The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-06-22
SATURDAY HOLIDAY
IS No NEW THING
OLD LAW SAYS LOVE YOUR
WORK, CONSEQUENTLY NO
ONE is TO OvERWORK.

The Saturday half-holiday Is Gus
tomsrily regarded as modern in
novation. Ask any old person and
he will tell you that he can remem-
Der when all laborers worked on the
seventh day OF the week Just as on
every other day-from the blowing of
the whistle at 7 o'clock in the morn
ing until 8 o'clock. or later. in the
evening. The shortening of the reg
ular working day to eight hours, with
freedom on Saturday after Twelve
noon, is attributed to the work OF the
trades unions. While the latter body.
in the last few decades. certainly has
Influenced public opinion and legtsla-
ton in regard 10 a shorter working
day. It did not PROFOUND new idea.
but rather revived the old laws OF
the fifteenth century.
In the early days OF industrial his
tory parliament and the kings, both
in England and on the continent. took
very active part in regulating the
working hours as we'll as the
wages of their subjects. Ry doing
this. II WAS believed the king could
protect his own interests. in addition
to those of the people against un-
scrupuous employers. An English
statute. made by Henry ~, in the
early part of the fifteenth century.
! fixed the legal hours of the country
| lahorers from five in the morning un-
| til seven In the evening. from March
until September: but. from Septem-
Der until the following March, they
were only to work from "the spring
| Ing OF the day until the night of the
same day They were always to
have half an hour for breakfast and
! an hour and a half for dinner. with
| the privilege Of nap. from May UNI
til August; and were 10 work on Sat-
urdays only until twelve noon. Trad
| Ing In the shops on Sundays and hoIi-
| DAYS was forbidden,
| In medieval times the Saturday
| half holiday seems to have been al
most universal. Every one must be
pleased with his work" says kuten-
/ berg ordinance. consequently, no one
must be overworked" Even Fer
dinand / (145S94). one of the most
ferocious kings who ever sat on the
throne of the Holy Roman Empire.
accepted this maxim, and ruled that.
in the Imperial mines. the miners
were to work but eight hours day.
The old law also explicitly stated that
work after Saturday at noon was to
be strictly prohibited, and that "a
pair of stocks be In every town that
EN- ployers who worked their people
overtime might be thrust into them.
Because InerS was Satuidds iiati
/ holiday however. 1t must not DO
thought that this afternoon was given
for recreation. Indeed mott was
! bathing time for the greater part
! of the community.
Most barbarians judged by modern
standards, were anything but clean
/ ly in their personal habits. In Eng
| land France, and Germany. bathing
was an almost unknown custom until
Tho nil1rim
t from the East brought home with
them ideas of the bath as help In the
treatment OF disease, and bathrooms
were gradually introduced into the
| hospitals From the hospitals the
idea OF bathing spread generally. Peo-
| pie who had been treated there saw
the value of keeping the body clean
/ in order to resist disease. me great
plague that swept over France In the
early years of the fourteenth century
helped to teach this lesson. BY the
fifteenth century there was scarcely
a large city that did not possess we'll
patronized public bathing establish
ments. although II was not until the
seventeenth century that the Turkish
bath was introduced, and not until
the eighteenth century that sea bath
ing, so common among the American
Indians. was tried experimentally.
| Why Saturday was chosen as bathin z
time. is not difficult to imagine. On
| to church, whether he would or not.
AS the Moslem in the East bathed be-
| fore entering the mosque. so did the
metiiaeyal man before entering his
| church, only he must take his bath on
/ Saturday afternoon in order to be clean
the following day. There was even a
distribution of bath money to the chill
dren whose parents were unable to
pay for their baths.
With the introduction Of machinery
old common laws Of the lands regard
| ing labor came to be neglected. Tho
craft guilds were abolished by law and
| tion OF workmen In any fern In fsnE-
tfand was prohibited until 1871. when
It became legalized again. In England.
part of the eighteenth century. became