The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-07-16
TAKE A VACATION.
All Work and No Play is Bad Rule
to Live BY.

Their great vogue has come only within
the last forty years. Our fathers and
mothers seldom thought of going away
for more than two or three weeks III the
Summer, and even that was apt to be a
grand and exceptional occasion.
Even more recent is the custom of
taking exercise or recreation in day
light. In the larger cities it is common
enough now for big business men, heads
of departments and high executives to
shut the desk on summer day at 2
0 clock and 90 off into the country but
III the smaller towns such a revolution
airy treatment of the daylight hours is
thought almost immoral.
One of the disadvantages of small towns
| is that their little circle of interests
| creates community idols or fetshes.
Among the men, common fetish is that
| 1t is not quite respectable to think of
anything but business in the daytime, Just
as women are swayed by curious conven-
tional articles OF faith requiring the pc
riodical transfer of dust from one part
OF the house to another.
That men should support their families
and keep their business in shape is for
most OF US a vital necessity, calling fol
ones best efforts But one trouble with
the no-break plan is that after certain
amount of routine we are not much goot
except along the same routine, so thai
by an evil circle we come to exalt thai
very routine into thing to be worshippeo
tor itself.
So deadening is the effect of routin
that its consideration makes us tax
with considerable discount the famlia
characterization of lie in large cities a
severishIy unhealthy Statistics do no
, justify it 1t is curious fact that pee
pie live longer in the cities than in til
country. Every now and then some on
suggests theory Of the liver, or of be-
ter sanitation, or Of the percentage {
: sturdy immigrants, but we fancy tina
they 90 too far atield The nervous systei
is what counts for most in estimatin
! life, certainly in quality, much. we b.
: lieve, in quality.
Tennis, golf, automobiles, fishing, wall
! ing, have all one thing IN common The
are continually presenting the world
! a fresh aspect. They act alike in tonir
up the nervous system because they keC
: our minds out of those deadly ruts. Fl
: great argument that our prohibition
friends have never featured sufficient
habit and keeps men in chairs when tn,
;, ought to he out exploring The prohil
: ton wave has in fact conceded with Il
: rise of the automobile The reason t
= automobile manufacturers did not active
Al encourage the anti-iquor movement W
d. because they saw that if people order
;" cars any faster they would be swampec
4, In the old country village the loc
I. magnates seldom took any more exerci
,, than to walk down after supper to t
store and take their accustomed seats
the cracker boxes, just in front of t
Young Hyson tea or the sugar as t
ne case might be- Until 8 O'Clock there "
ey monotonous discussion Of public a
IL climatic events Good vocal chords a
powers Of endurance gave man a han
cap nothing could overcome Many
vy-jowled, habby-feshed Scion |
,w9ddled. home .Wbile an tatnrpnI4 eof
ly exclaimed to the remnants OF the grol
he Gee, if that man was to 90 to the :
as- ate he'd make EN- sit up
II There was nothing to it, 1t belol
- with the other overrated institutions
NC our youth. People never got very
er sitting round discussing politics and
at weather. any more than they did slit
round imbibing successive highballs
was not intended to be a sitting amin
and that eminent faunal naturalist,
II Roosevelt, certainly a careful student
II animal life, was right in denouncing
! | bleacher athlete as an abnormal phen
} II enon.
Among the outdoor sports walking
probably the best, but many are 50
fortunate as not to be temperament
constituted to get the best out of it. I
mis- Is good, although it is rather vioI
Tor persons much over 60, and does n,
: ing for the wee ones. Golf fills the
IDS at one end, and if your wife plays
tle is an ideal family recreation The a
on mobile takes all the rest including
Nv infants from ten days old mp and all OF
nd persons not hereinbefore specially on
nv Grated or provided for, as the tariff sci
ules put it.
To persons still unconvinced Of
sh high values OF vacations, getting outdo
making break generally, we recomu
bod careful study of the figures given by
,aff Victor Vaughn, retiring President of
for American Medical Association. at
ON meeting at San Francisco last year.
"a appears that during the forty years vi
aud as above noted, have been marked bv
Ike growth Of the vacation habit, the ave
tbe term OF life among civilized man has
Won creased approximately fifteen years.
iized men, OF course, are the only ones
take vacations. The added considera
that during that period life has grown
the time more worth living did not
eat within the scope of the doctors
vile ject, but will readily occur to thost
and our reaoefS VINO make rational uS'
sed, s'h' lenhiS' waking antomopiIes or 9
give recreation ana eXercise according to
be taste ana fancy OF the user.-ldaho II
man.