The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-12-20

Close observers of the habits and customs of
the lower order of English workmen have re.
corded the singular fact that, as rule, the sun.
day is by them regarded, not as an entire, but
as a halfholday. Nay, cleanliness being q kin
dred virtue with godliness, it is mdisputable
that as regards the fOrepart of Sunday, he Is
guilty of desecratlon, not out OF neglect and
1essness, but deliberately and by design for,
whereas all the working days of the week he sits
down to breakfast with yisage the brighter
tor acquaintance with soap and water, and
head of hair reclaimed from nocturnal tangle,
the Sabbath breakiast-time finds him al his own
hearth grimy and unkempt He can afford to
be untuy. His time Is his own, and he may do
just what he plcases with 1t. Not that it
plcases him TO wear dirty face (no
man can accuse him OF that: he washes
his face, and arms, and hands every day, his feet
once fortnight, or oitener, if a cold necessi.
tates their immersion in hot water, and never a
summer passes but he has dip IN the Serpen-
tine or the fourpenny swimming baIhs) but,
the laCt is, his everyday matutinal ablutions
are in degree conn Iulsory. 1t IS one amongst
the ''shopn rules, and an infringement of it is
visited by fine of t~opence; and yesterdays
smut on his nose and yesterdays stubble still
adjoining his chm, are ludubitabe symptoms
that to-day he calls no man his master.
Through the Sunday forenoon - although,
if his everyday employer was to say, "JOnes,
If you like to bring that parcel up to the
house, there's half a crown for your trouble"
he would reject it with scorn-he employs
himself domestiCally, and works like a niger.
He will sOle-and.hecl Poys boots put in
broken windows, make good defective drain
age in the rear of his premises "set" a "copper"
or dig whole rods and perChes of garden ground
until his blue-rbbed shirt reeks with perspira-
tion and all with the completest cheerfulness,
and until it is notified to him that dinner will be
ready in twenty minutes.
From tnat moment he is a changed man. In
that announcement breaks on hun the first glim-
merng of Sunday daHung. With a face grow
ing each moment more sober, he puts away his
tools, and STRAIGHT relires & the privacy of
his chamber, from winch he emerges lust
in time to sharpen the carving.knife for an
attack on the shoulder OF mutton that Joe,
the eldest born, has fetched from the bake
house. But how changed a man Is he from
the Cobbler. or the digger, or the coppersetter
OF half an nour ago His biue-ribOcd shirt is
exchanged Tor a white one with a rigorous
stand-up collar; his face is clean and shiny, his
chin is a smooth a. b1by's and he has oil on
his bair. The time OF day has begun when he
should "brng up his children ir the way they
should gO,n and he sets about 1t with an unCOm-
promising air that would have won for him
name in the bygOne times of Praisc-GOd. Bare
bones With stricest impartiallty, as regards
cracking and gravy, he charges the seven
plates ranged on either side of the table, and
behind each of which appears a wistful face and
a par OF eyes that by anticipation have already
and then he-father Jones, that is-raps the
table with the buckEorn haft OF the cary
ing-bnife, and seriously commands Joe
it already at his tongues tip, and whose mouth
waters for what Is to follow, Joe complies. His
ejaculation OF the last syllable of the word
the application OF the match to the touCh-holes
OF row OF cannon as regards the dunno walters
behind the charged plates, and instantly they
fire away Father, too, he dres away, but still
preserves a severe eye for the prOprletes of the
Sunday dinner-table. rs it proper TO eat your
Sunday dinner with yOgr fork wrong side
up'ards, Nara" as that the manners they
learn YOU at Sunday School, John? Keep your
elbows on the table, sir.n ''It / have TO tell you
about that chaWing noise again, Amelia Mary
you go INTO the back kitchen, miss. /
,.lpvr 4,1I
'em to set you text to learn against
such awful manners" Dinner over, Joe, the
grace-saS er, returns thanks. The children go
to Sunday school, and father, turnng down
his shirtsleeves (which have been tldily
tucked back behind his elbows during the cary
ing prOCess), puts on his Sunday black coat,
charges his sunday long pipe, and composes
himself clean ana ChrlstlanlS to smoke, while
Joe reads the latest murders, fOreeries, and
bigamles out of LIoyd's Pe,oy Weekly
The Jones above quoted, who Is but a type of
ten thous and, is equally eccentric in his obSer
vance OF other high holidays and festivities
Christmas eve. for instance. His Christmas
purchases must be sanchfed by season in the
EXTREMIST sense of the term. 1t is idle your
preaching to Jones that daylight is the time for
marketing, that cheats thrive by lamplight,
that huIrying and crowdmg aud squeezing
are fatal to bargaining, that yellow cowmeaJ
looks ruddy and fair as the best, seen by the
believe it on ordinary occasions but ON this
special occasion he turns deaf ear. 1t may be
en0eaNOreQ 10 explain TINS apparent eCceQtrlClCy
OF Jones by the TACT that Christmas eve is, as a
rule, WagesreceiVIng time, and that it is really
dusk and "eve" before Jones reaches home
This is true as far as il goes but really il applies
scarcely at all TO the case. Jones does not
depend on the earnings of the previous few
days for his annual banquet of banquets. He
'saves up' fol it by means Of shop money
club, or otherwise, and has the cash in hand in
good time to NAL his purchase two DAYS pre-
vious to Christmas if he had mind
But he has no mind; Christmas day falling on
Tuesday, he would no more think of laying in
his stock of Christmas-dinneT provision on the
previous Saturday than he would of retiring to
rest on Christmas eve without having a lusty
'stiTn al the pudding stuff in the pan. Beef SO
bought would not be Christmas" beet He
knows as well as any man that the poultry for
Christmas consumption are inundated and
exposed for sale several days before the festival
and he cannot be blind TO the fact that if he took
quiet stroll 70 the rendezvous OF the goose and
turkey merchants on the evening before Christ.
mas eve, his opportunities of choice would be
more extended and as likely as not he would
save shilling in purchasemoney; nevertheless,
tages. He has friends coming to dinner, and he
is the last man in the world TO treat them shah.
billy. With what countenance could he reply to
the inquiry of q guest who, with the privileged
familiarity OF an old acquaintance, might
require to know when and where the bird was
purchased?
1t would scarcely be worth his while to tell a
falsehOod about 1t; but how could he find words
to confess that it was not Christmas goose at
all, having been bought "last week 2" His char
acter for ioviality and hospitality would suffer
from that moment. suspicion would Green
into the breast of each guest that the dinner
was one Contrlved on economical principles
Whether 1t were true or no, when the mincP-
pies app5 ared, the pie-shop in the High street
would be privately assigned as their birthplace
4 H. IrpV nT hn hnEf