The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-07-30
THE PLEASURE 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 a
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 in
dignity which their lofty soul resents
After all. if we are not mistak en-, 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 jol.
ly miller can give him the merry laugh
and the frankest hospitality; while the
grandee is permitted to roll by in his
carriage without having tasted such
Arcadian sweets. For him is the
flower-fringed by-path in the sheltering
wood, and for him the moss wreathed
wayside well. The plowboy's whistle
and the milk-maid's song" are his by
prescriptive right; and if he can bear
with him pure heart, love for honest
labor and 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 ex-
perience that tends alike to bestow
physical strength and intellectual pow
er and joy. Theman who walks abroad
with keen eye and receptive soul
will get in one day more OF the beauties
of nature in their rounded perfection
lin color. in tint and in sound-than
he could obtain by a 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 matchless
outline and tint can equal snow
wreath lying across your path on a
crisp, clear afternoon, with the western
sky all ruddy and aglow like molten ore,
and the solemn pine trees lifting their
dark green feathery branches midway
between the unsullied stretch of snow
and the deep azure of the holy twilight
coming from the east, bringing with it
the silent, friendly starsY Do you
think that the term friendly" is out
of place with reference to the stars :?
/ hope not. How those glorious lights
look down upon us with lingering, low
ing luster from the midnight skies.
Each one seems as if it were an angels
eye gazing on us with watchful~care,
and as we mark the watchful constel-
lations, and learn of their slow, silent
march across the dark, solemn dome of
heaven, we learn unconsciously to give
them personality, and treat them as
friends. There is Orion, in his massive
grandeur, rowing round our sleeping
world like sentinel from above, ma
jestic, solemn, awful-a constellation
whose position seems to be assured
through countless ages. Then there
are the Pleiades, those sweet seven
sisters of the heavens, whose pul5ating
rays compass every color Of the rain
bow as they
Glitter like a swarm of firefiies
Tangled in silver braid.