Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-28
A STUDY OF MANKIND
As 1t Appears to Bessie Bramble at
- a Southern Health Resort.
THE BOARDING HOUSE AUTOCRAT.
Business Men and Politicians Who Suffer
From Inactivity.
CLERGY WHO QUARREL OVER CROQUET
,conRrsroNprNor or rHr p1spAroH. !

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE p1sPATcH.1
AIKEN, s. c., April 25.-"The proper
study of mankind is man, is one of the
noted sayings of the old poet of Strawberry
Hill. This being true, no justification is
needed for talking about, moralizing over
and writing up the subject of mankind as
shown and to be known at winter resorts in
the South. Men made immortal by their
brains and power to grasp this great subject
--Man-have bequeathed much knowledge
to those Of to-day as a groundwork for OBJ
servation and text books for study, but
there Is nothing like the school of expert
ence for getting the most profound, inter-
esting and amusing comprehension and ap-
probation of the subject. "Man," says
Pascal, sis the glory and scandal of the
universe. 1t is beneficial that he should be
sensible not only of his glory, but of his
meanness."
In his progress through life and by virtue
Of education, environments and circum-
stances he becomes possessed of opinions,
prejudices, sentiments, habits, thoughts and
manners that make him pleasant COM
panion or an intolerable bore; delightful
friend or veritable DR.. Fell; CHEEKY,
snarling ill-mannered creature, who, as God
made him, must pass for man; an honest,
true, sincere, noble-hearted being who in
spires love, or selfish, cruel, cross-grained
creature held in contempt by his fellows.
All of these sorts and conditions of men are
to be found among the travellers who spend
the winter under the Southern sun in pur-
suit of health, novelty, time-killing, or to
follow the fashion.
THE PASSING SHOW.
Everywhere are to be found the materials
that give play and spice to wit and humor:
that give depth to sympathy and pathos;
that wake to vigor the noblest sentiments
and emotions; that furnish the finest touches
of both tragedy and comedy, and, pe1haps,
no place forms better stage for the scenes
than the resorts where people go for good
time and to let themselves loose from the
restraints of business, to relieve themselves
of the wearying grind of every day routine,
and to give themselves up for the time be-
ing to the pursuit of laziness and the study
of their fellow creatures, their self delus-
IONS, eccentricities, inconsistencies, differ
ent ways of thinking, different standpoints
for opinion, and their divers and wonderful
methods of expressing thought in the En-
glish language.
People go to the summer resorts for rest
and the enjoyment of good tine in the
glowing days of midsummer, but the winter
resorts are chiefly frequented by seekers
after health, by invalids who find in South
ern climes refuge from the rigors, SHOWS
and storms of Northern winters, or by peo-
pie of wealth who, by potent power of
money, make all the year summer of
pleasure and delight.
Haro IN ha mot Ynon hrolra,, Jo,-, h.
stress of over-worked brains, neglect of the
essential requirements for physical health,
and retired out of ''the swim" to engage in
fight for life; men who, having secured
competence in we'll placed Investments,
propose to enjoy the cream of life and the
sunshine of prosperity; clergymen who
have worn out their throats in dispensing
the Gospel to miserable sinners, and by
generous leave of absence are engaged in re-
pairing their shattered energies, and in the
endeavor
TO SECURE FRESH VOICES.
and new power of lungs to fill their pulpits
as of old; scholars who, to economic time,
have burned the candles at both ends, and
then found themselves the prey of nervous
prostration, and condemned to spend weary
months in recruiting health and toniDg up
their nerves; politicians who have worn them
selves out in working for their candidates
and downing the friends of the opposition,
and then, when the fruits of victory are won,
they turn to ashes, for with strength wan
ing, health wasted, the shroud and pail in
view, the knell in hearing, they know the
game grows desperate, and that they must
fall out of the procession, and let the vic
tors pass on with palms of rejoicing, while
they retire into the obscurity of the invalid
brigade, and seek solace for their sorrows in
slops and tonics.
Here is to be seen valiant Republican
leader who has had to sink his ambitions,
give way and play to lesser men, resign the
rod of empire and endure the pangs of see
ing the wrong men reaping the fullest
sheaves; while. he is laid on the shelf, as it
were, where his main thought is as to his
diet, his chief effort is confined to a walk of
half square with feeble steps and slow,
and where he spends the long, long, weary
days in monotonous twaddle and mournful
retrospective. Cruel, tea and toast, bread
and milk, replace the canvas back and
champagne of the many days agone, and
the junkets and banquets that gave zest and
crown to the enjoyment of festive hours
layout the twaP' have given way to the
decorous, game of whist and then to bed
with the chickens. 1t is not to be won
dered at that he sits in his easy chair and
looks forth into space sadly, that the fur
rows on his face grow deeper, that his
smiles are ghosts OF gayety and that melan-
choly has marked him for her own.
CLERGYMEN AND CROQUET.
The clergymen who are laid by for repairs
to voice and throat, and for the restoration
and renewal of power and unction always
play croquet, In the maintenance of piety
and ministerial decorum they frown upon
whist and billiards, but they go at croquet
with religious fervor, and squabble over the
play like lot of small boys over a game of
marbles. Nobody can realize how true it
is that
"Men are but children of larger growth
until he sees the brethren of the cloth play
eroquet when away from home for their
health.
Another style of man to be found at health
resorts is the man of affairs, who has been
compelled to let go the threads of business,
to give up his daily occupation. and seek in
change of scene and summer cline the
treasure that is essential to all enjoyment of
life. How he does chafe and fret. He i'm
agines he cannot be spared; that without his
wisdom things will go to pieces; that his
fingers are essential in the pie; but with
misfortune's hand heavy upon him, he
sooner or later learns resignation to the in
evitable, and grows familiar with the fact
that his present business is to get we'll
that nothing else will avail; that ambition,
success, the amassing of wealth and hopes
of fame are empty mockeries, when the
power to achieve has gone.
Another sort of brother encountered
everywhere is the crusty man-just i'll
fa ha nd nfoV l.