Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-08-24
GQmtester Dailp Spp.
'm the Cornhill Magazine for August.
ON HOLIDAYS.
A RHArsODY ToR AUGUST.


never offended after this fashion again
sympathlzed from my heart with all that was
sad on the subject by the travellers on the
Welsh omnibus, in the single quadrupetal
sense wherein they were tain to consider it !:
but wondered, at the same time, how it hap
pens that whilst the generality of mankind
thoroughly understands the subject in this
sense, there are SO many able and amiable men
unwilling OF incompetent TO apply the very
obvious principle to the larger concerns OF
human life. 1t inks me to think that there are
legions Of excellent persons who could on no
account overwork their horses,-who have a
lively appreciation Of the necessity Of occa-
sional weeks or months of rest-who know
that to grudge these periods OF inactivity to
their equine friends is, i'll proverbial phrase,
penny wise and pound toolish"-but who
have neither the same tender cunScences nor
the same shrewd sense to aid them in their re-
latlons with those who carry them along the
highways and byways of business and dOmes.
tic lite /; masters that refuse that TO their hu-
man dependents, in house or office, which they
grant willingly to the "beaSts which PERISH
had family disputation on this subject
the other day with my neighbOr, Mr.. Ialeah
a great Italian merchant in this city, most
worthy man, and the father of most interest
ing family. | fear that L did not succeed in
making him a convert to my views, but know
that had the sympathies and best wishes of
his sons and daughters, to say nothing of his
esumable lady and was greatly encourag.
ed by the earnest, intelligent face of little
Carrie lallicah, who sat by and listened to
the discourse with evident appreciation of
the sentiments l expressed. Indeed | gem
orally find that my younger auditors
are heart and soul on my side. The
argument employed upon the other was
mainly that of the audator temporis acu
NOT h., II
about holidays thirty or forty years ago.
Young men went to their business early and
returned late indeed, on foreign post-nights,
were often kept at their work till close upon
midnight, If they were ill they went home,
and the heads of large houses were not wont
to be liberal to them. He had got on well
enough in his younger days without holidays
why should he take them in his older Why
should not his sons do as their father had done
before them Why should they have shorter
work-davs and fewer of them i'll the course of
the year And how was business to 20 on if
every one went away?
10 this | observed deferentially, that "eve.
ry-one" was strong word And | ventured
to allude to the system in force at the public
ofhces, which provides for the continual pres.
ence OF some efficient officer of department,
and yet enables every one to take his holiday
at some time or other of the year-a eystem
which, as enabling juniors to feel their way to
higher duties, has its uses i'll another sense. /
alluded laughngly, too, to tine famous saying
OF a certain great statesman, who alleged that
he divided his business into three parts,
part he did another did itself and the third
was not done at all. But | perceived that
public offices and public men were not held of
much account by my opponent, and that my
argument gained little or nothing by refer
ence to them. Indeed, he was pleased to OBJ
serve, that if his firm had done business after
the manner of the public offices, it would have
Ueen bankrupt long agO,-a proposition which
l did not dispute, but which could not admit
to be convincing against holidays. Indeed,
nothing could convince me that it is not the
duty of every employer, great or small, to
give his workmen reasonable number of hol.
idays in every year.
"And have they not" l may be Asked
"has not every workman in this christian land
fifty,two holidays in every year?" Truly,
there is for most of us, one holiday in every
week-one day, set apart by God, and given
to man to keep it holy. 1t is the hottest of all
days,--a blessed day of rest vouchsafed to
us, apart from its spiritual uses, that we may
re-create our exhausted energies. But "recre-
alton" as it is popularity understood, is out of
the category of orthodox things. Sunday is
day of routne-the best of all possible rou
tines, it is true-but still we have our appoint
ed duties and my idea of holiday is that
we should be emancipated from all routine,
thatw should have no appointed duties Be
sides, who can really enjoy Sunday, when the
CHASTITY image Of Monday peers over its quiet
shoulders
We have come now to look upon the word
in its ordinary acceptatiOn, as something dis
tinct altogether from its genealogical mean
ing, and are wont to associate it with ideas
rather of a Bohemian or vagabondzing kind
of life, than of anything stationary and do
nestle. The right thing, indeed is to ego
out for holiday" to seek change of scene,
and change of air, and change of action; to
divest ones self of all environments of work
day life; to enter, as it were, into new state
Of being, as does the grub when he eventuates
into a butterfly, and spreads his wings in the
summer air. Grateful, indeed, ought this gem
Grafton to be for the bengnant aid of steam,
when affords unfailing facilities to holiday
makers seeking change of scene and air, car
rying them to remote places within an hours
space, and suffering them to see hundreds of
miles Of country, in a single day, for a few
shillings, 1t is no small thing that in these
times toil.wOrn artisan may transport himself
from the sitting alley or the reeking court
in which he lives, to the fresh, breezy
coast of Brighton, for half crown, and
be carried home again for nothing. Or if he is
not minded to go so far a-feld, there is the
Crystal Palace at Sydenham, or the royal pal
ace at Hampton Court, or the Rye House,
famous in history for its plot, to all of which
he may make pleasant excursions at a small
charge, and travel out of himsefas thoroughly
as though he were newborn, going back into
a past or onward into future age, and forget
ting all the wearing toll and carking anxiety
of the present. There is nothing peasanter
than the sight of railway-train freighted with
excursonsts onward bound, all radiant with
the expectation of a days pleasure. And
such may be seen nowadays in the outskirts
of every large town on summer and autumn
mornings for London has no monopoly of
such blessings. If the South has its Brighton,
the North has its Scarborough and, indeed it
is easy everywhere to rush out of the smoke.
/ hear people who can take their months holt
day when they like, and travel by express
trains, and get up extensive outfits for the &C.
casion, with all sorts of elaborate contriyances
suggestive of nothing less than an expedition
into Central Africa, sheer at these excursions,
as things snobbsh but it seems to me that
the sneerers are the real snObs, and that |
have seen, in first.class carriages, extensively
got'up holiday makers of both sexes, far more
vulgar because more pretentous, than the
poor little Pippas of the silk mills treated by
tnelr admlrng SWANS to half-a crowns worth
OF lresh arr and green leaves in the pleasant
country And ripe, rich comfort ought it be
to all who get their holidays regularly every
year, without let or hindrance, and perhaps,
without injury to themselves and Others, that
the blessings which they enjoy are now with.
i'll the reach OF millions less favoured by for.
tune than themselves. And hope, too, that
they who look up from the lower STRATA nj
society at people sleeker than themselves. in
richer purple, and in finer linen. do not grudye
them their holidays, and say, "What have YOU
10 ID La nIlLA lai...rn L IL