New-York tribune., 1874-07-08
TIE SVlylJER FLIGHT

IHE OUMHEN fLIbHI'
II is an often quoted saying of Horace that
those who cross the sea change their skies
and not their minds. There is no especial
objection to travelling in this maxim. Most OF
those who go to Italy think more OF its skies
than they do of their minds and in any case
our average human is satisfied with the mind
he has summered and wintered with:
A change in it. even if neodad, :, fIrely de-
sired. One of our witty cotempOraries some
time ago told us Of a young man VINO
regretted that his visit to Paris was
spoiled because he had previously eX-
pericnced change OF heart. But
there is another truth OF more
immediate application to ourselves than the
aphorism of the Augustan poet; people who
cross the River (and you may read 1t East or
North change neither their skies nor their
minds. There are few comforts the citizen
finds in the country which he does not leave
behind, and few daily annoyances that do not
accompany him in his flight. When he packs
his trunk for the Summer migration he Is
almost sure to stow away somewhere in 1t
enough of the cares of life to make him feel
at home wherever he may be.
We do not speak Of those who have
second home somewhere among the hills or
the lakes, or by bluff seashOre. These
fortunate ones are above the laws which gov
ern mere mortals. They can sit, in any
weather. on their hills like gods together, or
sngly, careless of mankind" But of the
thousands who every year regard it as their
duty to break up housekeeping i'll the city
and to move out to some farmhouse IN the
country, some blazing tavern by the sea, some
hotel lost in the great hills, probably more
than half in their heart of hearts consider it
deluson, and cordially wish they had
strength of mind enough to stay quietly and
sensibly at home. There is little gained and
very much lost by this change of place. The
difference in temperature is almost lmpercep-
tibe. 1t is true that the houses and pavements
absorb and retain certain amount of heat
during the day, but there are few evenings
when there is not delicious breeze from the
bay blowing over the city, and preparing its
tired denizens for rest and sleep. In facilities
for keeping cool a New-York house has
great advantage over an ordinary country
place. What farmhouse, with its upper
rooms heated seven times hotter than they
should be, its har-cloth parlor and fly
haunted dining-room, can be compared in COM
fort and convenience with u thick-walled,
darkened, well-ventilated house in the city,
with an unlimited supply of water on every
floor, and the world around the corner
ready to supply any demand of appetite or
caprice on reasonable termsf There may be
doubts whether the country is more whole
some than the city for human beings. There
is none whether it is moro wholesome for in
sects. The family in the country is besieged
from first to last by a mighty army of bugs,
slugs, gnats, grasshoppers, grubs, and moths,
not to mention that musical brigand who has
just made his portentous apparition in En-
gland under the name of the "singing gnat."
We give him no name, because his presence
is never confessed on any American farm,
though the rumor of his sultry wing is sean
dalously evident on every adjoining estate.
The truth probably is that the reason people
fly from New-York in the Summer lies not in
the mere heat of the city, but in a species of
Drapetomania-a disease which leads slaves
to run away from their work. For the wife to
escape housekeeping and the man to escape
his desk is a blessing SO great that it COM
pensates for all the nuisance of the hegira
and all the loss which absence from town en-
tails. If people could be firm and sensible
enough 10 take their vacation at home, divd-
ing their hours between their houses and the
Park, letting the fear of their neighbors de-
part for while from their hearts, and ceasing
to read the money article in the newspapers,
they would find what pleasures this vast and
beautiful metropolis reserves for those who
truly love and trust her.
county in Nebraska has been agtated by an ex-
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