Bridgeton pioneer., 1885-09-10
PLEASURES OF WALKING.


We have people among us who con-
slider walking to be vulgar, and who
imagine that they would lose their dig
nifty if they left their carriage. They
do not object to be driven through
country, either in diligence, or coach
and pair, and have the scenery served
up to them, like fresh varieties on a
fete day, or new paintings in this sea-
sons exhibitions; but to ask them to
tread the same quartz-grit on the hard
highway which the common tramp
claims freedom of, is to offer them an
indignity which their lofty souls resent.
After all, if we are not mistaken, the
free, unfettered tramp, if he has any
thing like an observant spirit, has the
best of it. He can make levies on all
nature. For him the sunshine has a
greater joy, and the moon in the fall
ing twilight a less cold smile. The
jolly miller can give him the merry
laugh and the frankest hospitality;
while the grandee is permitted to roll
past in his carriage without having
tasted such Arcadian sweets. For him
is the fower-fringed by-path in the
sheltering wood and for him the
moss-wreathed wayside well. 1.-THE
ploughboy's whistle and the milk
maids song" are his by prescriptive
right; and if he can bear with him a
pure heart, love for honest labor, and
a reverence for the Giver of all good,
we think that he is happier than his
richer neighbor, who dare not go
afoot.
No one looks so kindly and so low
ingly on nature as he who walks. A
long stretch on foot in the open coun-
try, in the face of the bugle breezes of
morn, in the full glory of MONDAY, or
in the tender, fading lustre and sacred
shadows of twilight, is human exper-
ience that tends alike to bestow physi-
cal strength and intellectual power and
joy. The man who walks abroad with
a keen eye and receptive soul will
get in one day more beauties of nature
in all alltheirrounded perfection-inc color,
in tint, and in sound-than he could
obtain by the study Of books through
many silent and thoughtful night.
No matter the season of nature, and
no matter her mood, she is always
shining and fair, even when she falls
into her Winter sleep of untainted and
untouched silence, covered over with
snow wreaths of exquisite purity,
curve and grace. And what for match
less outline and tint can equal snow
wreath lying across your path on a
crispy, clear Winter afternoon with
the Western sky all ruddy and aglow
like motion ore, and the solemn pine
trees lifting their dark green feathery
branches midway between the unsul-
lied stretch of snow and the azure of
the holy twilight coming from the
east, bringing with it all the silent,
friendly stars? Do you think that the
term friendly" is out of place with
reference to the stars? l hope not.
How those glorious lights look down
upon us with lingering, loving lustre
from the midnight skies! Each one
seems as if it were an angels eye gaz-
ing on us with watchful care. And,
as we mark the consultations, and
learn of their slow, silent march across
the dark, solemn dome of heaven, we
learn unconsciously to give them per-
sonality, and treat them as friends.
There is Orion, in his massive grandeur,
moving around our sleeping world like
a sentinel from above. majestic, sol
emn, awful-a constellation whose po-
sition seems to be assured through
countless ages. Then there are the
Pleiades, those sweet seven sisters of
the heavens, whose pulsating rays COM
pass every color of the rainbow as they
"Glitter like swarm of firefies
Tangled in silver braid