New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-12
To WHIT ENDf

Travellers from the interior coming to town
during this month land it astonishing how they
flock to the Eastern cities in AugusD are usually
told by the first hotel clerk they encounter
that everybody is out of town. 1t would De
more correct to say that everybody had gone TO
school This increasing annual migration from
the cities to seaside or mountain is edu-
eating the advanced classes among us in
direction where they have been hitherto wofully
deficient Americans travelling abroad are noted
for their lack of appreciation of natural
scenery. They are easily enough moved by the
influence of historical association or by ideas
are ready with their tears at Keats's grave, or
their shudder in the dungeon of Chlllon Inc
pomp of ancestral dignities or the decay OF an
ancient priesthood teaches them higher les
son, strikes them with more vivid force, and
moves them to deeper emotion than they can
Europeans simply because these are new ana
dramatic sights pregnant with meaning to us
and hackneyed and everyday shows to them.
The boy who goes to the theater for the flrst
time sees the real meaning of the play as Its
author gave it here are virtue and liberty
triumphing-there, tyranny and vice at bay
but the call hoy behind the curtains sees only
the wood and ropes, and the daubed paint
upon the faces of the actors, and is apt to
think that is all there is of it.
On the contrary, Europeans have, so to
speak, nursed and petted and made much OF
every bit, however small, of fine scenery
which Art has spared to them. Love OF Ma
ture ought to be, one would think, first IN
stinct of the uneducated mind, and her lessons
should be clearest to those who have learned
no others but unfortunately 1t is the highest
culture, gray-bearded wisdom, which can go
hack nearest to the great Mother and compre-
bend her mute language. We Americans may
claim credit for being a shrewd, energetic peo-
pie even in our learning every acquired scrap
of information is turned to rapid account. A
man who has studied Latin must use it in his
business or there is so much time wasted. A
man who goes to Greenland or Japan must
cook UP his tour into lecture. Our very i'm
agnation is a cultivable field and must be
made to yield so much yearin actual currency,
or a reputation as brilliant talker. We have
all turned out of doors this Summer, but what
fort To look at racing horses at Long
Branch, to doctor our stomachs at Saratoga,
or to marry our daughters somewhere else.
Even if we go off the beaten track and dis
cover some almost unknown region of wonder
full sea view or mountain fastness, rich in
its treasures of beauty as fairy land, we must
apologize to ourselves for going there by trout
to be caught or game to be shot, or at the
best by necessity for pure air for our diges-
tive organs, or for rest for Overworked brain.
The idea is almost ignored by us which
is so common and natural to Euro
peans, of a simple indulgence in beauty
for its own sake, or for the sake
of our own slow growth in it, as the grain ripens
in sun and wind, without any Interior prac-
teal purpose.
Perhaps we are too young and busy peo-
pie for this,-the whole tendency of our edu-
cation being the development of the individ-
ual only as helpful member of society. But
we beseech of our vagabondizing friends, by
flood or field, during this month to remember
that Nature hath other uses than to point
letter for the columns of newspaper, to fur
nish material for sketches or good digestion
for dyspeptics and secrets mightier than those
of Eleusis, which she reveals only to those
who will not sell them for money.