-plaoe.
| with a far-eff echo of heaven in it which they
would learn by heart, and we'fanTy will never
| FORGET Even CrGsus must pay sum tnat
! gripes him for picture by the old mastars;
bus every ragged urclnn took home with him
from that nutting frOlc a landscape of red
| tinted trees and gl1ncing rivers which Rem
brandt nor Turner oould paint picture at
whose eOloring no critic shoald ever flag his
yapidities; its greens and umbens would only
deepen and soften into raref truth with time.
I The Philadelphians have hit upon great
and beautiful. idea here, wider in application
than they drearsed. The truth is thab the Ger
man practice ia education is in this neSpcct, as
in many others, far in advance OF our own.
From the Kmdergartens, where the chidrcn
arc taught as much by means OF plants and
| flowers as any other mode, to the very highest
| culture of the Universities, the pupil there Ia
as Systematically exposed to the spontaneous
ever waiting teaching of Nature as to the more
artificial training of books. There are no edu-
Gators so ennobling, so lberabzing, as the hills
and the sea. Contact with Gods world, out
side of town, is as necessary for the full de-
velopment of the soul of boy as fresh air is
for his body. There is perhaps not one OF us
who cannot testify to this out OF his own ex-
perience not one OF us who cannot go back
to some farm, some old cherry tree, or perhaps
| only to some rare odd day of cunning or
fishing which holds a tighter grip on our
memory, and has spurred deeper into onr life
than did any incessant dingng of Euclid or
Homer, The English and American theory of
education is to put both brain and soul of a
child into a perpetual training. They are
crammed, purged, amputated-a faculty cut of
there, faculty added here. OF the higher edu-
cation, the simple exposure of the growing
incomplete nature to healthful atmospheres, to
music art, to the outdoor influences, where
it will witllout effort develop in strength
breadth, gentle temper, and capacity for hap
piness, we know almost nothing.
We wish our neighbor's pleasant holiday
could be frequent rule in our schools, and
not an occasional chance. In the mean time
we thank them for it heartily, and almost for
give them for it their McMullins and iiag-