Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1910-08-10
HOUSEHOLD
VACATION OR NO?

lQRIy UOWdrQ green u0lu5 duQ Qul0t
va.es. We have been pr, me to pity
the essentially American husband and
father who stays by his desk during
the summer months when mother
and the girls spend at the seashore
and mountainside. 1.-The Point of
View" in Scribner's Magazine, how
ever, presents the situation in a new
light altogether, and intimates that
father has the best of the situation and
is not so much needful of our pity as
our admiration for his sagacity. He
points out that the vacationist often
feels the need of an extra week or
two to recuperate from the effects of
his hunt for recreation and rest.
Mountain climbing, golf ana tennis in
boiling temperatures may be recrea-
ton but the exertion of a couple of
weeks washings does not hold a can
die to the effect on the system and
nerves that such sport wreaks. Scrib-
ner's says of the ground father takes
in electing to remain at his desk: HE
knows that endless work, however
hard it may be, Is not so hard as end
less play, and he takes his ease in his
office with old friends and pipe
while wife and daughter put in TWEEN
ty-four hour days travelling, toiling
up mountains and down gorges in the
delusion that it all means rest and re-
creation. Whatever the American
woman may be she is what the Ameri
Can man has made her, whether or no
she belongs to this small leisure class
which our vi.itors mistake for the
whole. 1t is in his hands to change
her If he will; those who pity him do
not realize what singularly capable
individual he is. Meanwhile, if the
butterfly lady fails to see her hus-
bano's dry smile, denoting that he
has the best OF it, why should the for
eigner protest?
Another side of the vacation cues
ton is brought forth by Pres. Taft's
recent utt5rance t the effect that long
vacations are better than brief ones
The Springfield Republican dis. uses
this phase of the question interest
lngiy as follows and there will be ros
and cons that easily come to the minds
of all thinkers on the question of
"Shall We take vacation?' The Re-
publican says;
"Pres. Taf5's word for longer vaca-
lions than are common among Ameri-
can people will doubtless find APPROX
al among those who are able to take
them and those who are not, His
father, he tells us, thought that two
weeks were ample. The son mentions
two or three months as no more than
enough latter the hard and nervous
strain" to which one is subj ,cted
during the fall and winter and spring
seasons. The late Justice Strong of
the United States Supreme Court is
mentioned as having made a practice
OF passing two months in the woods
each year, and as having lived to the
age OF " or 80 years in supposed con-
sequence. IL would be impossible to
multiply the instances of longevity
aooV9 the common of those who follow
the long vacation practice. It would
also be Impossible no doubt to find an
equal proportion of instances of like
longevity among those who take brief
Vacations or none at all.
much depends upon the nature of
the work. 10 highly specialized and
connnlng occupations more rest and
diversion Is needed than in such an
occupation as agriculture when the
WORK is highly varied and generally in
the open air; and more rest or di-
version Is needed in conf ding mental
occupations perhaps than in those of a
mechanical nature.
but discussing the question from
the viewpoint of health aud longevity
it might be asserted that prolonged
vacations are not necessary in the case
OF the most exacting and ner, crack
ing occupations. WORK la not the
prlm curse but the primal blessing.
Only to the perfect man as he existed
before the tall, of whom the world mas
never known and can have no cou-
ceptlon, could work be curse. Psr-
petual idleness is death to the average
human being, body as we'll as soul.
work ls a necessity for the health OF
both body and soul. And as no one
can stand perpetual idleness; few can
stand any very considerable period of
ld1eness; and the vacation of complete
loleness Is not what is generally want
ed or needed save in exceptional
cases.
"The great need of the American
people is not more mentioning Of
the idle sort, but diversion and capa-
city for diversion-more activity not
less, but an activity, mental and
manual, which is more varied for the
individual than our specialized mod
ern industry easily admits of. Ordi-
narily more rest and recuperation are
to be had from change of work than
from the setting aside of work. 1t is
better, therefore, to cultivate diver
sion and diversified capacity from
day to day than to stir up the need
for satisfaction at some one continu-
Gus period of the year. The daily va
cation of useful or interesting activity
outside of the regular employment is
of far greater value to health and
longevity than long summer vaca-
ton which punches and attempts to
satisfy prolonged lack of the daily
diversions in mental and bodily ac-
tivity.
ga man who racks himself to pieces
along single and particular line of
employment during nine months of
the year, cannot make good the loss in
the other three months by sitting on
q hotel porch and looking blankly out
to sea. Bot even II the physical wear
and tear can be balanced off and made
good in this way, something has been