New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-27
$500
DOG-D4YS IN TOXIN.

It Is not so much hot summer as persistent
one. The average temperature has not Deen
intolerably high But there has been hardly any
let-up. That old thermometer at which we all
look by which we all swear whose quicksilver goes
up and down by the sweet will Of the sun, whether
we who gaze at it like its indications or not, has re-
sumed rather lofty business and is again somewhat
inexoraDle. After succession OF cool days ana
nights and a refreshing and reinvgorating reopen
ing CT the windows of Heaven, we were reminded
Yesterday of the moist condition upon which fallen
man earns his daily bread. 1t was summer once
more. and midsummer at that
Whether the people who have got away VINO
are well settled at Saratoga who see from the
white sands the turbulent Atlantic come tumbling
toward them who hear from their stufiy small
chamber in tho country the woods waving and
whispering whether these fugitves are cooler Dr
more eOntented than we who, perforce, stay mere
In the old accustomed places-whcther these run
Always from the hot and gray pavement are any
better oil than we members of the cant-get-away
club Is o question which they must settle for
themselves. II would be asking too much OF us,
already knocked down by the dreary monotony OF
calorc to settle it for them. Bat the stay homes
have at least the advantage of the Old accustomed
comforts. They have the constant hhp OF
intercourse with the moro intelligent of their kind
There is the old bed and the old board and Tor
them the shady side of the street is still preserved.
They keep themselves in connection with human
life. They have their morning newspaper early.
They have perhaps, better breakfast thanS they
would be likely to get outside our Babylon. The
fish is reshcr than it would probably be even in
great seaside hotels. The chop is nicer than the
chops which tho country butcher fetches The
tea is of a kind which they never give you in the
farmhOuses. The man over at tho other table calls
to you that it will be of the hottest days of the
season; but you go picking with your fork
pleasantly at your plate, and sending up the
morses which arc to keep you going through the
day.
You are also sustained by other considerations
Nobody will ask you to play polo. You are not to
DO bothered with the dressing and undressing
incident to a bath with malice prepense and you
believe your tub to be better than old ocean gray
and melancholy waste" You come out, and select
your own side of the street, and so walk quietly
along, meditadng upon your responsibilities.
Fashion does not haunt you. No pretty and lazy
woman aggavates you lOliing in her easy chair
upon the piazza. No stout mOney-maker insists
upon talking to you of his investments No
politician waylays you as you stroll up and down
the silver sands No band plays furousy in front
of you. The little park looks pleasantly pastoral
you creep by it ; the vegetables in the market are
green and fresh here and there they have cooled
the pavements by a liberal expenditure of CrotOn
water and you dawde along, YOU console your
self by the reflection that you nave not bolted fifty
or a hundred mics in this direction or the other
IN search of comfort.
Keeping cool is undoubtedly art, but it is not
a difficult to acquire. Thousands of people rush
from the city, when the summer heats como. not
because they want to go. but because fashion says
that they must. We declare entire sympathy
with those who shut up the fronts of their houses
who conceal themselves in the hindmOst quarters
of their premises who market by stealth and take
in the milk surrepttiOusly. A little caro- will make
all comfortable during the civic og-days.
Only the stay-at- homes must take some pains and
live nationally. The great point to remember is
that July is not January. The great secret is to
take things easy.