Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-07-28
SUMMER VACATIONS.
what ls their Real Value 10 People This
Year?

the year 1900, especially to brain WORK
ers or any holding places of RESPONSE
bility, the little breathing spell In
summer has to be purchased at the
price of great preparatory exertion.
We read that Miss Wilkins is pre-
pairing for her first visit to Europe by
completing great mass of needful
work, which she must finish in ad-
vance before she can attain the liberty
she needs to enjoy her rest Her
familiar name is an apt illustration of
what each of her literary brothers and
sisters has to do to release month
or two from bondage. The merchant
with his ventures. the lawyer with his
clients, the worker with his RESPONSE
bilities, each says to you according to
his vocation: Il am trying to get
away'-significant phrase-"for a few
weeks this summer, if it is possible"
Nine times out of ten a man with a
tired brain and an exhausted body be-
gins his time of rest in an environ
ment entirely alien to all the usual
habits Of his life: takes violent exercise
to which he is unused. exposes him
self to the sun, passes hours in or on
the water, eats ill-chosen and i'll
prepared food. A very tired man or
woman ought to do as little as may be;
If the call of the hills is the most
moving, let us go among them and be
lazy, not climb them and weary every
nerve and muscle to a hitherto I'M
known degree. If the waves and a
sea-breeZe WOO us. let us lie and watch
the "white-maned horses" trample the
sand and hear Neptune shouting 20
them on the saltladen wind; and keep
clearly in mind that if there is sure
road to physical disorder. it is for a
landsman to spend successive days in
a rocking boat under hot sun, or to
crowd the swimming of a summer into
fortnight.
Let US not look for calming
strengthing mental conditions in
summer crowds. or fancy that we shall
gain brain strength in the weary con-
tact with people who are neither con-
genial nor able to impart any charm to
our days. To many forms of BRAIN
WEAKNESS a driving or riding holiday
is especially helpful. Either of these
gives us many forms of delightful
novelty without exertion or exposure.
And our children, The school doors
tlbSe. tHt uIllNtTSliy TERM is
and the parents have planned no per-
sonal individual aid for the three
months of unoccupied time. Very often
care and thought are expended in
choosing climate suitable to what
may be some threatened weak point
in child's health, but it is rare
forethought which questions: What
shall vacation do to develop mind or
character. or make these young people
richer through knowledge of nature 5
SecretS?"
In the days of slower intellectual de-
velopment, when school did not mean,
as now, a place Cf progress under the
highest possible pressure. and the child
simply exchanged a little more for a
little less mental activity it did no
great harm, perhaps, to turn the
youngsters loose for time and let
them forage for themselves. Now. it
is like bringing a flying locomotive to
a sudden standStill. DO sJmething'
the nineteenth child and youth
must, 1t has become very important
part of the years program, that vaca-
ton shall provide that purer, richer,
more self-developing influence, which
is impossible in the crowded routine of
school life. where the individual is
subservient to the class or form.
In some way, after some painStakins
method these days out of school should
become the home-harvest time, the moth
er's happy opportunity. If she does not
understand gardening, let her make her
self the teacher pupil to the home
class: If she is ignorant of the beauty
and the wonder of the woods. let her
study and explore them with her flock 4
noon-tide picnic lunch, in a chestnut
grove, with Seton-Thompson to show
them how to sharpen their eyes and open
their hearts to the living creatures,
which, though not as large and bold as
those he knew. are yet of the same crea-
ton he loves SO well. a morning in the
fields with Mrs. Dana's Wild Flowers
or Olive Thorne's Bird Studies naming
and becoming lovingly acquainted with
blossoming growth and winged loneliness,
ing. keen observation. reverent, gentle
approach TO weak life and delicacy
OF touch and protection to flower
and leaf. Some judicious, light-hand-
ed lien upon the hours each day. enough
to make excess of exercise impossibl.
and to keep that equpoise of obedience
and regularity i'm force. which alone rem
ders 1t possible to indulge with an uneX-
pected pleasure. is of infinite value.
When the iron rule of school is again in
force. it will not seem as hard. nor will
the sudden CHdnSt oil lie QlSOruer the
system physically.
With Older girls and lads vacation
seems a golden opportunity to foster and
develop any prediction which shall pos
sibly grow into desire to perfect some
one accomplishment or rouse some
real purpose. To have a hobby" or a
purpose. or desire to attain in concen-
trated direction. is safeguard we under
value. against wasting ability or the de-
peadence on novelty and even dissipation
for pleasure To go into the country with
the books which inform on the subject OF
chief interest, or the music most dear Il
the student. or the microscope. or the
camera. or whatever is in a germ state
of knowledge, and to keep "A steady per-
sonal interest in whatever developments
follow. may define career otherwise left
in hay doubt as to its form.
But whatever we may choose to set be-
fore our children, let us frankly recog-
nize that these weeks and months are the
time for home influence and individual
development. The child who Tolls on the
Veranda. and fretS to take drive. and
has no vigorous pleasure controlled by its
losing something every day. The girl
who divides her time between an athletic
field and a novel in a hammock is losing
the womanhood toward identifying which
some sweet fruit of industry or unSelfiSh
activity should come into her life with
each succeeding day.
In most rural districts in our land OF
great contrasts there is a pleasant pos
sbility of doing great good to the scat
tered population whose long winters are
times of mental starvation, and whose
their lives incredibly narrow and hard
m eff n 10