The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-09-01
TOO MUCH WORK.
why americans Need the Gospel ofRecrea-
ton Preached to Them.

eioh Hreached to Them.
Ii ever people needed to have
preached to them gospel of recrea-
'ioh, The Americans need it now. We
WORK too hard, and too fast, and with
700 much friction, and, above all, too
constantly. Wear proud of our speed.
we believe in push" and Ego" We
are careless of the fact that haste
makes waste, because we have plenty
W 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
ms nome in the morning ON the fastest
Train he can get, reads the newspaper
all the way to his office, and grumbles
al delay of two minutes. He rushes
through his business at a breakneck
ra1e' snatches lunch at midday, die
tates letters to his typewriter, leaves
himself just time enough to catch his
traln, and rushes home at the same
pace Once there, he enjoys himself
py taking a ride behind the fastest
morse he can afford to own. After din
ner he plays game of whist, or, as
that is generally two 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
l,.satsr, or in the hotel corridors talk
ing BUSINESS. Rest he has none, except,
perhss, on Sunday, when he spends
most 4 the morning looking through
the paers, and most of the afternoon
doing, or perhaps taking another
ride behind his trotters. Americans
do everything fast, especially in New
York. Ley take their drinks stand
ing and alta gulp. They eat one meal
day in abolt the same fashion. They
walk fast, talk fast, make and lose
money fast, ride fast, sail fast, eat fast,
drink fast, md if way could be dis
covered of aeeping fast, they would
do that.
After one gets into it there is a
swing and 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 rea-
son why New York is the most fasci-
mating of American cities. After its
Ego" others seem a little tame. One
becomes use 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
rapidity. 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 it over
calmly-if perchance 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
payP The answer to that question de-
ponds upon the goal we have in view.
Most men are making all this haste in
order to get rich; but when they get
-SsSt do they ''take things easy" and
enjoy life? Possibly a few of them
may, but the vast majority do not
When they get an income of $10,-
900 they want $4,000; when they have
got that they want $4,000 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 cult
waited, like any other capacity; and il
will not grow except by constant use.-
Epoch.