The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1888-08-16
THE GOSPEL OF RECREATION.
Too Much "PuSh'' and ''GO''-FrOm
the American Point of View.

1t ever people. needed to have
preached to them a gospel of recre-
alton, the Americans need it now.
We work too hard, and too fast, and
with too much friction, and above
all, too constantly. We are proud
of our speed. We believe in "push"
and go" We are careless of the
fact that haste makes waste because
we have plenty to waste. We do
not understand nor practice nor
care anything about economy. Our
business man hurries from his home
IN the morning ON the fastest train
he can get, reads the newspaper all
the way to his Office, and grumbles
at the delay of two minutes. He
rushes through his business at a
break neck rate, snatches lunch at
midday, dictates letters to his type
writer, leaves himself just time
enough to catch his train, and rush
es home at the same pace. Once
there, he enjoys himself by taking a
ride behind the fastest horse he can
afford to own. After dinner he
plays game of whist, or, as that is
generally too slow for him, of poker,
until after what ought to be his bed
time. If he lives in the city his
evenings are spent at the club or
theatre, or in the hotel corridors
talking business. Rest he has none,
unless, perhaps, on Sunday, when
he spends most of the morning look
ing through the papers, and most of
the afternoon doing, or perhaps
taking another ride behind his trot-
ers. Americans do everything fast,
especially in New York They take
their drinks standing and at gulp.
They eat one meal day in about
the same fashion. They walk fast,
| talk fast, sail fast, drink fast, and if
: a way could be discovered of sleep
: ing fast they would do that.
After one gets into it there is a
: swing and movement in all this
: that is fascinating. 1t is contagI-
: Gus, and we all catch it. This is
the same sort of pleasure in doing
. business fast that there is in driving a
fast horse or sailing q fast boat.
There is one reason why New York
: is the most fascinating Of American
/ cities. Alter its "go,p others seem
little tame. One becomes used to
excitement, and wants to keep up
to concert pitch all the time. Be-
You'd doubt, too, there is something
good and admirable in this rapidity.
1t enables us to accomplish maryels.
We have come nearer than any 9TH
err people to annihilating time and
space.
But, after all, when one thinks it
over calmly-if perhaps he can ever
find time to think calmly is this
hurry worth our while? Or, to put
! it from the American point Of view
does it pay? The answer to that
| question depends upon the goal we
i have in view. Most men are max
ing all this haste in order to get
rich; but when they get rich do
they "take things easy" and enjoy
| life? Possibly a few Of them may,
but the vast majority of them do
not. When they get an income of
$4,000 they want $4,000; when
they have got that they want S40,-
| 900. Not one in million of US
ever gets rich enough, and the few
who do leave off business generally
find that they have lost, from disuse,
whatever faculty of enjoyment they
once had, aside from the hurry and
push Of the business of this world.
The capacity for enjoyment has to
be cultivated. Take any other ca
pacity, and it viii not grow except
by constant use. The Epoch.
"Mr. Sampson asked me to be his