The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-04-06
OPEN Arr LIFE.

Americans, especially American
women, despite the athletic crazes
which rise, decline and fall every few
years, become neurotic for want of
regular open-air exercise The pre-
valent sallow complexion which Eng
lish visitors pronounce 'hideous"
certainly has little of the charming
fresh milk -and-roses aspect of the
women of the isles, English, Irish,
Scottish or Welsh, and nothing what
ever of the sun-kissed, red Tipped
bronze tirts of the Southern races,
Italian, Spanish, French. American
women are so afraid of sunshine that
even on the wintriest days they seek
the shady side of car and train, or
if forced by crowding to sit upon the
sunny side, down come the curtains
to blot out the health giving light.
Rather than walk paltry dozen
blocks-not a good mile-an appar-
emily sensible and able girl will hang
to a strap in an unventilated car,
sardine- packed with humanity, wash
ed and unwashed. No wonder that
the American complexion has been
compared to American piecrust-
half baked at that No wonder that
nervous troubles break down so many
splendid constitutions in the very
prime of life.
A great great grandmother, a con-
vert to Catholicity, vital woman
who never wasted an opportunity to
grow stronger, wiser, gentler, merri-
er, rode to hounds at sixty, taking
her fence as lightly as the youngest
of them, and walked three miles to
Mass at eighty. She reared and doc
tored most successfully eleven chill
dren, and died at ninety. never hav-
ing known real illness. Her health
and poise and capacity for affairs she
attributed to the invigorating infiu-
ence of the fresh-air exercise, which
she never neglected. 1t was the only
tonic prescribed for herself and -
family, taken daily, rain or shi
the preservation Of health al
elevation of spirits. A little prayer
for health" which has come down to
me belongs to the primer of this ac-
tive foremother: Grant, Lord,
that I may do my duty firmly in
kindness. Grant me strength to be
helpmate to my husband, and pa
tience to be wiser mother to my
children. Make my sons brave and
true, keep my daughters gentle and
modest. Grant to us and to all de-
pendent upon us health of soul,
health of mind and health of body to
do Thy will in adversely bravely, in
prosperity humbly. Amen"
MYSTERIES OF BIRD MIGRATION.
A recent writer in the Y0uth'S
Comb0nion alludes to the case of the
mysterious migration ofthe chimney
swifts, who go nobody knows where
for FIVE months of the year. In the
autumn their movements can be fol-
lowed until the various bands gather
into one on the north coast of the
Gulf of Mexico. Suddenly one day
they are found to have disappeared,
and in the spring they reappear as
mysteriously.
Many birds undertake very long
migrations whose extent can be trac-
ed. The night hawk is said to have
a summer home in Alaska and a win
ter home in Argentina, travelling the
7, 900 miles twice year. The plover
has been found in June in the barren
grounds" of the Arctic Circle as far
north as latitude 81 degrees, whereit
rears its young in the moss. In Au-
gust it goes to Labrador for the crow
berry, and then to the Antilles.
After this again it strikes afresh for
the South and reaches Southern Ar
gentina and Patagonia, later on going
back to the Arctic.
The same writer has note OF the
inexplicable phenomena of the red
eyed vireo. This bird winters in
Central America and appears each
spring at the Mississippi, travelling
only twenty miles day, as far as
Nebraska. But then suddenly in
twenty-four hours numbers of the
birds appear in British Columbia, a
thousand miles away.-New Century
PATH.
TOOK NO CHANCES.
A Chicago lawyer tells of a justice
r L. 1900 -. EArr,Ss ~ c0f4fhArf1