The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1866-03-17
WHOLE No. 428.
The PestiIence of Hurrv.


Its most congenial home, if the two words
can rightly be associated, when hurry has
done its utmost to spoil our homes. making
them more like restaurants and lodging
houses, than the resting places they we're
designed for; or like stations on a railway,
where one gets out to breathe the fresh air
Tor few moments keeping watch all the
time for the conductors warning. Business
Is the WatchWoId of American life; under
the pretence of duty, it steals the best of our
time, and leaves US but the odds and ends,
in which we are too weary to enjoy our
selves. Business has its undoubted claims;
butt cannot prosper by stealing; dishones-
~ is not the best policy. Business has
made Us to differ from thriftless savages and
worn -ouL aFlste eFacles; L Is q good servant
but a bad maAter
Look at our great cities, with their thous-
ands Of care worn, over-taxed, 'driven to
DEATH business men. They accomplish
certain amount of labor day by day, it is
true. Their deposits at the bank increase
steadily year by year, but at what fearful
outlay of vitality. Yet they have become
so habituated to this way Of life that they
willingly increase it's pressure in every pos
sible way. Look at them as they leave the
city for their elegant suburban homes.
They are just in time to jump on the train;
they talk business all the way home, and
when they get there, they are so weary that
they must be petted and coaxed like sick
babies. The children must be kept out of
the way, SO as not to disturb papa, or if ad
mitted to his presence are enioined to be-
have like ''grown people," Papa is too
tired to take them 10 ride; too tired to enjoy
tba =
the new book which would be doubly in
teresting to her, from reading it with him
too tired, in short, for anything but absolute
unsocial repose of mind and body. Back he
goes in the morning to his work, and fifteen
minutes before the train stops, you shall
see him on his feet, pressing, crowding,
eager to be the first to rush into the street,
and feeling actually buoyant if he succeeds
in saving a second or two of time-not that
it presents itself to him in that light; hurry
has become with him habitual and uncon-
scious; but to looker-on il is painful to see
how the man is the slave and not the master
of his work. And so he goes on day after
day, till suddenly there is a break in the
human machinery-a man is dead-dead
from abuse of natural laws, which, properly
obeyed, would have kept him in healthy
being for twenty years longer; rich indeed,
but insensible now to all his riches; resting,
let US hope, at last. There is something
wonderfully touching in the look of such
dead faces; the lines of care relaxed; the look
of eagerness and tension gone the quiet
mouth, with something of its childlike ex-
preston, as if it had found time once more
10 smile; and on the breast the busy fingers
crossed and still, to do no more the errands
of the brain. Friends snatch an hour for
respectful sympathy, and then The world
draws them back again, and new machine
takes the place of that which has been worn
out and laid aside. It has even been pro-
posed lately to defer the removal of the
corpse to the tomb till the day after the fu-
neral services; why, we know not, unless
to save the precious time of friends. Surely
it is not from want of sympathy, for in ca
ses of distress, that is freely gwen by these
very men; they will give money, toO,-any
thing in fact, but time; that was given them
for-business.
Men and women go on thus from year to
year, and call it living. Feeling sometimes
the hardness of their lot, getting a glimpse
of things beyond their daily round, they
think it wrong to indulge their longiugs, or
do it as by stealth in short summer vaca-
tions, into which they try to crowd the re-
creation that should have been distributed
throughout the year. But is this life? Will
not the children remember parent more
fondly from some mutual pleasure, some
holiday excursion, some kind and patient
explanation of a picture or poem, some
thoughtful care for mind and soul, than
from the most liberal provision for their
material wants g? And even if money get
ting be the end and aim of life, it is poor
economy to oVerwork the muscles and the
brain. We are urging reform in our pub
lie schools, so as to give the children less
study and more play. Do not the parents
need similar arrangement?
It rests with those who are wealthy, and
who control the time of others, to accom-
plish such a reform. Selfshness might find
sufficient inducements to it, not only in the
personal relief and benefit, but in the better
quality of service it would ensure. But
there are higher considerations than these.
Those who are in subordinate positions suf-
fer most, with the least power of redress.
II they are to support themselves and their
families, they must conform to existing bus
mess regulations, no matter how exhaustive
of time and strength. To complain is to
starVe. But there is silent protest seen in
shortened lives, in crowded asylums, in the
rage for speculation as desperate means
of escape from long and painful struggle.
which, were it comprehended BY those who
are responsible in the matter, would touch
their very heart. Economy, reason, relig-
ion, all counsel moderation in work as well
as in recreation, We think ourselves a wise
nation-let US not be found fools.-jSpring-
field Republican.
The ice house Of Lyman R, Lyon at
Lyons Falls, N. Y, has not BEEN empty for