New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-07
HONEST ylCAY10Ns VERSUS SB1vs


The throngs of pushing pleasure seekers all
along the scashOrc through a thousand miles
of coast the press at every lake and mineral
spring, the armies of superheatcd climbers
charging up every mountain slope and jostling
against an equally numerous and determined
band on the descent the unnumbered company
scattered among unnamed and unnOted rural
rctIcats-ali these combined seem to prove
that the country is enjoying rather more of a
so-ci.iled vacation than usual. Any observant
philosopher, if at all statistically inclined is
appalled, when he begins to figure up an ap-
proximate census of the people who have left
their business and gone a-summering
If one will take any of the crowded trains
that radiate from any town and drop off at
any station near or remote he will be con-
Honted by the same congregation of idlers
many of them laborious idlers, and he will
wonder whether anybody remains at home
and nj work. And perhaps too, when he
notes the luxurious way III which his country
men and counUTywOmen take their ease, he
wonders where the millions of dollars come
from which the tens of thousands who imagine
they are resting scatter abroad 50 profusely.
1t has occurred to some good people who
have watched the vacation season lengthering
and observed how universally society mobilizes
itself for the hot weather campaign and how
res0lutely everybody seems bent on amusing
himself, that summer pleasuriLg has come to
be INDUCED III to excess. Ii is said that this
universal longing to be released from the re-
straints of serious business is the mark of a
growing frivolousncss; that the readiness, not
to say Techlessness, with which an entire pop
ulaton abandons itself to the intOx!cation of
mere physical pleasure both augurs and engen-
Il nI-n,,i IA a !
tonal stamina and proves that we are losing
that severity of temper which is character
istc of all true greatness in man
or in race. 1t cannot bo denied that too
often excitement takes the place of recrea
ton, and that the reacting and exhaueting de-
mands of fashion pervert from its true end
what should be season of Iecuperative leisure,
and leave the pleasure after an al
legged vacation enervatod and devitalzed. in
stead of revivifed and invigorated. No
doubt, too, in instances not rare. false
pride and social rivalry are tho causes of
undue extravaganza, and that much suffering
and rctrenchment are undergone during the
rest of the year to repair the havoc which a
season at Saratoga or by the sea has made
with slender income Perhaps, too, the OBJ
tlusive pOmp of summer pleasure witl-all its
music and banners imprcsses tho Imagination
of tho young with the idea that equipage and
display are the chief things to live for
But, after all, these are only the exaggera-
tions and abuses of practice which in it's es-
sence is altogether praiscworthy. 1t is the in
variable fate OF everything recognized by
common consent as positive good to be
overdone and caIicatured. Again. it does
not follow that we have too much leisure be-
cause it is abused. On the contrary, that
we have not yet learned how to use
our leisure as we should is proof
that heretofore we have had too slender
experience, and have taken too little of il.
And then it should be remembered that what
is loud and violent arrests our attention, and
everybody sees and satirizes the follies of
over-dressed and UNDERGONE people who parade
their lack of taste and breeding and sense. while
the much larger NAss, who are quietly gain
ing rest, refreshment and genuine recreation.
are unnoted because they make no bids for
observation. 1t is pretty safe to say
that the only people who make an unwise use
OF vacation time are those who make a sim
liar use of all the rest of their time. No
doubt many excellent people fail to employ
their leisure to the highest profit and prob
ably the same people by their close devotion
to the narrow routine Of their business are
wasting the best part of their working DAVIS
as well. We are not placed here to make n
given number of dollars or to get through n
given stint of law or literature or business.
We were made to he something as well "a To
do something, and for the full and mature de-