Show A land LAND OF HOLIDAYS now how english workingmen enjoy respite from labor on derby day there are not many holidays in england that is to say there are not as many as there are days in the year or bristles in a pi pis pigs s back but there are arc some holidays just the same ime the british holiday is a great institution it enables the horny handed sons of to toil to say ay they will not do any work and that is a privilege which no english workingman ever lets pass unheeded it if the weather is fine on his holiday file english workman goes out into the country rolls around on tho the grass and gets drunk if it is rainy he stays in the city and gets drunk just the same drink is the one solid standby of the honest laboring man over here do you vou think there is money enough in the world to make the average run im of people over here really work on saturday afternoons or other holidays I 1 dont at any rate I 1 had bad a shorthand writer around hero bero for a couple of days last week he was all right till the holiday struck in and from that moment lie he was wa s as lost to me as though lie he had fallen overboard in ill mid ocean with a pound shot at ilis his heels offers of extra pay had bad no weight we il at all with him and he be was deaf altic alike to prayers entreaties and sneers ile ho wanted his holiday and that settled it that is the way it il runs all along the line A tailor promised mo me a suit of clothes last week they didn dian t come but the tailor did ile he was full of apologies and garlic he told me I 1 could not have my garments for several days I 1 asked him why note not and lie responded with tears that it was a race week and nothing on oil earth would induce the men to work they had all gone to the races he went on and they probably sober up for at least three or tour four days to come this passion for racing in england is the most amazing tiling thing one comes in contact with at the derby there were fully a half million people two thirds of atheni at least were recruited from the very lowest class I 1 suppose at least men actually walked from london to epsom and back a round distance of forty miles in order to see the racing to which they had barely mone money y enough to purchase an entrance around our coach as it stood drawn up beside the track there were always half a dozen wretches who scrambled on oil the ground for possession of the chicken bones recently thrown aside by the members of our party during lan luncheon cheon the sight right would have stirred ones pity but for the reflection that if the hungry fellows had remained at home and fed themselves on the few shillings it cost them to see the race there would no not have been the eligh slightest test necessity for their wolf like wrestles tor for bones and scraps what the mining stock craze used to be in san francisco tile mania for racing is in england scullions Scull ions cooks messenger boys hod carriers and everybody else of hi high h or low degree deny themselves tho the comforts and in many cases the necessities of life in order to have a few shillings on oa their favorites coming home from epsom on derby day is an experience which as a usual thing one is not apt to forget that is the one day of all the year when the lower orders are permitted by tacit agreement to do about what they like to the upper orders the consequence is that the upper orders have a lively time of it the men and women who walk along the roadside or ride in omnibuses omni buses and other cheap conveyances are supplied with little squirt guns and pea shooters and they send water and peas with great fluency at the persons of high estate who occupy the coaches and other vehicles indicative dica tive of prosperity sometimes indeed they cast handfuls of powdered ochre achre all over those whom they are thus permitted to take liberties with the result sult is apt to be disastrous to good clothes and tender tempers the atmosphere is thick with dust raised by countless vehicles and wherever a stream of water alights there immediately follows a great blotch that is neither pretty nor pacifying I 1 the best workmen I 1 have in in my employ said an extensive manufacturer the other day rarely turn up from saturday noon until wednesday morning prom from that time out they work hard and ion long 1 until the next nest saturday at noon when en off they go again for another half week within their working time they manage to earn enough money to keep them going three or four days and during that period they simply wall not bo be induced to woi k of course we do have bate thrifty steady on this side of the water but I 1 do not think there are as many of them as in america you are a strictly business nation over there while we go in for about so much play to every days work much more than halt balf the poor condition of english working classes is due solely to the workers themselves if they stuck to their tasks six solid days in the week and took fewer holidays as your laborers do in the united states they would find it considerably crabl 7 easier r to make ends meet but they I 1 wont and that is the end of it I 1 I 1 it is rather a sneer on the part of english folks that wo we americans are a 41 strictly business people and tho the feeling extends from the highest figlie st to the lowest classes classa tho the rich poke oko fun at our solid men for not enjoying life to a greater extent and the working people think we are not civilized up to the point of taking a little play with our labor maybe wo are not but abo and women of america live better have houses and find their tables better supplied and their bodies better clothed a thousand fold than the beings who occupy similar walks of life over liere leander Lean cler richardson Richard bon in new york mail and express |