Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1869-01-29
aA Ai6fellau8ons.
DO LABoRING MEN HAVE TINE TO
STUDY2


STUDYg
IAN work and no play, makes Jack
dull boy is true saying if not msdel of
literary excellence. It's meaning is that
mind and heart as wel as muscle need ex-
ercise. Man is complex being. Body,
mind, and soul need to be mutually and
harmoniously developed, OF the human
machinery becomes out of balance. and
speedily shakes itself to pieces. a certain
class Of social philosophers have taken it
upon the m to assert that the laboring
classes N this country, albeit they perforce
cult gate muscle enough, DO not. aud cannot,
for want Of time. cultivate soul and mind as
ehey ought A distinguished essayist
hailing from Boston, the American Athens,
has taken up the pen to urge that the
laboring classes play too much and study
/ too little, that the nature of the case hardly
( admits Of much effort at mental improve
ment. So many hours labor and such
hearty meals to get through it all are re-
quired, that any attempt at intellectual i'm
provement on the part Of the working
classes, is, in our Boston Philosopher 5
/ opinion, necessarily as the gait Of the OK to
that Of trotting horse.
We have a word to say upon this subject,
and we shall begin by agreeing With our
essayist, that workiugmen, especially young
workingmen, study too little, but we dis
sent totally from the statement that there is
anything IN the nature of their labor to pre-
vent them as a class from successful study,
| if they could be induced to undertake It
systematically
Let Us see. 1t is asserted that they eat
too heartily, that they must eat too heartily
to be feet minded We admit, because our
experience as well as physiological science
proves it, that hearty meal cannot be
followed Immediately by vigorous mental
application The attempt to do it must in
evitably work III to body and mind. But
we also know from theory and practice that
the last meal of the day should be- especially
to the laboring man, a light one This
meal precedes the hours of leisure generally
possessed BY laboring men, the hours which
are too generally spent in smoking, theater
going, billiard playing, drinking in many
sad cases, or what is scarcely better, a season
| of mental and physical iuauity by the Ere
side, slowly but surely degrading all the
faculties.
Now let it be distinctly understood that
we do not object to harmless amusements
per Sc. If workingmen will not study, they
had better play than smoke, drink, or sit BY
the fire and nope We believe in the dufl
of recreation. But we also believe that
study itself IS recreation to a mau whose
muscles have been in active play for ten
hours of the day, and the best kind Of
r creation, TOO, when the last meal has been,
as il should be, a light one. Then the body
rests while the mind Is fresh aud vigorous.
and two or three hours of profitable and
most Eteresting intellectual enjoyment can
be had at far less expense than the pipe,
the billiards, or the theatre demands.
Let us now look for moment at the
| question of time. Suppose a laborer to
work ten hours, and to devote two hours
per day to meals and going to and from
work. There remain twelve hours out OF
the twenty-four. Allow nine hours of this
for sleep--an hour more than necessary for
most persons-but say nine hours three Of
leisure remain But suppose one hour OF
the three to be spent with the family, there
arc still two hours of time for quiet study.
Now exclude Sundays from the calculation,
and allow one secular evening for amuse-
ment solely, there remain ten hours per
week tor study-an amount of time that
would, with ordinary intelligence, answer to
master the rudiments Of the French or Ger
man language in a single year, thus open
ing a new and rich feld of amusement and
culture. Ten years Of such course would
give maa the mastery of the French and