PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS,

Otago Witness, Issue 2286, 23 December 1897, Page 58

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS,

o ■ Liberty and a Living. The festive season has again come round and most of us will in our own manner throw care to the winds and in a more or less modest way, and for a shorter or longer time, make the best of the holidays. The other day I was reading a refreshing book by a New York- journalist. Now his way of enjoying himself was to get away from the towns as much as possible. His book, " Liberty and a Living," tells how he did so, and it may be cheering to some of' my country readers to know that, to his mind, no other way of spending life is equal to one spent in gardening, fishing, shooting — in fact, to get intojbhe country, away from the tedious grind of routine in dusty towns To him a life iv God's sunshine, listening to his children's prattle, and winding up the day with books, papers, and music, is one so unmistakably beneficial to mind and body that he wonders how anyone can live the hard anxious life that is the lot of such a vast majority of the human race — a life as devoid of intellectual activity as that of a horse. The author pleads for a life offering health and opportunities for intellectual recieation, where individuality would be the rule instead of the exception, and where happiness, not money, is the main object of life. And in speaking strongly against the present system which dooms such a large proportion of mankind to hard anxious work, with disappointment at the end, he asks of most successful city men (1) how much healthy exercise they have in the sun ? (2) how much of their time is passed with their wives and children? and (3) how much intellectual exercise do they get out of life^ and how many books worth reading do they open in a year ? The answers to these questions are : The worldly prosperous have no part or parcel in these ; with them moneymaking is the be-all and end-all of their existence. Don't such men pay too much for their money? 'According to Thoreau the Cost of a tbiDg is the amount of life required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run ; and by life be doesn't mean a simple animal existence. I dare say, though, that MB b§ven't hefted of. Tfaoraan. Id rnspj

respects he was a remarkable man. This curious personality was bred to no confession ; he lived alone, went to no church ; he j never voted ; he refused to pay taxes to the State, though when imprisoned he had no obj jction to gain freedom by having his taxea paid for him; he ate no fleeh and drank no wine, nor did he know the taste of tobacco ; and though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. He could guide himstlf about the woods on the darkest night by | the touch of his feet. He could pick up an exact dozen of pencils by feeling, and pace distances with accuracy. His sense of amell was so dainty that he could perceive the fsa L 6r of dwelling houses as he passed in the night ; his palate was so unsophisticated that, like a child, he dislikad wine ; and his knowledge of nature was |o complete and curious that he oould have told the time of year within a day or so by the aspect of the plants. There were few things he could not do. He CDuld make a house, & boat, a pencil, a book. Ha was a surveyor, a scholar, a natural historian. He could run, walk, climb, skate, swim, and manage a boat. You can easily see that a man with euch a love for freedom, with a strain of the 1 wild man in him, would have a thorough contempt for everything connected with ciiy life. And so has/the author of " Liberty and a Living." He inveighs against the con? j tinuous discussion of distressingly commonplace matters, the sadly vapid inane twaddle, the town tittletattle (which he calls puddling in social slush), and the sheep like tendency of city folk to gather in crowds and to amuse themselves by playing follow the j leader. Now, while these two writers may, and indeed do, exaggerate the evils of city life, yet there is enough of truth in what they Bay to cauae us to wish for a dash of a Thoreau in our nature?, for there is no doubt that much of the pleasure of a crowd j is characterised by unrest, hurry, or idle curiosity; and that much of city business life, with its nervous wear and tear, tends to anything but the life GiA intends us to live. ' But I suppose that as long as the world lasts — at any rate as long as the measure of a man is the amount of money or property he acquires — such things will -be. In one chapter, devoted mainly to clothes, the author expresses', and rightly so, his contempt for those who judge a man rather by the clothes he wears than by his capacities. And his remarks will bear repeating. Dress is not an art founded on fixed principles. What one generation admires the next will ridicule. Perhaps tha time will come when putcheß will be in fashion. L?t the* Prince of Wales appear in patched breeka to-mor-row, and fashion would decree that it were permissible — indeed advisable — for all to wear patched trousers. Years ago the Prince couldn't find the overooat he wanted, so went to the opera in a rough ehootiDg jacket he had been wearing in the Highlands — -result : ulsters appeared all over the world. M>re recently, dropping a glove in the street, .he pat on one of a different colour- -result: people bec;an to woar' glove 3 that didn't match. HVe pretty bald, too — result : the sale of hair-restorers has fallen off two-thirds In the United Kingdom. Not one in a thousand knows why there are two buttons on •Uptail coats. Originally they were required 'tohold on the sword belts. The swords have gone, but the buttons remain Why 1 The necktie onca held the shirt together at the neck, and so seived a useful purpose. Buttons now do what the necktie was called into exUtenoe for. Wny do we keep to the j tie? !

Now you would think that a man who would write ia this strain is a sarcastic, dyspeptic o^d fellow. But while Thoreau was perhaps a bit of a boor and a savage, the author of "Liberty and a Living" is, judging by bio book, a delightful man. Ha took to country life, and gained expedience in gardening by pulling up tons of weeds and pouring down tons of water, and by growing leathery vegetables which were curiosities of malformation and backwardness. He gives an amusing description of how, after spending a good many dollars on appliances and gaining a year's experience, he was able to effectually prevent bees from making honey, bub got a good insight into their habits and a perfect knowledge of the treatment of stings. Fishing and crab-catcbir.g were favourite occupations ; and as regards the latter he says that by a little experimenting one will nod where it is safe to lay bold ofa crab, and possibly some places where it isn't advisable to' do so. Otber country occupations are touched upon in an equally happy and commonsense manner.

A<3 l wrote at the outset, we are now preparing for a 1 merry tima of ifc, and my obj-.cb to-day is to ebeer ap country folk who feel their lot to be a hard one. You haven't any false sense of respectability. You can please yourselves about what you wear, and patch as much ac yon like ; and what is more easemaking and leposeful than a comfortable old coat and hat 1 You can enjoy the sunshine, produce largely what is required in the shape of g6od wholesome food, take a holiday occasionally without feeling you have lost a day's wages, sleep a sound sleep, digest anything that somes along ; and you need not live the pace at such a rate that you feel you haven't time to cross your t's or dot your is. I know that country life has its disadvantages, and very serious ones ; but on the whole I think that a country life, with a taste for reading and a moderate means for gratifying a degree of refined taste, ia the happiest and freest life for one individually, and is the best for a national life also.

And, thinking so, I wish my country readers the compliments of the season, and I shall only be too sorry if circumstances prevent me from spending a brief holiday among some of my country friends.