The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-07-22
Summer Luxuries.

Summer LuXuries.
1.-The farm is not the place to look
tor luxuries." So many would say, but
in truth just now there is no place
where more of the best pleasures of
summer may be had. With early sum.
mer the people of the cities begin to
look countryward for comfort and cool
ness, feeling very strongly, too, that
comfort and GOODNESS are the greatest
Injuries of all, when the mercury
stands in the neighborhood of hun
dred and the radiating heat of baked
bricks penetrates the very brain. But
on thousand farms these summer
mornings, "incense. breathing" as they
are, and filled with all the wondrous
charm of The lovely sights, sounds and
odors of early summer, lift the heart in
natural praise and thankfulness to him
who made all things good. 1t is an ex-
cellent time to realize how many of the
best luxuries of living the dweller in a
country home possesses. Negative
| pleasures are sometimes among the
greatest sources of enjoyment, but they
need the sharp spur of contrast to
bring them out in full relief. We
prize health at something like its real
value when we have just recovered
from serious and painful illness, or
when we have seen one dearer than
self given back to US from deaths door.
So we prize the sweetness and placid
cheerfulness of rural surroundings
most when we are fresh from the noise
and dust and unsavory confusion of the
crowded town. 1t gives zest to mod
nrntn nd frap hn~
cares when we have known the cruel
goad of anxious necessity, and have
almost tainted under the burdens that
were too heavy for our strength, yet
which we could by no means throw off.
Many boy, impatient to leave the
farm for more exciting life among
men, finds too late how much he has
lost In the incessant grind of re-
morseless competition, the struggle for
gain demands the most intense use of
every faculty. There is plenty of hard
work on the farm, but there is always
room and time enough for thought. A
country life gives full opportunity for
the development of strong individu-
atty where strong elements of charac-
ter exist. And it sometimes seems as
if the tendency of modern life to make
men as much alike as so many machine
made tools would end in making it
genuine luxury to meet person pos
sessing idiosyncrasies. We may al
most count personal freedom among
the Injuries of the vacation season.
luxuries which the true country
dweller alone possesses all The year
round.
Among the creature comforts which
rank highest as wholesome summer
luxuries, good number are enjoyed at
their best only on the farm. The milk
and cream and just churried butter, the
new-laid eggs and homegrown chick
ems, the honey in the comb and the
maple syrup in which the tingling
sweetness of the spring is securely
sealed up-these in their perfection
belong to the farm. Nowhere else is
fruit quite go delicious or flowers quite
so free. The banks of ferns that Dor
der miles of quiet country roads would
richly adorn the most elegant drawing
room, and the field of daisies which
made one little waif from the city
sums cry out, " Heaven can't be
prettier place than that!" would out
shine the silver and gold of the most
gorgeous banquet. In truth the sum-
mer luxuries OF the country home are
almost too free, for in their freedom
lies the danger that they viii be under.
valued, or even ignored.
Perhaps there is no better way of
proving how truly these simple things
are luxuries than by measuring them
against the hard experience of the very
poor. No CHARITY is so beautiful and
so true as that by which we are able to
give ourselves as we'll as our goods,
and bring into lives OF privation and
wrong some of the brighter elements
of our own better fortunes. Such a
charity is that known by the name of
the Fresh Air Fund BY its means
more than hundred thousand chill
dren, taken from the lowest and most
wretched streets in which poverty and
crime tester, have been sent to the
country for few days or weeks to en-
joy the "summer luxuries" of fresh
air, abundant food and the care of kind
friends. Who can tell how great the
influence of this change from misery to
delight, with all its wonderful new
sights and strange experiences, may
be? No doubt in thousands of cases it
may prove the turnng-point of new