The sun., 1903-01-06

one sees pushing home at night show the crying
need for further recreation.
For Instance. the Yale Harvard football game
day might be declared holiday In the absence OF
more historical motive.
Hoping you will see the necessity as strongly
as do am sincerely yours. TIRED
NOVEMBER 5"
Why more holidays? We have too
many already. During the last genera
ton they have been multiplied until now
we have made nearly one quarter of the
year a holiday time. Formerly people
were content with five holidays alone,
besides Sunday-New Years Day WASH
ingtons Birthday, Fourth of July,
Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now We
have as legal holidays in New York:
SUNDAY OF every week.
Every saturday after /, O'Clock
Wv Years bay.
lincoin> birthday Feb IL.
Wa,hington's Birthday. Feb o.
Decoration Day. May 80
Fourth OF July.
labor Day. September
Election Day, November
Thanksgiving. November
Christmas Dec. -.
That is. we have now holidays al every
season of the year. besides all Sundays
and half of every Saturday. These make
up 81 out of the 365 days of the year.
In addition. religious feasts and fasts
are extensively observed as holidays
by the pious, although they are not legal
holidays in this State. as is All Saints
Dav in Louisiana and as is Good FRI
day in Alabama, Louisiana, Maryland,
Pennsylvania and Tennessee. In South
ern States. Confederate Day and
LEES and JEFFERSON DAvIs's birth
DAYS are holidays; and special events
in the history of some Of the States are
thus commemorated. as. for example,
the Battle of Lexington in Massachusetts
bv Patriots Day, April 10; in Texas. the
anniversary of its independence. March ?,
and of the Battle of San Jacinto, April 2l;
in Louisiana. of the Battle of New Or
leans. Jan s; in North Carolina, of the
signing OF the Mecklenburg Declaration
of Independence. May 20, and of the
Battle of Bennington. in Vermont, Aug
l6: in Utah July "a, Pioneers Day; in
California, Admission Day, Sept .. To
this long list Mr. Representative MARTIN
of SoutlrDakota proposes, in bill lately
introduced by him in Congress. to add
Columbus Dav," or the celebration of
Oct. II. the anniversary of the discovery
of America. a. n legal holiday.
The suggestion Of our tired friend
tha, the day of the le-Harvard foot
ball game be- made "A holiday proposes
an appalling precedent. If banks must
close and everybody be sent into idle
ness because of one athletic contest
between two colleges, We shall have To
stop work whenever any college COM
pctes with any other at football, base
ball or rowing. Columbia, Princeton,
Cornell. the University Of Pennsylvania,
West Point and Annapolis will cry out
against an invidous distinction in favor
of Yale and Harvard. To make il
fair all round, whenever college boys
indulge in competitive sports the wheels
of industry will have to stop
Tired is distressed by the crying
need for further recreation which he
thinks he sees in the worn-out thou
sands pushing home at night Rather
let his tender heart bleed for the thou
sands who are worn out trying to get
a lob with which to tire themselves.
A playtime is all very well if you can
afford to pay for it and if you do not Use
il To wear yourself out. II you want to see
g worn-out thousands. choose holiday
for the purpose, not working day. For
example, vastly more people were used
up after the recent election nights car
nval than work eyhausts on the hardest
working day of the year; and they were
in very bad shape for labor the following
Wednesday. With the shortening of the
hours of the working day, the run of me-
and laborers cannot be worn out
by their labor, if they live soberly. The
pitiful wearing is largely among those
to whom no relief would be brought by
holidays, even if every other day was
made a playtime, They must work or
starve. holiday or no holiday-poor
women who must struggle day and night
in order to make bare living by sew
ing, for example.
The talk of which we hear so much,
about Americans overworking them
selves as compared with other people,
is mere fiction. The hardest work
done in this country is by foreign
prs of comparatively recent immigra-
,ion. Overwork is not cause Of Ameri-