The Washington herald., 1908-05-03
By THE ARBJTER.

By THE ARBJTER.
A crying evil OF society Of to-day is
idIeness. that nurse OF sin," that is OF
American society for idleness as it is
practiced here is unknown in other lands
even among the very rich and the very
noble. Here TO have no aim in life, no
duties that must be performed. no mission
10 accomplish is looked upon as badge
Of wealth and social position by some
people. yet idleness. We have been told,
and well told. is the bane of body and
mind, the nurse of naughtiness, the step
mother Of discipline. the chief author OF
all mischief. one Of the seven deadly sins.
the cushion upon which the devil chiefly
reposes, and great cause not only Of
melancholy, but Of many other diseases;
for the mind is naturally active; and il
It be not occupied about some honest bust
ness, It rushes into mischief, or sinks into
melancholy"
We have imported most Of cur social
customs and traditions from England,
which are transplsnted here and pTae-
ticed in the letter but not in spirit Miss
Moneybags visits Lady D. in the country,
and because she does not meet her hostess
at breakfast she takes 1t for granted that
my lady has been dawdling in her room
all Of the morning. so when she returns
home Miss Moneybags .dawdles in her
room until luncheon, and although she is
bored to death and would like to go out
into the garden and pick flowers, or go
for a long ride in her wagon. she resists
the impulse and imagines that in thus
wasting her time she is quite like the
English nobility, and feels aristocratie to
her very finger tips.
Now, Lady D. does not come down to
breakfast, but before luncheon she has
done a mornings work that would make
Miss MOneybags weary only TO hear about.
She has ridden al over the estate, visited
some Of her old and sick tenants In their
cottages, given her orders to the house
keeper. inspected the dairy, written a
number OF letters. and attended 10 a few
other odds and ends. Cultivated people,
rich or poor, titled or untitled, are never
idle, for cultivation supposes a trained
and disciplined mind, and such mind
cannot be idle, neither can a healthy,
vigorous body be idle; they both crave
activity, the activity Of work or play, for
playing is not idling. Idleness is vacant
ness, slothfulness, sluggishness, and
An idler is a watch that wants both hands
As useless when II goes as when it stands.
Out upon the ldlers Of society, then, who
litter up the world and are not OF as
much use as are the drones in a beehive.
1t has always been necessary for great
ladies to work, and great ladies have
worked from queens downward. The idle
young women Of the day may be inter
ested in this account OF a day passed by
one Of the noble women of the time of
King Edward ", and to know that her
descendants Of to-day are quite as busy
If in other ways: Rose at and helped
Catherine to milk the COWS; o'clock,
breakfasted, the buttock of beef too much
boiled and the beer. a little OF the stalest;
Z, went to walk with the lady. my mother,
in the courtyard: TO- went 10 dinner till
H. rose from the table. the company all
desirous OF walking in the fields; 1. went
10 prayers; 6, fed the hogs and poultry;
Z, supper on the table; 8 clock, the COM