Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-09-15
slahrIIniap G .gontRaL
The End Of Vacation.

schools. colleges and seminaries close their
doors in June or early July, and keep them
shut tin September. The courts are mind.
full Of the heated term, and lay aside tn, |
docket till cooler weather. The city pulpiis |
and many of the country churches are de- |
prived Of their accustomed ministers Even |
merchants take advantage Of the lull ia |
trade and bankers and brokers reduce their
working force TO the minimum. and clerks !
and cashiers are sent upon their annual res
pites. But the railroads are buster than ever
aud the employees of establishments and |
hotels at the mountains or the sea. The |
farmers also make their hay in the sunshine
of the hot summer, and defer theirrest to the |
winter.
This annual period Of locomotion and |
leisure is having some very marked effects
upon the character Of society and the habits |
Of the people Religion seems to take hol- !
iday for a month or two in the cities. We
see it stated that, on occasion Of a funeral in
Boston. in August, there was not a clergyman
Of the denomination with which the deceased
man was connected to he found TO conduct
The services And since, then, some parties
have been raising the question about the
proprietv of Law services at funerals, and adj
vocating them on the same ground with lay
baptism Out Of this habit Of quitting home
and nockiug to summer resorts, comes the
tendency. so manifest in these days, to fill
the Sabbath with excursion trains TO visit
camp-meetings, and to give opportunity to
the crowds TO listen to eminent and gifted
preachers. Religion has lefthomc, taken its
ministers with it, shut up the churches where
it resides or reduced its services to The low
est and weakest terms. The city pour+ ITS
food Of preachers and business people and
tourists all through the country, and the
railroads and public conveyances take adj
vantage of the pulpit celebrities who are lay
ing off on shore or at the mountains, or of
the religious camp-meetings which are lo-
Gated where visitors and tourists in their
annual vacations can most readily assemble,
to Stir up the whole country with the re-
verbera,iops of their transportation service,
and carry multitudes to the unusual meet
inrs. And thus it has come to pass that the
annual American vacation, and the pouring
of the hordes of the city into the country or
to the scashore, is having wide, unexpected
and unhappy effects upon the social aud re-
ligious aspects of the quiet and composed
life of the country.
1t is general rule that men at home are
better than che same men away from home
\ change Of place often affects the moral
ideas and principles. The man from the
country village or farm, going into the great
city, is apt to get little unsettled in hi
habits and notions, loses some Of the r.
straining influences of his home, and is likely
to wander into dissipation, and possibly into
vice. Aud the man from the city who leaves
his associates and his conventional life be-
hind him when he goes into the country, is
apt to throw off the usages and principles
which have made him reputable and honor
able where he lives, and indulge in habits or
in modes of action and life, that border
upon recklessness and utter reconsideration.
Thus the summer leisure is more and moro
becoming fraught with great evils to soci
ETY., to character and TO religion The ac-
ton and reaction of city and country il in
furious and disastrous TO both. And mean
while the advantages Of the respite from
work are in great measure lost, and the
vacation IS no more a recreation, restorative
Of body and soul alike, but dissipation
wasting and impairing all the healthiul
moral forces of society.
1t is quite Obvious that the vacation i,
being overdone. It is no longer rest, re.
spite, renovation but it is confusion, d
turmoil, a route, a wretchcd dissipation. II
closes all the institutions of learning all the
courts Of the ountry-exceptt the police, the
churches and the pulpits lifts the hand OF
the quiet aud healthful restrictive influence,
Of industry, study, home and religion from
vast crowds Of men, and sends them travel
ing through the land ready for any sport o
indulgence, and insensble to the ordinar,
rules Of social and religious life which ar
the safeguards of the character and of TIN
soul There would have been none of tn
prevalent complaints about the Dissertation
Of Sunday, both in the secular and the re
ligious press, were it not for this unseenl
aud gregarious, caravansary mode of spend
ing the annual respite from business.
There is reason all over the country fo
profound congratulations when the Amer
can vacation, as it is now conducted,
ended, and the multitdes of pleasure seel
ers return totheir regular duties. They driy
over the country, like an army of insatiat
mortals, seeking rest aud finding none, an
they go back to their business used up an
been mockery and farce from beginnin
TO end. 4 hundred times better is the wa
in which the genuine seeker Of rest spend
his day of repose He finds some peasaI
home for himself in the few weeks he us,
for repairing his energies. A country nool
a seaside resort, out of the reach of the cam
meeting or the Sunday rahble, Prof
House, Mansfield, an Equinox, where Il
stiffness invites TO meditation, and the hug
crowd find no attractions, where comm
nifty Of kindred spirits can be formed for
few weeks without invading the social ord
Of the neighborhood, while infusing into
an appreciation Of higher life; such are Il
places that furnish an honest vacation, an
send the minister back TO his pulpit, Il
teacher to his chair the judge TO his benc
the lawyer TO his brief and the hard work
to his toll, with strength renewed and
moral or spiritual power weakened or il
paired. When men learn to carry with the
on their vacations the genuine principl
which govern them at home, the SUNNI
vacation will be better for city and countr
NEW YORK PoLITIcs.-The Republici
State Convention met last week, and put
strong ticket into the field It is as follow
For Secretary Of State, Frederick W. Sc,
ard for Comptroller, Francis f. Spinne
for Treasurer, Edwin A. Merritt for A
tomey-General, George +. DGnforth; (
State Engineer and Surveyor, Oliver II.
Cornell for Canal Commissioner, Villa
I. Tinsleyi for Inspector of State Prison
Benoni |. Ives. II does seem as though su
ticket as this could not fail to CONNER
itself 10 the voters OF New York. Reso