282 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



erased it the first night afterwards, 

 and this they did again when the ob- 

 noxious advertisement was repeated. 

 A little later the college authorities 



THE BOUfLHER SPLIT BY A CHERRY TREE. 



L'ut by courtesy of "The M. A. C. Record," East 



Lansing, Michigan. 



took a hand in the matter and the stone 

 has not been molested since either by 

 advertisers or righteously indignant 

 students. 



Nature and a Sanitarium. 



BY A JAPANESE REST Ct'RER, M. HONDA, 

 NEW YORK CITY. 



A sanitarium is really an ideal place 

 for observing and studying nature, es- 

 pecially in the warmer months of the 

 year, for its inmates, usually amid 

 country surroundings, are required to 

 relax as far as possible from all human 

 worries and vexations. More than this 

 they themselves are obliged to live a 

 life of nature, spending the day time in 

 the woods or perhaps in hammocks like 

 some insects, and sleeping" in the mov- 

 ing air under a glass roof and behind 

 screened windows like vegetables or 

 flowers, while at night they can count 

 the stars of the heavens, gaze at a 

 bright moon, listen to the frogs, the 

 katydids and the crickets, or watch the 

 mosquitoes hungarily eyeing the hu- 

 mans from outside the screen, with 

 their mouths watering as it were. 

 Resting both mind and body to the full 

 extent it is not wise even to consider 

 one's fellow inmates seriously as fellow 



beings, for then they are sure to arouse 

 sympathetic joys and sorrows in one's 

 heart. To a rest-curer, men and wom- 

 en are mere impersonal parts of nature, 

 a kind of vegetation the human is 

 taught to be. 



I came to Wildwood Sanitarium on 

 the outskirts of Hartford, Conn., in the 

 last days of apple blossoms. I saw the 

 corn planted and reaped; I picked 

 wild strawberries, blackberries, and 

 chestnuts and gathered the last apples 

 of the season from the grass covered, 

 bedewed ground, and saw jonquil and 

 crocus bulbs, planted. 



(lose by is a woodland with corn 

 fields and pastures and vegetable pat- 

 ches round about. The forest, separa- 

 ted from the Sanitarium by spacious 

 lawns and farm land, presents a series 

 of Turner-like landscapes set in the 

 frames of the long rectangular win- 

 dows. Beyond a dale in one direction, 

 the sight of Cedar Ilill Cemetery 

 where J. P. Morgan's family vault oc- 

 cupies a prominent position, feeds the 

 esthetic eye as well as the philosophi- 

 cal mind. 



In the matron of the institution, wt 

 find a rare combination of a gracious 

 hostess or a liberal landlady, an in- 

 structor in hygienic living, and a sym- 

 pathetic friend of selfish and unreason- 

 able patients, for physical ills make one 

 more or less egotistic and unbalanced. 

 Miss Kernan besides being an excel- 

 lent nurse and a capable business man- 

 ager, is particularly fitted to the posi- 

 tion she occupies from the fact that she 

 loves nature and unconsciously imparts 

 that love to others. Her garden is a 

 wonder land, for she seems to charm' 

 the flowers out of the ground. The 

 looms are ever fragrant poises; pa- 

 tients are soothed with dainty gifts and 

 those who are well enough are permit- 

 ted to learn the mysteries of her art — 

 a refinement of nature study. Through 

 her I learned to watch the growth of 

 that waxy white Indian pipe, to keep 

 spotted winter green in a small jar, and 

 enjoy its tiny fragrant blossoms, or to 

 plant partridge or twin berries in fine 

 moss and put them in glass bowls as 

 our cheery companions in frosty and 

 snowy months. 



Early in the spring Miss Kernan 

 had noticed a bird build its nest in a 

 low bush near her miniature green- 



