The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1900-12-22
AMERICA DISCOVERED BY
AMERICANS.

N URING the past two decades
America has been occupied
~ with the redisCovery Of the
country. In the seventies we
were a race of jewellers in towns, having
herded into them from the rural districts
WhiCh our grandiathers and our grand
fathers grandfather's had reclaimed
from the wilderness. For perhaps four
weeks in the blazing heat Of August we
moved en- masse to huge seaside hotels
only a little less large and a little less
crowded than the cities from which we
came. Here we moved constantly in
the public eye and found our chief pleas
IRE in elaborate dressing and dancing
an late hours. Then gradually athle-
tics and the summer cottage were dis
covered. 1t came to be seen that coun-
try pastimes were different from town
plea sures, and that quiet and simplicity
in ones own house were better than all
the gorgeous vulgarity of the big hotels.
The process has gone on, and we now
point with pardonable pride to the result.
We go to the country as soon as we can
after summer comes and we leave it only
with the autumn.
But the lesson is not wholly learned
as yet, and the country is only half re-
conquered When the tide sweeps back
to tn e cities in the autumn the woods
and fields fade from the townsman's
min and the country deserted till hot
Weather comes again. Those whose
leisure will allow it go to California or
Florida for a winter in the subtropiCs.
But the country still lies at the gates of
the town and we never venture into it.
Out side the short stories in the maya
zines it is to be feared that few Thanks
giving or Christmas parties gather in
the farmhouse nowadays. We celebrate
winter holiday in town by overlooking
and going twice to the theatre. In the
country we might have skating, sleigh
ing, cross-country rides and walks,
ravenous appetite, an honest WEAKNESS
at evening and long slumber.
America could in this case we'll take
leaf from England's book. OF course
it is not likely that we shall soon have a
class whose leisure allows them to make
the country the real home and the town
the temporary pleasure resort; nor in
deed is it at all sure that such a leisure
class would be desirable. But we could
do with something corresponding to the
hardworked Londoner who is constantly
spending his spare hours in the country.
Christmas and Easter see an exodus from
the English capital All through the
winter the Saturday afternoon trains out
and the Monday morning trains in carry
people who are glad OF even twenty-four
hours by the sea or in the fields. The
overworked father of a family who must
have weeks rest, or the mother with a
convalescent child need not take an ex-
pensive railway ticket into subtropcal
regions; change Of air, scene and occupa-
ton lies within fifty miles. English win
tiers are not 50 cold and bleak as ours,
but English houses are not so snug and
warm as American ones, nor is the Eng
fish winter landscape ever so brilliant
and exhllarating as our snow-clad woods
and fields. The Englishman. however
never forgets the country, the American
never thinks of it for half the year. The
American would like it quite as we'll as
the Englishman did he but try it, and
the gain in health and pleasure would
be worth the experimental G. Rhodes
in Saturday Evening Post.