San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-08-10
THE GOSPEL OF RECREATION.

Too Much push" and "Go"-From the
American Point of View.
II ever people needed to have preached to
them gospel If recreation, 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 any
thing about economy, because we have not
felt, as most peoples have, the need OF econ
omy 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 a delay of two
minutes He rushes through his business at
break neck rate, snatches a lunch at mid
day, dictates letters to his typewriter, leaves
himself just time enough to catch his train,
and rushes home at the same pace. Once
there, he enjoys himself by taking a ride be-
hind 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 bedtime. If
he lives in the city his evenings are spent at
the club or the theatre, or in the hotel corri-
doris talking business. Rest he has none,
unless perhaps on Sunday, when he spends
most of the morning looking through the
papers, and most of the afternoon doing. or
perhaps taking another ride behind his trot-
tiers. Americans do everything fast, espe-
cially in New York. They take their drinks
standing, and at gulp. They eat one meal
a day in about the same fashion. They walk
fast, talk fast, make and lose money fast,
ride fast, sail fast eat fast drink fast, and if
a way could be discovered of sleeping fast
they would do that.
After one gets into it there is a swing and
a movement in all this that is fascinating.
1t is contagious, and we all catch it. There
is the same sort of pleasure in doing business
fast that there is in driving a fast horse or
sailing a fast boat. That is one reason why
New York is the most fascinating of Ameri-
lean cities. After its go" others seem O
little tame One becomes used to excitement,
and wants to keep strung up to concert pitch
all the time. Beyond doubt, too, there is
something good and admirable in this rapid
ity. 1t enables us to accomplish marvels.
We have come nearer than any other people
to annihilating time and space.
But, after all, when one thinks 1t over
calmly-if perchance he can ever find time
to think calmly-is this hurry worth our
whilei Or, to put it from the American
point of view, does it pays TIE answer to
that question depends upon the goal we have
in view. Most men are making all this haste
in order to get rich; but when they get rich
do they take things easy" and enjoy life9
Possibly a few of them may, but the vast
majority do not. When they get an income
of $4,000 they want $50, 900; when they have
got that they want SAC, co., 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 world The
capacity for enjoyment has to be cultivated,
like any other capacity; and it will grow
except by constant usa-The Epoch.