The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1921-07-22

dhd Io DitS 10 AMY s"h hho" t"S
penalty | exact. Life in these modern times is
too strenuous. Stop, get your breath, relax, rest!
Come and play aWhlle.'
We Americans are the busiest people under
the sun. There was a time when we played hard
ly at all. Now we have finally learned the ne
cessity Of relaxation and recreation. The trouble
is that we have learned to play not wisely but
too we'll. Our avocationS, especially in the
large cities, are as strenuous as our vacations
sometimes even more strenuous.
"There should be nothing so much a mans
business as his amusements," wrote Stevenson,
and he wrote a great truth, which has not yet
come home to us. SO 1t is that we Americans.
many of us, are coming to have double need Of
a summer vacation-to rest up from both our
work and our pleasures.
The Call of the Wild means, in q sense, pretty
much the same thing to all Of us. But neces-
sarily we can interpret it only according to our
knowledge and experience. Fortunate indeed are
they to whom the call means but one thing
whether gypsying by automobile, or the flying
spray of the salt sea, or the rushing stream whose
deep dark pools hide the great trouts, or the ten,
and campfire beside the placid lake, or the
mountain trail to the peaks where lies the ever
tasting snow. These fortunate, hear, understand
and obey.
Those Of us who are less fortunate also hear
and rejoice. But the call has no clear message.
We do not know what to do with our play time.
We do not know where or at what to play, and
the interesting spectacle Of a great people at
play is saddened by the sight of thousands Of
unfortunates wasting their precious vacation days
getting little enjoyment and less rest.
Come, let us plan vacation days
The secret of the trip that pays
Is knowing what to do.
That's the motto of the wise. They are not among
these unfortunates. They have planned their va
cation carefully and put common sense into their
plans. They have taken stock Of their physical
and mental needs. They have profted by the eX-
perience of past vacations and their successes
and failures. They understand that a vacation
for pleasure and q vacation for recuperation are
not necessarily the same thing, but they will try
to combine pleasure and recuperation.
Change is q great factor in both pleasure and
rest. When play time comes around most of us
instinctively long for something that our daily
life does not offer. Often this longing is a safe
guide, provided common sense is used. Obviously
q camping trip In the Wilds Is not suited to those
who must have soft beds, delicate viands and
delft service-even IL they are lovers of nature,
longing for a novel experience. 1t is equally OBJ
yious that these nature lovers would be out of
place in a fashionable summer resort where peo-
ole congregate to see and be seen. The COM
mon sense Of 1t is that they should go where
scenic beauty can be enjoyed and the conven-
tional comforts of life are not lacking.
When vacation time means to the weary work
or an opportunity to recuperate from toll, rest
is what he needs. The hest rest is absolute in
action. II loafe and invite my soul" wrote Walt
Whitman. But loahng Is a fine art; most Of us
are too used to be up and doing to enjoy sitting
and twiddling our thumbs. A change of scene
and occupation, with the blessed consciousness
that we do not have to do anything, 10 the best
rest. The hodcarricr who came into money had
the psychology Of it down fine when he set his
alarm clock as usual, threw his shoe at 1t when
It went or and turned over for a nap.
The wise man will take his vacation temperate
~. To return to rest up from his play-that is
a poor proposition. To come back to work with
renewed strength and energy-that's the thing.
The wrong kind OF vacation may be worse than
none. The right kind Of vacation may be a yer.
liable godsend. The wise man will so order his
play as to come back refreshed and restored and
eager for new worlds to conquer.
And wherever the Call Of the Wild takes us,