The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-03-24 00:00:00

SOME ASPECTS OF PUBLIC lI.OLIDAIS

The 'return of Easter revives the reflectien as
to the wonderful popularity of the Bank Holi-
day movement. Coercion for one class hes been
permissive legislation waicti has .i)cen acceptee
by nearly all others. Most of the people who
nsw observe the Bank Holiday, so far from
being employed in banks, never had a banking
transaction in their lives, unless it were with the
Post-cflice. This general adoption of the wave
-
went in a comparatively few years is in itself an
argument in its favour. The periodical relief
from work is appreciated quite as much by
, masters as by MOD, and it is a matter for seta.
fection, in days when trade co;upetition is so
fitrce, that an unwritten agrt ernent shaulti be
so fairly fulfilled. On these Lew da3a in tla
year rival trade:men declare a truce, and forsake
the counter for the country. There are few
people who do not agree as to the result of all
work aad no play, though in the metter of haat
holidays it is a question a hether the pleasur
of anticipation and reflection ate cot ereeter
than those of participation. In those islands,
and in such an uncertain season, the chances
are rather in favour of uncomfortable weather.
But the genuine holiday-taker can geneiinly
extract amusement from his misfortunes, es-
pecially after the event. If, is true that Enlist.--
men.take a holiday in a very business like and
deliberate fashion, and usually compress more
travelling and toil into a single day than is good,
for them, but it is scarcely correct to say that
they take their pleasures sadly. On the con-
trery, a Bank Holiday is unhappily too often
marked by an excess of hilfaity. In this re-
spect, however, there has been a niarkcd improve-
a eat in recent years, and the nunikr of what
in the metropolis are delicately termed "holiday
' charges" at the police-courts shows a consider-
sh'e decrease on the riot and roa staring which
wen) once inseparable from public enjoyment.
The faciiitiesmffered to the iunabitants of out
largo towns for making excursions to the seaside
and the country which have grown to meet the
demand of ricent years have largely contributed
'to this improvement. But amid this almost
universal holiday making, it may be well
oc-
casionally to remember that there are certaie
classes of the community to a hom a gen:ral
holiday means an increase of work. The legis-
lator and the labourer, the merchant and the
mechanic may forget their affairs of StAte end
the state of their affairs ; but the policeman,
postman, pressman, and porter can know no
surcease of their daily strife. The civil
guardian of the peace must be more than ever
on the aleit ; the ordinary Briton would cona
plain loudly if his letters and morning news-
papers were not delivered with their accustomed
regularity, and 'railway servants of a I degrees I
nrust be prepared for the weariness and worry
of a congested traffic and the thousand questions
of a public utilised to travelling. Week in week
out, from morn to night, or night to morn, as
the case may be, these essentials to civilized
enjoyment must persue their daily round with-
out relief. It is to be feared that the knowledge
of the necessity is but cold comfort to them,
but the circumstance might occasionally be set
dowu to their credit when the periodical
grumble against one of the a'ass i 4 abroad.
Tilt re is another aspect of the holiday qurstion
w; iaa deserves more serious consieleration. It
is robable that the conjunction of several
bolt lays, or, more strictly speaking, days on
which no work is done, may, in some instatices..
entail considerable loss and inconvenience. For
instance, at Christmas last, Saturday, which in
most large towns- is a broken day, Sunday
Christmas Day, and the Bank Holiday, or fully
hall the :seek in successit n, meant a complete
paralysis of business. D .ck charges, interest,
establishment expenses, warehousing, and other
charges were proceeding, as commercial men
kuv is unfertunately their custom, whilst no-
taing could be done which could be considered
as a set-eff. At this pr t sent Easter,- Good
Friday, perhaps the whole of Saturday, Easter
Sun lay, and the Bank Hold y will repeat the
inceavecience. It therefore t ocotnes i question
whether the Bank Holiday might not ad-
vantageously be detached fr- m other general
, boll •ays. Of course, there is this to be said
I in favour of the present arranaetnent—that
portunity is afforded for more extended
journeys for the purpose of vit iting friends or
the enjoyment of dis ant canary than a single
day's holiday would permit. But many business
men will agree that it is an arrangement at-
tended with serious drawbacks. The want of
uniformity throughout the United Kingdom in
the matter of public holidays in another
inconvenience. In England and Ireland Good
Friday, Easter Monday, Wait Monday, the first
Monday in August, Christmas Day, and the
following day, are observed ; while in Scotland
New Year's Day, Good Friday, the first Monday
in May, the first Monday in August, and
Christmas Day, are set apart for Bank Holi-
days. When the intimate business relations
between the various parts of the kingdom is
considered, geographical divisions being in that
respect arbitrary or nonexistent, it can be
conceived that the entire stoppage of business
in one part of Great Britain might cause con-
siderable inconvenience in another portion
where the many channels of commercial life
wheie in full flew.