Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1935-09-06
"Chirps" ~
from the
Democrats Pen

time on Lablr Day! Dloht any VI
you get killed, did you? You know.
this holiday, known as Labor day.
is more correctly named than you
might suppose. Fact is, it is harder
for some people to do nothing at all
than to pursue their usual days labor.
You get up in the morning early,
prepare the old flivver, giving it
mess of oil, water and gas; then you
hurry friend wife and the kids with
the lunch baskets, water bottles, and
get the other kind of bottles yourself,
and after scurry, hurry and hustle,
you're off.
Then, unless your pocket is well
lined with the legal tender of Uncle
Sam. YOU hustle off to convenient
woods for picnic. And you have it!
There are picnicers there before you:
flies, mosquitoes, ants, ticks, and one
of these lately bereaved spiders, may
be and what it takes to battle with
this vermin, makes you perfectly will
ing to call it Labor Day.
You go home, wash up, go to bed
early, get up early, off to what is Or
dinarily called labor day, but COM
pared to the day previous is real
rest day.
However, as o. Dewey said long
ago, "Men cannot labor on always.
They must have recreation. And If
they have it not from healthful sources
they will be very likely to take it from
poisoned fountains. Or, if they have
pleasures, which, though innocent, are
forbidden by the maxims Of public
morality, their very pleasures are
liable to become poisoned fountains"
Recreation means only to "re-
create" Therefore, to re-create
strength-rest; to re-create MIN, res,
pose: to re-create cheerfulness, hope
in God or change the object of atten-
ton to one more elevated and worthy
of thought.
Recreation is intended to the mind
as whetting is to the scythe, to sharp
en- the edge of it which otherwise
would grow dull and blunt. He, there
fore. that spends his whole time in
recreation is ever whetting, never
moving; his grass may grow and his
steed starve. AS, contrarily, he that
always tolls and never re-creates is
ever moving, never whetting; labor
ing much to little purpose; as good
no scythe as no edge."-So spoke
Bishop Hall.
Humanity must have diversions.
Diversions are the most properly ap-
piled to ease and relieve those who
are too much employed. Those that
are idle have no need of them, and yet
they, above all others, give themselves
up to them. To unbend our thoughts,
when they are too much stretched by
our cares, is not more natural than it
is necessary; but to turn our whole
life into holiday, is not only ridicu-
lous, but destroys pleasure instead of
promoting it."
So, it doesn't matter how many
snakes, jiggers, flies, gnats and black
widows, have occupied the ground be-
fore us, we brave heat, moisture,
rain, and flood to stake day off,
and just how much it "takes off" us
doesn't matter, so long as it's consid-
cred to be holiday.
Well, here's hoping you-all had the
good time you expected, and you still
have something left in your jeans to
buy grub for the real labor day. 1
spent a right pleasant day, but you
can't have all pleasant days; because
the very day afterward man came in
my office to sell me book, and / had
to buy to get rid of him. But he
looked like he needed the money and
as we were both in the same boat, 1
turned philanthropic and divided up
with him-but, no other book agents
need apply.