The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-01-08

Jagged teeth of the city's skyline. All
this spells freedom and renewal of
spirit; all this means the meeting of
primitive appetites for we were moon
gazers before the race had the needs,
physical and spiritual, of its master.
The city house may express the es-
thete, but seldom the man in all his
vigors, convictions and enthusiasms.
It's space is too cramped; almost in
evitably it is crowded in between 9TH
er houses, turning only pinchel face
to the sun, and he is fortunate archi-
tect indeed who has not once, if not
now and again, designed such dwell
ing with windows that startlingly
suggest eyes bullying from pressure.
Such can be only stopping place for
one who is in all parts a man.
When he truly and comfortably and
vigorously lives, it must be in gener-
Gus spaces. There must be settings
for his moods, perspectives without
and within that second temple of his
soul-the house that he calls home.
This is almost inevitably a country
house, and house that has so keen
a charm that it cannot be abandoned
as a bird abandons it's nesting place
with the change of the seasons.
1t is no mere sentimentalist who
recognizes his need of lawn and other
dwellings than the treetops; we knew
the amplitude of country spaces be-
fore We became gimlet men, boring
our ways through the crush of town.
Our need is none the less keen be-
cause of the springs lure of green,
the summers ripening opulence and
the red and geld of autumn have given
way to the white of winter, on which
the moon playing her soundless soma
tas centuries in the weariest brain a
fairyland more satisfying than ro-
mancer ever dreamed. For youth
still bides in country places waiting
for him who has lost it in the city,
and youth is 10th to grow up suddenly
and become again the city man of af-
fairs when the calendar proclaims No
vember first.
Time was, and not so long ago,
when the country house was next to
impossible as winter dwelling for
those who go about much in the city.
But when every family must have at
least one closed and heated car, when
the boulevarded roads run everywhere
and steam and electric railways are
multiplied past counting, one might
dS well live III Tie country as III JCWn
at any season of the year.
The lure of log fire might well
draw one through greater difficulties
than "forty minutes out" entails. And
if one be lonely at times, if the charm
of library of noble proportions fail,
the weekend party, gathered before
that same log fire were magic enough
to enrich the quiet of family evenings.
A tramp in the snow adds ripe years
to life that might have ended too
early. and II thorn be children winter
romps in the open are rare and pre-
cicus mdicines for the treasures of
the household.
Thanksgiving and Christmas holt
DAYS in country house with the holly
and the mistletoe and the fowls from
ones own yard. to say nothing, If one
be a consistent epicure, of new vege-
tables from ones own greenhouse, are
seasons Of soul-filling merriment such
as one misses utterly in the city. And
the good honest log blazing again
takes one back to the childhood of
English-speaking America. back to
Merrie England herself, back, back
to the wellsprings of the race and the
primitive fountains Of inspiration
The country house 10 ones place in
the sun and more; ones place in the
snow, and the moonlight on the snow.
He who has need Of place in the
country has need Of It well around the
circle Of the calendar.