The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1892-10-01
A BETTER WAY.

|
By this time summer pleasure
seekers are mostly satisfied, and
settled down at home tor another
year. There is a sort of go some
where epidemic that seizes people in
hot weather, that nothing short of
broiling on the rail, stewing in an
eight by ten room, or roasting in
silk and broadcloth at a fashionable
resort will cure.
l have not particle of objection
to city people amusing themselves
in any uncomfortable way they may
choose, they pay their money and
have right 10 their choice; but |
do desire that farmers and their
families will not be led into thinking
that they must join the sweltering
throng, and leave their pleasant
rooms and shaded yards, to mingle
with idle poodle dogs and their
nurses, and with city women who
have never done useful days work
and need the exertion and sweat of
the brow they get nowhere so effect
ually as at sunny seaside hostelry,
where they dance at night and sleep
by day, and thus restore themselves
to the healthful condition that makes
life at home worth living for months
to come, or until the next summer
solstice brings on the rowing COM
plant again.
People who have nothing to do
at home can afford to leave COM
Portable rooms and we'll provisioned
tables for rest and recreation among
flies and mosquitoes, to say nothiug
of flatter insects that often abound
where pleasure seekers congregate.
They need that sort of rest. But
farmers who have been going
through seed time and harvest,
making from fifteen to seventeen
hours of labor each day, have need
for quieter sort of repose. | have
al ways been made. comfortable,
though, when l have been at holiday
resorts where these lively creatures
present their bills So pertinaciously
by being told "they never had them
at that place before" have heard
this so often that it has lost some OF
its virtue in case of real bad bite.
Let farmers make August month
for recuperation at home; let them
60 to bed early and get up late,
and when they work do it at gentle
pace. There is no grass cut for the
rain to damage; there is no grain
out for damp to blight and mildew;
the next crop need not be planted
until the middle Of September or
later and surely the farmer may take
this month to get his breath, and to
get acquainted with his own family
at home. He can also "slow up"
a little on eating and be none the
worse for it. 1t is a month if ever
when considerable of cooking can
be dispensed with. 1t is a month
rich in fruits, and ''garden sass"
and pies and cakes and puddings
and soups and stews can for the
most part be abandoned, and let
sugared peaches, ripe tomatoes,
"biled corn" and baked apples take
the place of more elaborate bills of
fare. for the busy housewife needs
breathing space also. Ii makes my
head ache to think of the amount of
stuff gone from my table to that
under vest region from whence no
victuals ever return. These yawn
ing human caverns must be filled in
some easier way for time, while
loaf and grow tat. "And how will
that take?" asked the Head OF the
Sidneys disconsolately.
When l ask farmers to rest, where
they can rest, | do not mean that
they shall never go anywhere. 1t
is good to get beyond ones
own door sill sometimes, and see
new sights and new people, but
it is better way to do our going
and sight seeing in cooler weather,
when we are not worn out with
exhaustive work and heat. We
have no need to llnger in the noun
tains or by the sea; the air is as
pure at a we'll kept farm house as
can be found anywhere, and fruits
and vegetables are never so good
and healthful as when fresh from the
trees and gardens. Even cucumbers
can be eaten with safety if taken
crisp from the vine to the mouth.
Did'st ever try the difference between
corn and Deas at the country table,
and corn and peas at hotel or city
table? In the one case the eater
gets the sweetness, in the other the
cob and pod consume it while being
marketed and sold. Everything,
almost, loses more or less of its fine
natural flavor by long delay
between the picker and consumer.