The Washington herald., 1914-08-01
The Anti-Week Enders. J
ny IosEPH EDGAR cHAMBEitLIN

"To weekend" "week-endng p spending the
weekend" II is a new term; il IS in all the new
dictionaries but you win not find it is any of the old
ones Unless you are young. you never heard the
phrase in your youth And yet it is nothing new to
spend the time from Saturday noon, or from Friday
night to Monday morning, with friend, or at some
chosen place of recreation. Why has the. phrase
sprung into such common uses
1t is because the practice has become so general
that it is institution and has gained name,
like any other institution.
1t is because tens Of thousands of people have
qured the habit of deserting their homes for couple
of days, for nearly the whole of two days as
they can get, at the end of the week-so that the
week-enders represent large section of the popula-
ton
1t is an institution; and like any other institution
it has found its enemies.
In religious weekly l have just been reading an
attack on the weekend custom. See what this pleas
ant outing custom (if we to believe this religious
edtor) has done 1t has separated tens of thousands
of people from their churches, greatly thinning the
attendance certain churches, though possibly in
creasing the attendance upon others-al "hoaters' y
1t has broken up home ties, and led people to think
of their homes as a place where they bored, and
from which they escape if they get day of freedom
1t has favored the homebreakers at the expense Of
the home-makers Il has increased the restlessness
and mischievouness of the people of this generation
1t has weakened the individual capacity for facing life
and its duties and problems.
There is something in the charge-just little.
Probably the co:nmonness of the weekend jaunt is
sign of restlessness in the present generation You
want to get away somewhere. You can't bear the
thought of staying at home. in the same old place,
forever You want to talk to see strange people and
SD Vp,, he bow he
place without very much regret You glad to get
away.
But wait a moment. Aren't you glad to get back
again Monday night? Hasn't the home place, even
if it is only fat greater zest for you account
Of the outing? Do you not like the home the better
for the week end and behave yourself better in il?
One reason why the old folks never had the word
weekend in their vocabulary that they were
less restless phlegmatic less wachful and eager
probably more dull, than We find their type
still in people who never do go away for weekend
These people stay in their stocking feet all day Sum-
day. and wear dressing gown else, disdainng the
dressing gown, go colIarless all day-the women in
kimonos and the children snarng for amusement.
That is one type of home-stayers of anti-week-
enders. Another type puts its Sunday clothes and
goes to church, and possibly to Sunday school, and
then eats an enormous dinner, from which it suffers
in surly silence the rest OF the day. In that model
household there is atmosphere of bored and i'll
subdued cussedness from o'clock in the day
This may be facing life and its duties and prob
lens" If feels that they to be faced only in
that way one ought by all to give up the week
end But most people will feel that the home suffers
rather than gains by such boredom.
do not believe that people really any less
for their homes if they have homes, than they
D., p,,t H.. haet
home becomes prison if stays in it all the time
One needs to get new angle even ones home,
once in a while, and sojourn elsewhere enables
to do that Some point exists in which one make
a favorable comparison between ones own home and
all other homes-even the richest. The weekend
trip enables make the comparison and discover
that point
Our own people seem different when seen some
where else than at home One finds out things about
them. You never knew your wife could discuss the
suffrage question until you heard her holding forth
very ably it at the Hoopendykes last Sunday You
get respect for the people and scenes about you
by the aid of the weekend trip.
But the best part of the weekend is the positive
accumulation of pleasurabe experience that gets
out of it. We live by laying up stores of joy
business than do in any other way. If you have
been at all wise. you have had a good time on the
weekend. You have seen some beautiful place. You
have heard some good talk You have been happy in
some else's pleasure in your presence. You have
stored up of that Joy in your heart. Is there
no benefit to your life and soul in that? Will your
home suffer because you be more cheerful and
content in it. as the result of larger experience?
5f the church. or the home, or the individual
capacity for facing life and its duties and problems
are going to suffer because one family have had
good time and enlarged their souls then much the
worse is it for all of them. The people, having
learned the meaning of the work weekend" are
likely to hold fast to the thing