The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-10-12
THE DAY OF REST.
The full blessing of the day of rest

is only vouchSafed to those who toll.
Think of what the night before
Sunday means to the man or woman
who has been steadily pulling in the
traces for six days without intermis-
sion. If the night is not long enough
to restore tired nature, he or she can
finish sleep the next day, for this is
the blessed day set apart for the res
toration of body and soul. The very
thought of such day is rest.
But the day doesn't fulfill its pur-
pose to the idle-to those who want
Sunday all the week and who subsist
mostly upon the labor of others. They
want to go somewhere and have a
good time on Sunday. They want
trains and trolleys and cooks and wait
ers to be running at full speed, that
they may pleasantly fill up day in
which they have no need to rest, for
they have been resting all the week
and want change. They know moth
ing of the true spirit of the day.
How beautiful is the plan, and how
wise-one-seventn of our days to be
devoted to our own uplifting. '"Six
days shalt thou labor, and Go all thy
work" Nothing to be left to be done
On the day of rest. True, cows give
milk and babies have to be cared for
all days alike; but if we only do those
things that Nature requires tobe done,
we shall not suffer from over-exertion.
It is unnecessary work that hurts us
the most. It is not tiresome to eat |;
on the contrary, it is restful and pleas
ant; but we should eat food that has
been previously prepared, or that can
be easily cooked, so that some tired
woman need not have to spend her
day of rest by the kitchen FIRE. I
quite fell in love with a man whom,
once upon time, I heard say: Il
think as much of my wife as l do OF
my mules, and I don't want them to
work Sunday and all the time -
There is a good deal said and writ
ten about simple life," and about
"plain living and high thinking" !;
but the loudest takers are not always
the strictest observers of the require
ments that make up a day of quiet
repose for body and soul. More aud
more the American Sunday, which
has greatly distinguished us as apeo-
pie, is being turned into day of fes-
tivity rather than one of rest and wor-
ship. Church services are willfully
neglected, and trains and trolleys are
carrying people in all directions in
quest of amusement, regardless of the
deprivations and burdens this places
upon those who stand at the helm and
give up their own rest that the public
may be entertained.
Said an -motorman to me not long
since: 81 had to give up trolley ser
vice because it was too hard for me-
III have sometimes worked three
mouths without day to rest. They
are advertising for men now, and can
hardly get enough to run the cars.
| Somebody gives out, and then the
we'll ones must take their places until
they, too, give out for want of rest. "
| As l looked at his pale face and lis
tened to his recital of a notorman'
duties, I felt, asnever before, the CRU
city it is to compel men to run Sun
day cars without giving them some
other day of the week, at least, II
which to get away from the strain and
heavy responsibility the situation im-
poses.
1t may be that trolley fares are toe
low to warrant keeping as many mer
employed as are necessary to run cars
every day as they run and, if so,
they should be raised. Atal events
something is rotten in the State OF
Denmark" when men are required to
work every day without the needful
one in seven to rest.
1t was no joke that has been rolling
down through the ages from Siani,
but a command. And it is so simple
and so easily understood, that it can
not be construed into meaning: Six
DAYS shalt thou work, and then &c
visiting, and set some housekeeper te
cooking a big dinner; or go fishing
or 90 by car or boat to some watering
place to spend the proceeds OF thy
weeks work in riotous living. It /:
simply: Six days shalt thou labor
and then thou shalt not do any work
for a day, nor any of thy family. Thi'
was the plan of Creation, and no one
can disrespect it without some sort o
penalty to follow.
Omnipotent laws cannot be evadec
as the laws of men are. If man.
soul is so small as not to be worth rec
ognizing on the day of rest, or so sick
" as not to be able to partake of th'
spiritual food that healthy soul hun
gers and thirsts for, he must yet at
tend to his body, and average up the
six days Of work and one of rest or
6ered, or the body will become as pu
nv as his soul, and neither heaven Of
earth will furnish a firm foothold TO-
him.
Man must work that he may rest
and must rest that he may work. NJ
other planning will make health,
man of him or successful breadwinner
Heavier burdens than flesh ant
blood was intended to carry are pu
upon trainmen. What howl goe
up against the poor, dazed enginee
who by long hours at his post, make
a mistake, and wreck is the conse
quence. Had we not better pour on
vials of wrath on the powers tina
compel men to run flying trains NOR
hours of the day and night than the
can keep alert and bear the strain
: Artisans and laborers who have n
particular responsibility or anxiety
are demanding and getting shortene
: DAYS for labor. But the public is nc
tretting much about the length of tim
/ that train and trolley men have to b
, hard at it, with the lives of the pa
a