The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-10-14
Miss Cleveland's Ideas of a
Country Home.
TWELVE MILES FROM LEMON
Rural Fascinstions-sum-
mer .Roamers.

snail not ton forget the searching
| gaze winch examined and cross-exa
ined me when. at an evening comp any
some little time since, / allowed q faint
and fractional expression of my fond
ness for the country and for country
life to escape me. 1 do not know why
my particular pipe should have been
honored with the particular attention
of this charming critic, for there was a
genera orchestra Of sound In the air Of
this drawing room, ali to the same ger.
eral tffect-enthusias N for the country.
All Mrs. Skewton's living relatives and
friends might have been present, from
the amount of expressed passion for
COWS and china"
Whether false note struck her ears
or n It, the eyes of this beautiful woman
wsrs very severe and very serious, as
she demanded of me, DO you really
and truly love the country and coun-
try life?" Hsr eyes were fuIi first of
jncredulity. then of credulity, and last
of sympathy. Ga the strength of her
question and my answer. we became
fast friends. she would accept no
bogus bucolics.
This la told me forwards that
she had been made so irritable on the
subject by having heard 30 much 1nsin
cere gush alb 1ut nature and the cum
try" that she found herself ready to
fly into very bad temper on the occa
sion referred 10. Sue declared then
and declares now that there is nothing
about which there is so much nauseat-
Ing iDslncerlty as this question of
bucolics. 1t is, perhaps, to her that /
am indebted for the subject OF this
paper, and tbs one or two points de-
sire to make in it.
suspect my friend is right in saving
that on this topic of love OF nature, love
of the country, and fondness for coun-
try-life,
THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF HUMBUG
One might say, however. that it is very
harmless humbug; so harmless that it
W re scarcely worth ones while to try
to disturb its comp!acent uuselfcon-
seriousness by single jog in the oppo-
site direction, were .here not possible
of achievement IN its place so positive
reality.
Between love of nature abstractIy
considered, and the love of the country
there is distinction to be made.
Plenty of people are suffi GENTLY appre.
ciative of the beauty OF a fac rural
landscape, as seen from the wind ,Ws of
a drawing room coach, who could not
be content to spend single week in the
midst OF 1t. Real love between nature
and man, as between man and man. is
tested by the drawing and holding
quality. A genuine lover of the coun-
try cannot stay always away from it.
His mistress is a tyrannous IN her at
fractions as is the sea to sailor: with
such an one. love of nature inclndes
love of particular bit of country and
a devotion of country life. 1t Is one
thing to be entranced in the presence
of the Jungfrau, or amid the glories of
the Yosemite Valley, to be awed at
Niagara, to be thrilled with the SOLITARY
loneliness of the Adirondack lakes and
forests, to be filed with delight amid
the Thousand Islands of the st, Law
renee during the passing pleasure trip
OF summer season. Quite another |
thing is 1t to choose, for the love of it, q
sequestered spot in landscape familiar
as the face of friend, and beautiful
because familiar, if not because of fair
features, and oblivious of
THE CHARMS OF NEWPORT Oh SARATOGA
to settle down to the everyday init
mscies with nature, which living in and
with the country permit. if not compel. |
In the one experience, we may fairly |
claim that we admire nature, in the
other, we may truly say that we love
her. One is the ideal feeling for the
ideal thing; the other is the real feeling
for the real thing. The one is a grand
passion, perhaps; the other a natural
affection.
No one who truly loves country life
claims that the country is perfect
nothing sAYors more strongly of bogus
oucolics than this claim. Every trne
over of the country loves her so well
that he loves her with all her faults.
He has her trials living with her. but
be takes her for better or for worse
Real love of the country involves. az
does all real love, degree of discipline.
[ am not here limiting of the felicities of
country life as regards material things
Every body, whether aHiabIe or the
has experienced the unuIeas-
antness of being twelve miles from a
lemon" All this is an axiom. There
is point here, but it is not nv point at
this present writing.
Most proverbs are mischievous by
heir implications, and none more so
han the very suggestive one, God
made the corntry, and man made the
own" Few of US would object TO a
udicious mingling of man in the
making of
SOME ASPECTS OF COUNTRY LIFE,
he true test of ones love of the coun-
~ is in ones familiarity with it.
Tature at large, touched lightly in
ooks, in poems, from flying trains,
rom beneath the shade hat of the
trancient'' who floats up the village
treet and round your corner before !,
aking the next train, and raves about
our elms with that fury which know.
til that its time is short; from the side
ar buggy of the dry-goods clerk and
is young woman who drive through | |
rom the city not too far distant nm q | 7