New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-31
NOW TO TAKE A HOLIDAY.

TOTO l0le people, III Is tluc, "che V"e vi WWn
in May or June, or when they chose; they
only sought change of base on which to
continue doing nothing. But the Last six
weeks Of Summer are set apart rs the vacation
season for the large salaried class in towns.
when clergymen, clerks, or shOpwOmen claim
their week or month of rest after the years
hard work. 1t is usually their sii gle chance
for any prolonged effort at recupcration of mind
or body. How and where they shall spend il
becomes therefore serious question, az it in.
wolves not only successful pleasure making but
the health and yigor of the following eleven
months. There is no lack of advice for
them on the subject. Editors of health
journals press the claims OF salt-bathS
short sea-v voyages, the air of the Adj.
rondacks, or the Lake region. the
water Of this or that mineral spring:
railroad stations are placarded with bewilder-
ing sketches of Summer travel; the writers OF
social articles abandon themselves to eulOgies
of forest and valley, of camping out, and trout
fishing; and, being possessed usually of moro
sense than shekcls, take ferOciOus delight in
decrying the fashionable watering places and
Iaudny Mother Nature whose bOunties may at
least claim to be cheap.
is beset by hosts OF social influences which, as
a rule, draw him to precisely those fashionable
resorts which his aesthetic friends decry.
Everybody according to his locality, goes TO
Cape May, or Saratoga, or Appledorc, or tho
Branch why should he set his shoulder against
the tidc7 Or il is necessary Ting, his wife
tells him, that the girls should be seen in
sOciety-which is the finer phrase for the mar
kct or, being Clergyman, Brother Squeems
or Robb urges him to give countenance to
Ocean Grove. or some other seaside park under
church influence, where hymns and headers,
sermons and soft shells alternate, and where
they assure him the soul and the body will DO
refreshed together. The odds are that he goes,
under pressure, where neither his taste nor his
incnatons lead him.
Nothing at first sight would appear more
unnecessary platitudo than to advise a man to
consult his own needs and will in this matter
of a holiday But in what other matter does
he consult themi Tho average American in
all social affairs moves in gangs. He dresses,
eats orders all his domestic life in accordance
with rules laid down by his ncghbOrs; lis
very tables and chairs, the coffin in which he
i, buried, are of the sort which other people
no wiser than himself have dictated; he goes
to heaven in all probability through that secta.
rian pathway in which his forefa,hcrs placed
him at birth Eccentricty to the man of mod.
crate intellect is species of madness, and TO
be out of the style is to women OF the same
caliber more pitiable than dual crime.
Surely, however, in this trivial but very
essential matter of the next months holiday,
we might all venture to follow our own secret,
strongest taste. If Barnes's wife and
daughters. and sister and brother-in-law,
and tho rest of the family party
urgently demand a week in hot, swarIing
hotel at the shore. let them GO, and let
Barnes, yellow and bilious and sick at heart
of brick and mortar and desks, bctake himself
with rod and line to the fortnights fishing for
which his soul SO long has ycarned. What IL
the Smiths anil Wrights cackle all the rest OF
the year over the quarrel between Barnes and
his wife9 There is no quarrel, and ten to ono
thew will come together with fresh pleasure
and interest in one another for the brief
absence.
But why, on the other hand, should tho
Welses, whose highest pleasure lies IN the
draping of an Overskirt, allow themselves To
be dragged by literary and artistic iiends 10
mountain sOtudes or lonely hauntsf Ihcy
are going in bored gangs to-day across 10 the
Yosemite up to Mt. Desert, yawning internally
over sun sets and fine effects, while they mako
day hidcous with their eternal Obs! OF rap
turc. Nature will never I've revealed to them
in any other way than rs provider OF grain
and vegetables their chief idea of death is
the cut of the shr0ud or cost Of the coffin.
Why not leave them to lay in their necessary
supply of patterns and gossip in hotel hops
To each animal its own food. Why should the
Reverend Job Smiley, whose brain Isl he
knows, left like wrung-Out sponge by the
years sermons and ministratiOns, 60 to the
religious holiday 10y the beach simply because 1t
ia the thing for his sect 20 do 7 1t may bo
str. nethening, elevating atmosphere for Others
but he knows that he wants to get out OF the
shackles of routine work for a while, to mix
among men different from himself, to deal
with fishes cribs-tangiblc jolly fun OF some
sort, and not with theological dogmas. lie
knows he would bring fresh power into the
pulpit if he did this but he does not do it.
We call Brown or Jones impairment ned-
dlers when they IOrcO Oh us their i0uches OK
little pellets or pet practice of any Sor'
Why need we follow this mans prescription
or that as to what tome our tired brains or
nervous systems needf When every man
studies his own idiosyncraSy and sgIathes IL
the Sumner holiday will begin 70 have some
actual ya'ne.
The H. PRODUCTION OF tue name of Gen. f. \. Merri"
intothe Legislative investigation the Other dag seems
to have been a pure poce of mudthrowing by MI