New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-25
TIN NIMlLER ENnnES

THE SUMMER EXODUS.
This last Sunday in June finds the cities
farther advanced in their summer work of
emptying themselves than in any previous
year. and this, in spite of the late spring. Co
ing into the country has become, not whim
or an occasional holiday of the wcll-to-do
classes but matter of business for all. Fam
lies of very small incomes find that they can
as we'll afford to board in some farmhouse
in a village where provisions are cheap as to
keep house in town at the present rates Of
living. Hence, the suburban towns in the Vi
entity Of all our great cities, with the adjacent
farms, have become gigantic boarding places;
the local trains 20 aud come loaded with
townsDeople who are out OF town for the sea
son instead of for the mcagre fortnight or
week of ten years ago. TradcspcOple follow
their patrons. For the first few years they re-
manned in the vacant fashionable city streets,
stunned AID dismayed, and came nigh starry
ing. Now they have learned wisdom, and the
visitor 10 Newport or the Branch, or even the
AdrondackS. often finds the familiar faces Of
his grocer, butcher. and even tailor smiling at
him across the counters OF brand-new pretcn-
lious little stores. Their wives and children
are with them. The town literally now
cmpties itself into the country. There are,
however. enormous swarms of people whose
one idea Of summer enjoyment IS migration.
They leave cool, shady homes in Western
VILLAGES and crowd into the deserted, baking
streets of New-York and Philadelphia; they
make excursions to the peaks Of Colorado, the
flats of Dakota, to old farms in Virginia, or
10 Sundav-school caravansares; or more often
they simply travel from place to place on the
excursion tickets Of the great railways.
Whether the places be cool or hot, PIC
turesQuc or commonplace, matters nothing so
that they are unknown. Their object is sim
ply TO keep in motion.
The objection 10 all this universal out
mourning into fresh fields is that in
= short time the town has so thoroughly
emitted ITSELF into the country that
the country has become town. There is
no change to the ordinary man and woman
in the ideas, pursuits, talk and occupations Of
July and December. Now, the actual ber' =
ft TO them is in just this change. There Is no
medicine TO a mind diseased with OyerW0rk or
ericf or folly in the mere sight OF mountains
or seas or trees or p0tatO-helds and COWS if it
perpctually holds its grief OF work or SILLY al
fcciions I'D Ike q smoked glass to cover them
all. Even pure air in the lungs viii not
strengthen nerves that have been Unslung
through devotion TO society, money or Uh!shey,
unless these things are wholly left behind.
The American Of average tastes Is generally
alert in his perception OF form and color IN a
fine landscape, though he usually prefers It's imi-
totion on canvas to the real thing. But ne IS
i'm no sense 4 lover of Nature 1t seldom occurs
to him to make a study Of bird or plant or in
sect. He has no time to spare from pursuits
| which seem of wcightcr import to him. lie has
| not vet learned the prcscrVatve quality 10 the
! brain Of lust such studies. There are men
among the leaders Of the political and CONNER
cial world whose brains would long since have
| gwen way under the heavy and continuous
| strain but for some hobby OF geology or bot
any, some sldc-pUr;ut which gave occasional
rest and keen delight to the exhausted facul-
ties. Close observation and appreciation Of the
| infinite kuowlel.,cs in the outside world about
are Il habit OF the mind that can be cultivated,
and the most practical man would find use
| in if. That is very different mental power
from the comprehension OF Natures myseri-
ouS meanings, which is gift OF the gods to
the newborn child. aud winch the old man
does not give back at death. 1t is not 10 be
won by study or bought for money.
| There is another way of meeting Nature and
wrestling her secrets from her which the re-
li,ions world has left too much in the back
ground. That is the glimpses which may he
| Gained through the workings of material Ma
/ tIre o. the Intelligence behind. Nature is given
over TO scientific man 10y churchgoing people.
! With many of then. a natural religion Is only
an especially vicious sort OF Pdntheism. There
is an old book-the Oldest in the Scriptures
which tells how good man was given over
to disaster, to try his faith. The questions hi
asks OF the Almig hty are those which come tC
every thoughtful man III the terrible straits of
his life, aud for his answer he was sent to the
woods and hills, the seas, and even the beasts
of prey. Their lesson is rs ready to-day
as in that earliest dawn of the world, only We
turn our backs on it.