Evening star., 1925-09-13

/" HIS is the time of year when
everybody is getting back to
work. The schools are open
i ing again and the children are
beginning to study. The bust
ness man has had his vacation and put
in his 10 days in the Maine wilderness
at Upa gainstit. The young lady stenog-
rapher who won the prize trip to
Europe on a vote of the whole of her
home town is back from Vienna. And
pretty soon the higher colleges will
open and the students will be working
at their foot ball six hours a day.
In short we are all back again on
the job and the time is appropriate
for a little discussion OF the work
question in general.
Now it seems to me that this
work idea is being carried too far.
The thing is becoming a habit and our
unhappy human race is forgetting
what we are here for.
A good deal Of the blame lies. I
think, with the great people Of the
world mean the distinguished peo-
pie in the high positions. Whenever
you read of kings, presidents, great
scientists. great inventors, you find
that they work all the time. Here
for example, Is an account of the way
the President of the United States
any President Of the United States.
from George Washington is sup
posed to begin his day:
The President is an early riser.
He is always out of bed at 5, is dressed
at five minutes past, drinks a cup Of
coffee and is at his desk at half after
). where he remains for three hours
At $50 he reads the papers and then
goes back under his desk till II
o'clock
That example is surely enough to
stop everybody from wanting to be a
President. But as a matter Of fact
it is just as bad or even worse. to
be a king or an emperor. One would
surely suppose that anybody who had
risen so high as to be an emperor
would want to quit altogether. Not
a bit Of it. Emperors, by all accounts,
have a perfect rage for work.
Nowadays there are not many en-
perors left, but if you take any ac-
count Of any OF the emperors that
you find that their intimate life was
carried on after this fashion:
THE emperor''-so it was said OF
the most conspicuous of them-"rises
at 4 and at once changes his uniform
twice, drinks q dipper of coffee, and
is at his desk. He frequently answers
over a hundred dispatches, many of
which are so important as to involve
European peace and war, before 5
o'clock in the morning, dropping his
answers down a letter chute at his
side. His correspondence finished
the emperor drinks more coffee
changes his trousers twice, and takes
his morning ride at full speed, return
ing at in time to chop wood. light
the fire in the palace and cook the
porridge. After which he changes his
trousers, reads the papers and settles
down to the work Of the day
X X x
OR turn to another side of life.
~ Many people would suppose that
the life Of a successful novelist must
be one of delightful ease. Apparently
it is not. A successful novelist is bit
ten with the same wild desire to work
that affects a President and an EN-
peror i noticed recently an account
of the most successful Of British
novelists Of today, which read, as
nearly as I can recall 1t, about as
follows:
mfr. W, whom we interviewed
at his country place in Sussex, is a
perfect dynamo of energy. Although
1t was as yet only o'clock in the
morning and we were still a quarter
of a mile from the house, he stuck his
head out of an upper window and
roared. Come along! Delighted to see
youi Been waiting for you an hour'
He assured us that he always rose
at and went out and had a ro1np
among his bulls from to 5. And
when do you do your wr1ting?' we
asked Mostly between 3 and in
the morning, though L generally feel
pretty keen around midnight he
answered.
Mr. W plays as hard as he
works. lie challenged us to Il game