The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-12-14
A Move in the Right Direction.

The Louisville pork packers have
agreed to cut no more hogs and pack
no more pork on Sunday. This is u
move in the right direction, and one
that we hope to see followed not only
by the packers of other cities, but by
other trades and professions. There is
no good reason why persons in any
class of business should be compelled
to work seven days in the week, and
we hope to see the time when the Di-
vine command for day of rest in the
seven, will be strictly and literally
obeyed.
The ProPriety of a day of rest does
not lie wholly on religious grounds.
There are sound economic reasons for
1t as we'll. There is as much necessity
for one days waking intermission from
toll as there is of the nightly respite in
slumber. Sleep does not give the brain
or the frame the whole rest demanded.
True rest means something more than
mere tOIpor. 1t includes relaxation,
the unbending of the faculties from the
severe strain of forced labor, and their
opportunity for voluntary occupation
in other directions. The laborer or
mechanic, confined for six days from
sunrise to sunset to one unvarying
round of labor, requires some other
relief than the mere animal rest afford
ed by the bed. He needs au interval
for cultivating his intellectual faculties,
for bodily exercise that shall not be
toll, as we'll as for religion. To the
professional man and the man of busi-
ness, the seventh day respite from the
constant strain on the mental fac ulties,
is absolutely necessary to the preser-
vation of health and life. To the too
general disregard of this fact we attrib-
ute in no small degree the startling
increase of that terrible disease paraly-
sis, which is striking down our most
oF9fiN-o huSin and most nnnRupfin n
thinkers, and which from its frequency
in this country has attained the char
acter of a national disease.
As nation we live too fast, work,,too
hard, and take too little rest. The Sun
day, which would afford the much
needed repOse-the weekly unstringing
of the tensely strung bowls neglect
ed. The business man slips of to his
connting room, the lawyer to his office,
the editor to his sanctum, the student
to his books, and thus robs himself of
his needed rest, as much as il he had
stolen one-seventh of his minimum al
lowance of sleep every night in the
week. The result is inevitable. Even
the strongest constitutions must give
way in time. The bow is never un-
strung, the elasticity is lost, and at last
a sudden swapping ends at once the un-
due strain and the life.
The man who goes to his bed at night
jaded with long and wearisOme labor of
hand or brain, who rises day after day
to endnre the same strain, and who
does not avail himself of the Sunday as
an opportunity for entire cessation
from his customary labor, may for a
short time make money for himself or
his employers, but in the end will find
that he has been burning the candle at
both ends.
If the Louisville pork packers have
agreed not only to cease cutting hogs
on the Sunday, but also to let their
offices remain closed and their letters
lie in the post Office, they have done a
wise thing, and set an example we
hope to see generally followed.