Year: 1860

H EAT AND HARD WoRk-THE DUTY


OF EMPLOYERS


As the Spring gets along, with that
laggard waywardness peculiar to her,
and the Summer is suggested by oc-
casional heavy strokes of sunshine and
increased activity in the soda and barrel
organ trades, other considerations present
themselves to the minds of great num-
ber of people than the pleasant places
Of solstitial resort to, 60 to.


Thousands of work people do not ro-
lax their labor in any degree because
there is an upward tendency of the mer-
curry A horal system has them tight.
They look into the red eyes of monster
furnaces; they inhale the steams and
gases and oily odors of untiring steam en-
gines; they keep watch over all manner
of monotonous machines; they bend over
fine and trying work; they hammer, they
handle rough edges of metal, they stitch,
they stick at something that has not
prospect of ever getting to a final ac-
complishment, often huddle together in
rooms that the sweet light of heaven
never penetrates in any other than Il
ghostly and sorrowing way, breathing
over and over the same devitalized
breath, soaking and drying again in
perspiration, from the first to the last
rose of summer. These are the men and
women, young and old, who get no
holiday ever, and to whom existence
(were it not, as, thank God, it often is,
sweetened with domestic affection and
simple faith and in the sweat the brow
dispensation literally fulflled) is an un-
broken ezpanse Of immitigable toll
For these in their hardest season, we de-
mand that the public parks within the
stony confines be kept fresh and beauti-
full; for to them, when the sun in mercy
has gone down, they may go and be re-
freshed by the soft touch of nature
For these we urge the generous aid Of
well-to-do citizens in behalf Of the new
and more extensive natural Park; and
for the same not over-fayored class We
ask of the City powers music in the
evening air that shall cost them nothing.
We believe that the conditions of labor
in our large factories and shops are much
easier than they once were, and do not
despair of the day when large pro-
prietors of muscle may realize the hu-
manity and the profit of giving an after
noon Of every week in the late Spring
and Summer months to their operatives,


But there is another class to whom
the Summer should bring increased in
diligence. The young men who make
up the standing commercial army of the
metropolis should have more time than
they are allowed for recreation. Now
is the very best time for our merchants,
directors, etc., to revise their code
The nation has suddenly determined not
to have dyspepsia any longer, and is
doing its best in every direction to
shake off that wretched incubus upon
energy and ambition. Sports that were
recently esteemed vulgarly active, aud
ruinous as we'll to the purple and fine
linen as to the complexion, have now an
eminent place on the fashionable pro-
gramme. Among the better-off classes
of society there is wholesome rage for
eduestrianism. x * = x x :: 5
x x They will make the very best re-
turn for such considerate treatment
Let it be distinctly remembered (and
let the wan ylsage and listless move
ment of many of the clerks attest tlSe
truth Of the adage,) that "all work and
no play makes Jack dull boy" Noth-
ing is more trite; but what could be trues2'