Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1884-07-05
= ATURDAY PRESS.


me rhHo'ophy 81 Rest
When Herbert Spencer was with us
last winter he spoke some wholesome
words in favor OF the Gospel Of Rccrea
ton and while he did not exactly for
mulatea physical decalogue for US, he did
give US excellent advice concerning our
abnormal restlcssness and the danger OF
letting the furnace fires of work and
anxiety burn So fast As we said at
the time, he did not seem 10 understand
that our perternaural activity has a
cause in our environments that it X.
suits from the grand opportunities for
advancement with which VIC are sur.
rounded. and the competition which
those opportunities begct An Eng.
lishmln, who recently returned to Lon.
don, after residence OF ten year, in
New York, writes back here They
tell me 20 down the Strand as If
were running TO j fire, and my sister
says, Why John, you've caught the
fdgctS So the cause of our AMER.
can restlessncss is IN our air, in our soil,
in the rivalry OF success which springs
from urgencal prosperity Choct1ws,
Hottentots and PMagonins are never
ia a hurry Still, Herbert Spcncers ad
vice to go slow was good
In the Nineteenth Century late las,
year sir Alfred paget has thoughtful
paper on this general theme, in which
he speaks vi recreation, or the cessation
OF the regular work Of our lives and
the active occupation OF mind or
body in something else in which we
find pleasure, as being one OF the prime
requisites of health For working men
and women, rich OF poor, sleep IS not
sufficient rest, even where it is supple
mented by happy domestic life and
Sunday Tranquility. To be really re
freshing the writer holds, the recreation
should be sharp contras, to the ordi.
nary work. The desire for change is
as much part of our nature as the
desire for sleep; 1t is an instinct to be
sorupulously however cautiously, O.
beyed" The Oriental who saw some
Engishmen playing cricket, and Won
dered why the rich men did not hire
poor men to play it for them, had not
learned the happiness Of willing great
activity and its use in restoring fitness
for work
Among the constituents ola good &C
tive recreation, Sir James mentions I'M
certainty, wonder and the opportunity
to exercise skill in something different
from the regular work ''rhe toss OF
the halfpenny brings refreshment to
the routine of the school boy in that
every time he losses it he creates an un-
certainty enjoys it for n moment, and
then decides it. To the elder man the
deal in whist and every hand he plays
bring similar pleasure in uncertainties,
and the counting OF the tricks decides
them. Doubtless there is much of the
same pleasure in all sports-in fishing.
shooting and the like. VIII the ish
bitcp viii the bird fall? There is the
uncertainty; and in any case, hitting or
missing, the mind which has been
wearied in a dull routine is refreshed"
Ii seems to US that our philosopher,
while hitting on some OF the elements
of wholesome recreation, has missed
other characteristics that are most
essential 1t is Josh Billings, we think,
who earnestly declares that thar is
nuthing more uncertain than driving a
drove OF hogs Yet this is not regard
ed as recreation by those who have
tried 1t, but the very opposite OF rec
reation \ prime element that has
been omitted in the above estimate is
this: recreation, to give real pleasure,
must be form OF activity that is OF no
possible value to anybody except in its
immediate results. Skating is by no
means an amusement in North Holland,
where the peasants have 20 go on skates
to market Card playing and billiards
would lose their zest II they were in any
way productive. 1t is in the great fact
that it is good for nothing that recreation
finds It's real value. Very supplemented
boys sometimes play at shoveling snow
out of the front yard, but as soon as
they discover that 1t is exactly what
their parents wish to have done it be-
comes disgusting Boys like to drive
nails, but the boy who inadvertently
made good box, and afterwards found
that his mother was using it for her knife
and fork receptacle, naturally felt that
he had been swindled.
Talleyrand is reported to have said to
one who told him he did not care to
learn whist: my friend you do now
know how unhappy an old age you are
preparing for yourself" Bishop Hall
says; &" Recreation is to the mind as
~hel,ing to the scythe, and Shake
spear:
''Sweet recreation bard, what doth ensue.
But moody and duh melancholy,
Kins,nen to grim and eomfouless despair"
So, lc, US say with Paget every mar
should have recreation. that they may
make him more mt to do his work, and,
at the last, more fit to leave IT, Frank
Lsslf'I
The Cholera Germ.
Those who have followed the several
reports which Doctor Koch has made