Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-08-08

communal life aud civilization would
be impossible. A lie introduces the
element OF fraud into the social con-
tract. But, obviously. there is no peril
| involved to the family on the nation
| In undertaking golf score or ex-
laggerating the spread OF pair of
ldeer's antlers To those of us who are
not poets, this is one of the commonest
forms OF Yielding to the play OF tho
imagination
The list of open-air pursuits To
which we have referred, beginning
with the least aftruthfal and descend
| ing steadily in the moral scale. is as
follows.
Tennis
Canoeing
Shooting
Sailing
Walking
Camping
Golf
Hammock reading
Fishing
The editor of the Post. treating the
subject further, says; "Of tennis il
will be seen that it is not only the
most beautiful of outdoor games
beautiful alike To the player and the
spectator-but that it also involves
the least strain on the moral fibre.
The fact that the game always brings
at least two people into close proxim-
ity might be cited as one of the rea-
sons why ii is SO comparatively free
from temptation. But that is
cynics opinion. The only weakness
to which tennis players can be said to
be at all commonly addicted is a great
pride in not being subject to perspira
tion. Followers of the game have a
tendency to exaggerate the state of
dryness in which they have gone
half a dozen sets under a
noon day sun. Add to this a less
common tendency to boast of using
ones backhand quite as effectively as
ones forehand, and all that can be
said against tennis has been said. The
only sin to be charged against the man
in canoe is that he usually UNDER
estimates the number of wettings he
has had in the course of a given trip.
The man with the gun is extremely
apt to exaggerate the size of the
quarry he has hit repeatedly without
actually bringing it down. But pre-
cisely because the huntsman. unlike
the fisherman, rarely has anything to
show for his pains. we ought to make
generous allowance for the effects of
high nervous tension involved in the
sport plus the resulting disappoint
ment.
Little can be said in extenuation of
the other pleasant occupations on our
list. The exceptions are sailing and.
oddly enough, fishing. The yachts
man will take liberties with eondi-
tions of sea and of weather He will
exaggerate the ease with which he
makes and lowers sail, the ease with
which his boat points into the wind
and the ease with which she avoids
taking on a sea in the liveliest of
squalls. But in the end the yachts
mans praises are not of himself but
of his boat; and so his exaggerations
belong in exactly the same class with
the father of first born il may be
sin, but IL is altruism, and for that
much must be forgiven. Much, also.
must be forgiven the fisherman. be-
cause he is handicapped from the start
by being bound to notorious occu-
patton. As matter of fact, fishing
has been placed last on the list in
Difference largely TO tradition. The
actual moral turpitude developed by
the average fisherman in the course of
days business Is much less than
that displayed by the man who pre-
tends that he loves to lie in ham
mock under tree and read light
literature. What he really does is
promptly to fall asleep. There have
been light summer novels over which
nan dozen men have gone to sleep In
rapid succession in the course of
single afternoon. Light reading taken
10 the country for summer consume
non is almost always completed at
nome IN December. Hammock-read-
ing might possibly come before eolf
instead of after it. But there can he
niue doubt that they belong close to-
sether IN sinister companionsbin at
the bottom of the list.
AINvaNs in,