The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-08-18
SATURDAY HALF-HoLIDAY.

SATURDAY HALF-HOLTDAY.
The balf-holiday movement now
commanding so much attention, not
only among merchant and government
officials. but among brokers and bank
ers. manufacturers and philanthro-
pists, in short. among nearly all en-
ployers, employed and their friends,
has something also to say both TO mis-
tress and maid. There are households.
indeed (most of them are found in
large cities), where the servants right
to weekly afternoon out is claimed
and conceded; but in the greater num-
Der of country households. holidays or
half-holidaYs, whether for mistress or
maid, would be an innovation indeed.
They seem, in fact, TO be almost an
impossibiity, there is so much to do
Where the mistress never spares herself,
and rarely takes so much as an "even-
ing out. p" the oyerworked servant still
has little sense of injustice, though she
never finds an hour to herself TIL she
finds herself in bed Where, as is the
case in far too many households, the
"hired girl IS free to 90 out rs soon as
her work is done, going where she will,
with whom she will. and returning
when she viii. letting herself in by the
back door, of which she keeps the kew.
she would probably be the first to cry
injustice if she were given a haif-holi-
day every week and required to come in
betimes after walk in the early even
ing of the other DAYS. Yet the half
holiday plan is much the better one, al
though at first sight 1t seems to inter-
rupt work, to curtail the freedom of the
servant and to add TO the labor of the
mistress, without, on the whole, in
creasing the sum of recreation or rest.
Perhaps the S1tnt of either is not in
creased, and yet the oC0rth may be. An
afternoon walk in the open air. dressed
in ones best; that consciousness of see
ing and of being seen, which the girl
loses in the dark of evening; the COM
pany of two or three chosen friends, all
enjoying that sense of holiday so CRATE
ful 10 the hard worked; and better still,
that delicious consciousness of having
earned il by extra diligence and fore
thought in the morning-all this is
worth far more. both as enjoyment and
as rest, than such evening pleasures as
are within the reach of domestic ser
wants. On pleasant afternoons in spring
there may be fower-hunts along the
waysides and in the woods, and Bridget
may learn a new pleasure in making
her kitchen gay with posies, or in pre-
senting her mistress with a bouquet OF
early flowers. In autumn there might
be nutting frolics. and a store laid up
for winter evenings In the summer.
rbxrC or R,.tst l,., ,1l Il
make up her luncheon basket and Join
the other girls in a picnic? And if a
few of their cousins" were also enjoy
ing a holiday Gas, let US hope, they soon
may). why should not each basket hold
enough for two. and few ''good b VS.
be invited 10 JOIN the party? We may
be sure that the tendency of such an
afternoons pleasurlng would be quite
as safe and far more wholesome than
the evenings out Ia the winter and on
stormy days, the kitchen shining in Sat
urday's neatness. and well vanguarded
BY doormat, scraper, and broom-sh should
be open for calls The girls could gather
together with needles and thimbles. the
good b'ys' could drop in sociaby; u
generous pot of tea and a loaf of plain
or raisin cake, made by Bridget's own
/. hands, would not impoverish her mis-
tress, and. like bread upon the waters,
it might return 10 her after aot many
days in more loyal service and more
faithful endeayor to do we'll
1t is not Bridget only who needs a
half-holiday. Her mistress wants it no
less than she. 1t is a grave mistake
which so many houSem0thers make to
crowd Saturday 50 full of extra work
cleaning and baking. and mending and
making until midnight commands the
needle 10 fall from the weary fingers.
One of the sweetest and santliest of
the mothers of the generation now
growing old, used always to call Satur-
day The Preparation Day borrowing
the old Jewish designation of the day
before the Sabbath. Morning was Civ
en- to the careful preparation of house
and food and apparel for the holy NOR
row; afternoon 10 the preparation OF
herself Not religious preparation
her soul was always ready for spiritual
ioy-but she would not have tired
body or jaded mind to drag upon the
upsoarng spirit. The hours were spent
in reading. in still idleness. in looking
over and cutting slips from accumu-
lated newspapers, in walk, a drive,
above all. in companionship with the
children. Many rainy afternoon was
spent in repeating to them the poems
with which her richly endowed mind
was stored-cantos of Scott, sonnets OF
Shakespeare and Milton, long poems oi
Goldsmith and Cowper and Dryden,
ballads of Burns and Motherwell. the
earlier poems of Longfellow and Tenny-
son, the Hebrew melodies of Bynn. the
sacred. songs of Keble or Newton OF
Montgomery. Many a winter after
noon was spent in pasting pictures into
the great scrap-book, which was one o.
the Institutions of the family. in learn
| ing the intricacics of the Chinese puzzle,
or in solving the enigmas of cha
rades of Herry's MuseHm, the one
children's magazine of those days.
Blessed Saturday half-holiday! Day Of
sweet and joyful preparationl Why
cannot mothers and mistresses take the
| initiative in the new reform, and in
| augurate such half-holiday in al
the households in the land?- Good
Housekeeping.
L