Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-25
REST In NEW WORK
CHANGE OF OCCUPATION Is
WHAT BUSY PEOPLE NEED.
Complete Idleness Irksome and Weari-
some tosThose Accustomed
70 Activity.

From the New York Evening Post.
Until they have tried the experiment few
persons. and especially few men. realize
how unified are those accustomed to eager.
Intense work to enjoy entire passivity. 1t
engeIdens restlessness and irritates instead
OF bringing repose and refreshment. The
mind, whose usual condition is that of close
application and quick discharge Of impor-
tanf duties. Is like a hungry creature-;t
lacks Its alment. It wears upon itself.
For this reason our people are always IN
search Of new scenes, new sensations, new
surroundings; il taken from their ordinary
sources of interest, they require something
to help them to enjoy what they call their
leisure hours; their vacations are consumed
in constant travel or in pursuit of some
thing yet unknown.
Mind Needs Change.
Nothing so helps to keep a strong, vigor-
Gus mind in healthful equilibrium as change
Of work. The tagged brain does not need
starvation, but nutrition, and it can only
receive it by fresh and satisfying food.
If the man of letters. the lawyer, the jour-
nalist, the whole army Of toilers whose la
Dor is that of thought and concentrated use
OF their mental faculties had an alternating
occupation In the open air, which required
the use of their bodies, the eager Watchful-
ness of their perceptive faculties, and the
heed OF daily ingenuity, the restoration of
vitality and the sense of rest would aston
ISM them. One Of the most nervous, intense
brain workers 1 ever knew gave himself
two hours every day for eight months Of
the year in his fruit garden, and said he
never required long vacations.
Hours in the Garden.
He did not give orders and look for the
results of other mems labor, but early In
the morning and before sunset he worked
and examined and replanted and hybridized
and achieved absolute release from the
bondage Of his desk and his pen. Gooseber-
ries are ungrateful to American soil and
climate; he beguiled them, he planted them
IN sunshine and shade. he gave them one
sort OF food and another he tried simple
ana rich diets. At last he conquered their
affections; he discovered their sulky de-
slres, and no English garden ever yielded
inner fruit. 1t was not that gooseberries
were dear to his palate but they provided
ground for individual experiment and their
pefVerSity gave opportunity for conquest.
Many a telling paragraph owed its lumi-
nous clearness to the fact that they enjoyed
growing In trenches. and that he alone had
learned this popularity Of the ungenerous
fruit
What Idleness Does.
Nature and our Creator have thus linked
the cultivation of the soil and devotion to
the reproduction of growing things with
healthful mental influences, and the benefi-
cent results are most visible where the
brain is at its highest point of activity and
the powers Of attention most steadily in
use. A man who does not use his summer
home simply as place to hang up ham,
mock or to exhibit and enjoy what other
men do to beautify it, but touches
handles, works for it's benefit, and thinks
for himself CONCERNING its greenery and it's
blossoms. It's Shade and sunshine, Is be-
slowing upon himself the most perfect aid
to recreating rest.
A few days of7those hours so persistently
called blissful. in which men and women
who have tried. to do forty-eight hours
work in twenty four lie on the messy earth
under green trees or stretch themselves
morning after morning on some tempting
lounge op a shaded veranda, are enough to
prove the fallacy of such means of rest.
The book drops from the readers hand, the
old steadfast lines come out around the
eyes and mouth, and while the comfort
able-looking figure, appears lost in idle en-
1oyment of the softly quivering leaves of
the maple tree, the old problems are work
ing out their solutions within The per
plexities which have been crowding each
other out at the desk are here in new
force and acquiring energy from lack of in
terruption.