Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1888-05-26 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

WHITSUNTIDE.  The best, most cheerful, and thrice-welcome holiday of the year isavith us again. There will be few; we exert, who will feel inclined to contest our encomiums upon the Whit festival. E ster never names too early, bat it is inseparably connected with big tire,, grime coats, and Lilting north-eat winds. Wiike -week is never quarrelled with, but the charms of summer have at that season been too long enjoyed to retain to the full their primitive delights. For Whitsuntide is reserved the first plaLe in our calendar of holidays. Then we are able to realise that we are really emancipated from the drear succession of frosts, snow. storms, searching nor'-easters, and the other manifold charms of a prolonged winter. This year we have run perilously near an unfortunate Whit-holiday, Sc far as the weather is concerned. The " blizzards" are not so entirely things of the past, that we have utterly forgotten the twinge of " rheumatic " and kindred complaints, including the ever-present eaten-all, to to which they give rise, and these reflections impart a sense of comfortable complacency that Dame Nature has mended her manners so that her devoted children may taste anal enjoy to the full the pleasures of varied scenes and " pastures new." The great national holiday has passed iiwa) most auspiciously, mid the holiday observed in the locality of Denton and district will be «immencing shortly after these lines are printed. Of all the advantages which an improved civilization has been instrumental in imparting to the busy toilers in our manufacturing centres, perhaps none is of more value than that of placing within reach of the working man the means of escaping for a time short though it may be from the monotonous routine of everyday life. Let anyone who would realise this to its full extent, contemplate any one of the numerous hoardings. Does he want to visit the sea-aide, lie will, at a minimum of expellee, be able to retch Blackpool, Southport, or the various watering places on the East Coast. Does he want to Visit an inland resort, lie can do so and ruralise to the utmost of his powers and at the cost of a few pease. Or, if lie he more ambitious, and desirous of seeing places of hiatorie interest, what greater facilities could be placed within his reach of visiting zilch places as London and Edinburgh, or the sow famous Glasgow? These are advantages which it is impossible to overestimate, and which we believe are deservedly valued by the great masses of the population. In this age people are said to live "fast," and doubtless there is a great deal of truth in the assertion. We can look beck perhaps longingly at the easy, old-fashioned style of living which our ancestors enjoyed, but, thanks. to that "Providence which shapes our ends," we are not without some set-oils, even in this utilitarian age, the most conspicuous of which is that of being able to take the needed relaxation, when the Mug-looked-forward-to periods arrive, of being able to throw wink aside, not to murder time in insipid ennui, but to gather renewed vigour from the health. giving ozone, to court the sunshine and the shadow on the majestic hilts is the heart of Derbyshire, or to wander with a delicious sense of freedom by the gurgling stream, or beneath the grateful shade of leafy dells, until the voice of duty sounds the re-Lell. We should be remiss were we not to have a word also for the children on this, to them, pre-eminent season of the year. Thousands of bright eyes will gleam with unwonted pleasure and happiness on Friday morning, and we trust that these younger sharers in our festivities may have al cause to look upon the Whitsuntide of 1888 as a decadence in any respect from the preceding feitivaliii. Old and young alike hive our best wishes for their hearty enjoyment, and we trust that in each case innocence may wait on jollity and renewed health and vigour on both.