The Saint Paul globe., 1904-08-31
OUT OF DOORS FAD
PLENTY OF FRESH AIR is A
FETISH
Soap and Water Are Outward Signs
of Ones Religious Life-The Daily
= Tub Is Now an Ethical Necessity

Tt is strange that in this country so
few of US can do anything or like a
thing temporarily. When the bicycle
came in nothing would do but we must
wheel morning, noon and night madiy
for year or two andsthe drop it alto
gether, and the bicycle is now as dead
as the dodo among the very people who
declared they did not bicycle because
it was fashionable, but on account of
its being such healthful sport! Now
the whole American continent has TAX
en- to automobiling in the same man
ner and is just as certain as before
that the autos have come to stay. In a
certain way they will probably never be
given up and will be improved upon
and do much toward putting the faith
full horse out of business, but venture
to predict that in year or two the
craze for automobiling will be just as
much thing of the past as wheeling is
now. Then we will have new fad:
perhaps baIiooning or air sailing, but
new one of some kind is bound to ap-
pear
For several years past there has been
an increasing craze for outdoors and
fresh air. manifesting itself in litera-
ture by garden books in fiction, learned
treatises upon the value of sleeping IN
the open air. and even religious PAM
phlets teaching doctrines of which the
outward sign Of inward grace is plenty
of cold water and soap. All OF Whlch
is very valuable when not carried too
far The extreme of this fad was
reached recently when one of its en-
thusiasts said that sin out of doors was
better than virtue in the house.
Now undoubtedly we all need fresh
air and plenty of soap and water is
not only desirable but necessary, but it
is absurd to turn this out-of- door life
into a fetish and to become so thor
oughly person of one idea as TO con-
denim everyone who sits down within
doors to read a book There are plenty
of men who not only regard cleanli-
ness as next to gOdlineSS-Which, by
the way, is not moral pTecept or to
be found in the scriptures as so many
appear to believe-but who are firmly
convinced that their daily tub will go
a long way to taking them into para
disc. One has contempt for persons
who are not clean, when they are able
to be So but the world has goneito the
extreme lately of appearing to think
that when a man is clean and is de-
voted to outdoor sports his salvation
is assured.
So ii has come about that new line
has been drawn which divides people
into those who live out of door as much
as possible and have great scorn for
the other half who still think they
may be virtuous and remain indoors.
And more fatuous still, according to
modern reasoning, are the ones who
care nothing for sports, like the win
dOws closed once in a while, and yet
are laboring under the delusion that
there may be q chance for them here
after.
There is a devotional cult for the sky,
the air, trees and woods. It is all part
of the new thought, which is a very
ancient thought returning when prim-
itive people worshiped the sky, air sea
and the elements. 1t is a pleasant and
desirable thing to be a lover of nature
and to find pure JOY in the out of doors,
but this can all be done normally and
naturally without making the elements
into idols. On the other hand, man
might lead anything but a virtuous life
and be a lover of fresh air and the
out doors. 1t is not a sign of predesti-
nation and election to be athletic and
clean. You will hear the devotees of
this fresh air cult talk about the up
lifting influence of the trees and the
flowers. all of which is pretty and has a
grain of truth in it, but, after all, there
is a great deal of nonsense about it.
The writer knows a very good man
who hates nature; he is bored to death
by gardens and woods, never INDUCES
in out of door sports and wouldn't
know a tennis racket from a baseball
bat. But there is some hope for him.
Indeed, he is quite a decent man. He
prefers the Businesses of a good New
York hotel to all the gardens that ever
were planted. Poor, depraved man.