Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1905-12-09
The ART OF LOAFING
AS 1t Is Viewed by General
Jake Smith.
CONSISTS IN ACTION, NOT IDLENEss

Veteran Fighters Idea of a Life OF
Leisure-Is to Broaden All That Is
Most Refined In a Mans Tastes.
Will Automobile In France and
Wants Chiefly to Study Art In Fa-
nous Galleries Abroad.
General Jacob Hurd Smith, U. s. A.
(retired), who won fame as a great
fighter in the rebellion in Cuba and in
the Philippines. recently sailed for Eu-
rope with the express purpose and de-
liberate intention of loaing, says the
New York World. Loafng, according
to General Smith, is science, even a
fine art, and he goes to Europe to loaf
because he can find no one in America
who will loaf with him in the way he
wants. People here are too busy, or
think they are, which is just as bad,
to spend time in enjoying themselves,
and he is 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. $50
what is loafng for me-" he said
may not be loafng 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 yourself? And he answered
gravely, I am studying. turtles An
other good friend of mine I found in
his garden, devoting his life to raising
roses. told those fellows they were
burying themselves, they were too mar
row in their ideas, but they seemed
happy and satisfied.
"My idea of spending life of leisure
is to broaden as much as possible all.
that is most refined in mans tastes
There you have. in few words, what
call loafing and what most men in
this country think they are too busy to
do. Since I was retired from active
service three years ago, at the age
Of sixty-two, 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 short, slender
man, who looks very like Field Mar
shall Lord Roberts of the British army.
His shoulders are square, his chest
leep, and he carries himself like true
soldier. His face is scanned and criss-
.rossed with the wrinkles that years
If hardship and peril have stamped:
lis nose is of the aquiline type that
Napoleon required in his generals; his
,yes are pale greenish blue and look
It you with penetrating fearlessness,
mounting even to ierceness when in
ensity of thought or expression deepens
he two lines that rise from his nose
nd bisect his forehead, but that melt
nto tenderness when he speaks of his |
wife or the boys who fought under !,
i'm and were killed. He Is bald, with
fringe of iron gray hair and thick
'ut closely cropped iron gray mus
ache. He dresses with the same quiet
A picturesque forcibleness character
zes his speech, the force that Is exem-
lifted in his famous dispatch to Cen
raj Otis from Annaiees when besieged
q that Luzon village by force of ma
ives far larger than the handful of !
aen he had under him: II will hold |
his place till hell freezes over and i
aen fight on the icef'
"Mrs. Smith and sail on Saturday |
irect for London. We shall be enter
aimed by some friends at Hampstead |
DR. about ten days, and then we go to
'aris, where have many friends.
rom there we go down the Loire to
ours and, making that city our head
uarters, spend few weeks automo-
ling about among the chateaux.
ave friend who has a fine fast motor
ar, and shall act as chauffeur. Oh,
es, understand the car. spent sew
raj weeks last spring in the factory
{ the makers studying its mechanism.