THE NECESSITY OF FRESH AIR 



When we speak olf recreation in this 

 magazine we mean OUTDOOR diversions, 

 with a big, 'big "O." It is a common ex- 

 pression to speak with the utmost contempt 

 of a hog, and we frequently hear people 

 say, "as dirty as a pig." Yet 



A WILD BOAR 



is as clean, fierce, independent and self-re- 

 liant an animal as is found in the forests, 

 and its habits are every hit as cleanly as 

 those of the other forest creatures. Its food 

 consists of nuts, acorns and succulent roots, 

 a bill of .fare to which no objection can be 

 made by the most captious critic; but when 

 the wild boar has, through ages of over- 

 feeding and confinement, become 



A DOMESTIC HOG 



it gorges itself with swill, half-fermented 

 garbage and the refuse from the kitchen, 

 and wallows contentedly in its own filth. 

 It is then A CIVILIZED PIG. The 



WILD BEE 



makes its honey from the sap flowing from 

 the storm-broken 'branches of the sugar 

 maple and box elder. The nectar stored in 

 the blossoms of the forest trees, wild flow- 

 ers, mints, nettles, wild thyme and other 

 aromatic and delightful materials, and, con- 

 sequently, 



WILD HONEY 



has as distinctive a gamey flavor of its own 

 as do the game animals which shelter them- 

 selves under the foliage of the big tree or 

 the grouse Which roosts in its branches. 

 But 



THE DOMESTIC BEE 



lives in an artificial hive, often deposits its 

 honey in an artificial comb, and, in place of 

 the spicy wild flowers to gather its honey 

 from, the chemically prepared syrups fur- 

 nished it by the owner of the hive and the 

 civilized honey is over sweet, flat and insipid. 

 The lesson to be drawn from this is not 

 that all men should revert to savages, but 

 it is that all men should have elbow room, 

 fresh air and be unconfined, mentally and 

 physically, before they can develop the high- 

 est condition of manhood and produce the 

 best work. Our CITIES, without excep- 

 tion, are 



HUMAN PIG STYES. 



In making this statement I speak by the 

 book, for I have personally made a map of 

 almost every town and hamlet between the 

 Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. 

 And on these maps I located every house, 

 barn and shed, and I can state emphatically 

 that, although there are parts of every city 

 in which the individual residents have the 

 appearance of cleanliness, there are also 

 whole sections of every city where the filth, 

 moral and physical, is worse than that of 

 any pig sty. This comes from overcrowd- 

 ing and herding people into limited quarters. 

 Pigs, as a rule, have plenty of fresh air, 

 which is denied to the people inhabiting the 

 human styes ; and the contamination of 

 these places spreads in the form of impalpa- 

 ble dust, loaded with microbes, spoors, bac- 

 teria, which float on the tainted atmosphere 

 and enter into and pervade even the neat 

 appearing mansions of the rich. It is evi- 

 dent to the most casual observer and thinker 

 that 



MEN ARE NOT INTENDED TO LIVE IN PIG STYES. 



Every city is a pig sty, and the products 

 of the men who labor in them are likened 

 unto the product of the bees fed on glu- 

 cose. They are flat, unwholesome and in- 

 sipid. 



Of course, we are now running up against 

 one of the 'most difficult and intricate of 

 social problems; but it is not one that can- 

 not be solved. 



However, it is not the province of the 

 editor of Recreation to advance any eco- 

 nomic theory, and whatever his private be- 

 liefs and convictions may be they will not 

 be imposed upon the readers of this maga- 

 zine; but it is the province of this magazine 

 to preach 



FRESH AIR 



and to point out the evils which come from 

 the lack of it. Take a man like Abraham 

 Lincoln, whose early life was spent in the 

 open air of the wilderness, who was born in 

 a log house, through the chinks of which 

 there was always a free circulation of ozone, 

 and compare this man and his work with 

 some of the gentlemen who jhave lately, 

 most unwillingly, been placed in the lime- 

 light of the public. And you will see the 

 difference, both morally and physically, be- 

 tween the man who split rails and the man 

 who cuts coupons. We cannot all live in 



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