Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1881 — Hobbies. [ARTICLE]

Hobbies.

Take the case of a lady of our acquaintance who had always greatly despised fishing. What attraction people could find in it was to her Incomprehensible; rat-catching, she said, she might bring herself possibly to take an interest in, but never fishing. At last, some years ago, she happened to go to an Irish moor with her brother; and not knowing what to do for her amusement, sent her out fly-fishing under the keeper’s care. She caught three fish, and also caught her hook in her thumb, and had to have It cut out; and from that day the spirit of Isaac Walton entered into her. She brought a pair of fishing stockings, and was to be seen in all weathers persevenngly wading and flogging the water, till she became an expert angler, and is now competent to discourse learnedly on the relative merits of flies, fishing-rods, and all such topics. Another lady, again, who had been mounted on a variety of hobbies, Dant, music, algebra, arithmetic, etc., had had a strong dislike toeverything Connected with a farm. It bored her; she knew and cared nothing about M, and thought it associated with \nasty smells which she could not ehdure But suddenly agricultural matters assumed a new aspect, for farming became her hobby, and she discovered It to be the one thing worth living for and taking the trouble of studying. Books on thorugh bass, Italian and sums'* were left languishing ojv-tne shelves, and her table exclusively with workjr z upon the treatment of land, of crops, manures, the management and feeding of stock and similar subjects. She learned to tell at a sniff whether a field were being dressed with guano, bones, superphosphate, or slaughterhouse manure, and would lean long over the doors of the pigsties, or stand seriously pondering upon the “long” or "short” condition of a dung-heap, without heeding the savory odors therefrom arising. Do we not know an artistic young man who, if an unusually striking sunset should occur when he is out shooting, . will at once dismiss all further thought of making a good bag, send the keeper after sketchbook and'colors, lay aside his gun, and calmly proceed to paint—to the considerab.e disgust of his fellowsportsmen? And have we not seen another gentleman, with any number of gardeners at command, who devotes every spare minute to his Auriculas, and is perpetually rushing off to their houses, that he may with his own hands move pots into or out, of a drip, or open or shut panes of glass, to regulate the amount of air that is to bio v upon the precious plants, just as if their welfare depended entire by upon his personal efforts? The hobby may be chemistry, music, lace, science, china, algebra, languages, history, politics, volunteers, farming, gardening, athletics, painting, architecture, horse-racing, or what not. Be it what it may, and however little ehoice you may have had in the matter, you are, nevertheless, completely enchanted with it, aud quite prepared to maintain that that particular pursuit, and no other is the most worthy ana elevated of al( that can possibly engage the attention of the human race. And, what rapture do you not then experience, if you chance to encounter another person with the same craze upon him aa yourself? With what unwearying relish is the common point of interest talked over, and how exalted is the opinion you mutually entertain for one another’s good sense and good taste! The discussion that goes on between you and the kindred spirit whom you have met is apt to recall the mind of a listener the negro’s Idea of an argument: “Golly, massa, how me lub argeyntebt! Pompey, him say—paint dat wall white; me say—paint nim white, too; and den we argey ’pon de point for half a day —oh, lubly!”