Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-12-12
THE ART OF LoAFING.
As 1t Is Viewed BY General Jake
Smith.

Smith.
General Jacob Hurd Smith, U. s. A.
retired), who won fame as a great
dghter In the rebellion in Cuba and In
the Philippines, recently sailed for Eu-
rope with the express purpose and de-
liberate intention Of loafing, says the
New York World. Loating, according
to General Smith, liz Il science, even a
fine art, and he goes to Europe to loaf
because lie can find no one in America
who will loaf with him 9 way he
wants. People here are busy, OF
think they are, which is just as bad.
to spend time in enjoying themselves
and he is a sociable, genial soul who
feels that by life Of fighting he has
earned the right to enjoy himself, but
he does not like to loaf alone.
"What is lolfing for me-" he said
"may not be loating for others. Some
retired army officers have ideas of re-
Taxation that do not appeal to me.
visited one man recently and said to
him, General, now that you are out Of
the army what are you going to do
with yoursefY And he answered
gravely, 4 am studying turtles An
other good friend Of mine found in
his garden. devoting his life to raising
roses. told those fellows they were
burylng themselves, they were too mar
row in their ideas, but they seemed
happy and satisfied.
my idea Of spending a life of leisure
is to broaden as much as possible all
that is most refined In mans tastes.
There you have. in a few words, what
call loatlng and what most men in
this country think they are too busy to
do. Since was retired from active
service three years ago, at the age
of siYty-two. 1 have spent large part
of my time in Europe, studying the
methods Of European armies and en-
joying myself In my own way. Now !
am going back there for the winter"
General Smith is a short, slender
man, who looks very like Field Mar
shall Lord Roberts of the British army
His shoulders are square, his chest
deep, and he carries himself like true
soldier. His face La scanned and crisis
crossed with the wrinkles that years
of hardship and peril have stamped:
his nose is of the aquiline type that
Napoleon required in his generals; his
eyes are pale greenish blue and look
at you with penetrating fearlessness,
amounting even to tierceness when in
tensity Of thought or expression deepens
the two lines that rise from his nose
and bisect his forehead, but that melt
into tenderness when he speaks of his
wife or the boys who fought under
him and were killed. He is bald, with
fringe Of iron gray hair and thick
but closely cropped iron gray mus
tache. He dresses with the same quiet
refinement.
A picturesque forcibleness character
ICES his speech, the force that is exem-
plified in his famous dispatch to Gen
eral Otis from Annaiees when besieged
In that Luzon village by force of ma
tives far larger than the handful Of
men he had under him: II will hold
this place till hell freezes over and
then fight on the ice!'
"Mrs. Smith and l sail on Saturday
direct for London. We shall be enter
tanned by some friends at Hampstead
for about ten days, and then we go to
Paris. where I have many friends.
From there we 60 down the Loire to
Tours and, making that city our head
quarters, spend few weeks autom0-
billing about among the chateaux. l
have friend who has fine fast motor
car, and l shall act as chauffeur. Oh,
yes, understand the car. spent sew
eral weeks last spring in the factory
of the makers studying its mechanism,
and can take it all to pieces and put
it together again without trouble.
From Tours we shall go into central
France, through the Puy de Dome re-
giop, down to the Riviera and SO on to
Italy, reaching Rome about Christmas.
/ want to spend Christmas day in
Rome. After few weeks there we
shall sail from Naples for Palermo
and will spend the early spring in
Sicily, then back to the continent, to
Baireuth in time for the Wagner fes-
tival then to Munich for the musical
season there ard SD back home about
the LIST of June. have laid out no
definite itinerary. but this is an out
line of my general plan. which l shall
vary as the spirit moves me.
ut may seem strange thing for an
old soldier q f"'si 81; bnt art is