The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-05-31 00:00:00

111_1•IMPPI

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

land and sea, will carey death and disease to
the aged and the infirm, and deal destruc-
tion to many a gallant ship now moving
gaily upon the surface of the great watei I.
However, sufficient to the day be the evil
thereof. Whitsuntide is now with us, and
after one of the longest winters upon record,
it is especially welcome in its dress of living
green, and with far more agreeable associa-
tions than those which tell of darkness and
of tempest.
The fact that human kind should pour in ,
an animated stream out from its places of
business and from its habitations into the
open air whenever an opportunity is afforded,
is an incontestable proof that man is an
open-air animal. There stands the ineradi-
cable decree "By the sweat of thysbrow
shalt thou eat bread." Although there are
some exceptions, this order in its general
application is changeless and unchangeable;
it is as enduring as the hillls, as constant as
the course of the rivers as they make their
way towards the sea, as lasting as the foun-
dations of the mountains, as perpetual as the
land which stretches along the pathways of
the valleys. Man, taking him as such, ia
undoubtedly made to work, and the sky is
his native covering. If proof were needed
of the truth of this declaration, let us take
the life of the sportsman, the hunter and the
husbandman, in a cultivated land like our
own. It will be found that they are the
healthiest of all workmen in that great work-
shop of Nature which is open to the firma-
ment of heaven. Gamekeepers more es-
pecially offer an example of the healthiness
of out-door life. Their rate of mortality is
very low, and the exercise of genuine sport
seems assalutary to the professional descend-
ant of the hunters of old as to the amateur
sportsman himself. Again, there is no
question as to -the fact that farmers and
agricultural labourers are amongst the
healthiest classes of the population. The
English farmer, indeed, is not poor, nor is
he ill-fed. The greater part of his life is
, passed in the open air, and although the
, weather troubles him occasionally, he is well
sheltered from its severities. The townfolk
are always glad to see him in their midst,
' for they know that the more successful is
the prosecution of agricultural pursuits, the
, better the quality of provisions which are
daily placed upon the tables of a vast popu-
lation.

It is a cardinal principle, the force of
which will be generally recognised, that one
of the first lessons that should be taught to
every child, rich or poor, is that it is born
to work. If we look around us, upon every
hand we shall see that the Divine labour
never ceases.. The earth does not stop in
its daily revolution on its axis, nor in its
annual march round the sun. The winds
are ever in motion, ventilating different
quarters of the globe, carrying away noxious
gases, moderating the temperature here, and
raising it there. The waters, too, are c on-
stantly on the move—the oceans and the
seas, the rivers and the lakes. The sun is
always at work, for when he is below the
horizon in our own latitudes, he is shining
brightly on the peoples in the far-off anti-
podes. And if we glance upwards, and note
the silence of the mountain tops, it will be
found that even these, calm in their eternal
stillness, unbroken in their everlasting quiet,
and apparently at rest, are really performing
an important labour. On them the water
raised by the sun in vapour from the seas
and rivers is condensed, and falls again upon
the surface of the earth. A nimal and insect
life works to secure its food • before it sub-
sists upon it. The human frame itself is
never still whilst life is in it; the heart of
the idlest of men is unceasing in its labours.
Therefore, seeing that there is so much
necessity for work in everything around us;
seeing how essential it is to the sustenance
of the great human family, it is well that
there should be periods of relaxation both
for those who toil physically and mentally.
If the people work well, easily, successfully,
and economically, they look forward to a
time of recreation and enjoy it when it
comes. The Whitsuntide holidays of this
year want only fine weather to make them
remembered with pleasure by tens of thou-
sands. It was a bitter disappointment
when, after four months of winter, Easter
came cold, bleak, and miserable; but a fine
Whitsuntide would make amends even for
that, would obliterate the recollection of a
disagreeable memory; and strengthen and
brace up both mind and body for the heats
of summir and the weeks of work which lie
between Whitsuntide and the August holi-
day.

Stringer, Mr. Horsley's tender for watering the
streets for two years at £440 per annum, be
accepted. Carried. _
On the mourn of Mr. Kelley, Mr. A. Parkes's
tender for cleaning priveys, ashpits, &c., for £360
be accepted. Carried.
The :2hairman moved thd:t tlie offer of fot•
Phcenix Fire Office be accepted. Carried.