The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-04-07
Tho Easicr Season-Our Lesson for the
Dny-New York ms the Metropolis

| Territories are dismal We are afraid to cal
broad stretches and plains between the Missis-
sippi and the Rocky Mountains vast herds have
been in the habit of grazing all the year round.
Improvident farmers and ranchmen, careless
of the comfort of the necessary dumb beasts
committed to their care, permit them to wander
| without shelter during the mild winters.
While all might suffer and many die, generous
Nature in that luxurant country always gives
the owner profit on his focks and droves.
This last winter, however, was unusual
its bitterness, and it is calculated
that hundreds of thousands Of dollars
While this is matter of regret, we deplore
still more the suiferings of their hapless, help
| less, neglected cattle. Their misery appeals
| to us with keener sense than the diminished
| gains of the owners, who will find in their
misfortunes an admonition and punishment.
We have learned from this winter what pru-
dent and humane men must have learned from
the experience of winters preceding, that one
cannot trust the cold and frost and snow.
| Our winter is treacherous and uncertain,
and no one has right to commit any living
things to it's mercy, especially the cattle and
stock that go so far toward insuring the COM
fort and happiness Of life.
We have not felt the severity of the winter
in the East as keenly as in past years Some
how, as we advance in science, we are enabled
! to grapple with the incenent seasons and to
find comfort in spite of nature. We are in
structed that our civilized life is enervatng, that
luxury and comfort create artificial neces sites,
and that with all Of our progress in the
economy of domestic living we are far from
the true enjoyment of life; of the air, the
sunshine, the cold, tumbling streams, the
plain fresh food from the fruit tree and the
envy the Sioux Indian the elasticity of his
body, his simple wants and the complete
enjoyment that Nature gives him in winter and
summer. If we have purple and fine linen,
music and art, savory, toothsome dishes and
dainty beverages; if we have the resources of
this teeming earth, spices from Ceylon, the
| rich fruits from the luxuriant tropics, all
manner of welcome herbs and flowers and
grains; if gems decorate the body and rich
cloths protect it; if we have frankincense and
myrrh and spikenard, we also have dyspepsia
and typhus and cancers, and our body has
limited Offices compared with the bodies Of our
ruder ancestors. Who can now WELD the
sword of William Wallace or wear the helmet
of Richard the Lion Hearted? What thews
and snews and brawny limbs they had COM
pared with us, their puny descendants! II
may be that progress has educated the mind
at the expense of the body; that while we
have been stunning the means Of bodily de-
velopment we have been laying nature and
science under tribute to minister to the ne
cessties of existence. We have seen small
man, like Napoleon, almost a dwarf, whose
body would not have delayed for an instant
the arm Of the Sa adm, and who, in the days
Of the knights and the tournaments, would
| have been debarred from the arena as i'm
perfect and helpless, command great armies
and achieve victories by the power Of the mind
which no prowess or valor would have gained
in the days of the chivalry. So that progress,
like everything else, has its compensatons,
and if we neglect the body and its resources
we strengthen the capacities Of the mind.
Following this train of reasoning we find
the highest expression of social comfort and
intellectual opportunity in our cities. The city
is civilization. Our greatest cities are the
most complete types Of our national skill and
enterprise. What is Paris but the civilization
tbo he o,,It
the valor, the vivacity of France, its active,
| teeming brain? What is the vast, mighty Lon
don, but the concentration of the energy, the
sefshness, the courage and the practical COM
mon sense of England? Emerson says that
Macaulay's philosophy was that the worlds
principal use was to bring lemons and wine
to London, and there is, in truth, very little in
the world but what may be found in that
British capital and in some way pays tribute
to its wealth and greatness. What is New
York but the highest form of American
character? We have many great cities
individual cities, with their elements and
attributes OF value, such for example
as Philadelphia and Boston and New
Orleans and Chicago and st. Louis
they all do honor to our country. One
is manufacturing, another literary, third has
the trade of the lakes, fourth that Of the
great river. America is proud of them all
and wears them as jewels in her crown. But
New York is Philadelphia, Boston, New Or
leans Chicago and st. Louis combined. It
is not q city merely, but the metropolis.
Every rail we lay, every ship that sails from
port, every acre Of land reclaimed and titled
in the West adds to the greatness of New
York. This noble, majestic, beautiful city,
seated on the rocky base Of the gray old
palisaded hills, looking out upon the sea, which
swells and foams over her lap, with her wide
welcoming rivers and bays, that stretch out like
arms towards Europe and invite commerce and
emigration, patriotism, enterprise and man