New-York tribune., 1873-01-17
SUNDAY SATURNALTd.

Speaking to the engine builders of Cincin-
natl short time since, Gen. Leggett, Com
missioner of Patents, suggested that 1t would
be a good thing to change payday from Sat
urday to Monday. Saturday nights and Sun
days. he said, "have ruined many men, and
drought untold misery upon their families"
What Gen. Leggett meant was that workmen
are paid off on Saturday night, and not being
required, in most cases, to work on Sunday,
get drunk and in other ways squander their
wages. The remedy, it seems, is to pay such
men on Monday. Upon this subject we have
something to say.
There is no royal ,road to wealth and none
to knowledge and none, that we are aware OF,
to virtue. We have MT much confidence in
little recipes, ingenious devices, and promising
subterfuges for making men good. The i'm
portant question is, whether those who make
it a point to get drunk whenever they are
paid off would not, if Monday were payday,
get drunk then, keep drunk on Tuesday, and
so spoil a weeks work If they must get
drunk at all, it seems to us better, at least for
their pockets that it should be upon non
working day, and when the indulgence may
not be followed by loss of employment.
man may manage to get over his debauch in
season to resume his labor, after fashion, on
Monday morning. The consequence Of "a
" good time" may not then be so disastrous.
The hard drinking workman is rightin drinking
his hardest when it will be least expensive
to do so.
We would not be understood as saying one
word against Gen. Leggett's suggestion. We
think well of it. Only we do not want it to
be regarded as a remedy when at best it can be
nothing better than an uncertain palliative.
Moral courage is not matter of the day of
the week. Better than all new arrangements
about payday, better than any merely artificial
precautons,I will be good, solid, serious,
honest resolution not to drink alcohol III any
form upon any day or upon any night OF the
week. IL there be any manllness left u a
workingman he will not specially relish this
proposition to put him again into leading
strings this plan of treating him as if he were
still child. There is only one precaution
which is good fer anything in this matter of
drinking Nobody who tampers with alcohol
is perfectly safe. He may indulge In it mod
erately for years and be ts victim at last, or
be may escape the worst, live temperate if
not a totally abSinent life, and die sober
We are laying down no POcrustean rule for
anybody. What we say is, that it is better to
run no risk, and there is MT sensible man in
New-York who is in the habit of taking an
occasional glass who will not agree with us.
II makes no difference to sober wOrkingman
whether he be paid off on Saturday night or
on Monday morning. None of his money will
90 for whisky under any circumstances, while
he who Is of too fabby moral constitution
TO refrain from excess will be as likely to get
drunk on Wednesday as on Saturday night.
The wisest man does not make resolution
not to become intoxicated. His vow reaches
the root of the whole matter; and it is a vow
not to drink at all. a.
Again, putting the question of drinking
aside, there ought to be no doubt in the mind
of any rational workingman as to the best
way of spending the Sabbath. 1t should be,
it is hardly necessary for us to say, day Of
rational rest and recreation, and of that
charming social intercourse which weekday
avocations do not permit. Apart from its
religious observance, it should be a day dedi-
Gated to the wives aud children. God help