Battles to Fight

Home

6. About Holidays



If thou art worn and hard beset
With troubles that you wouldst forget,
If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleeps
Go to the woods and hills ! no tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.
H. W. Longfellow.

I BELIEVE no one in this world enjoys a holiday more thoroughly than the hardworking business young man, and for this reason - that fifty weeks of honest toil form the best possible preparation for two weeks' recreation. Many a man does not think so, I admit. When he sees the "gilded youths " who have nothing to do from January ist to December 31st but go a-pleasuring, he looks around at his dingy office, counts the weary weeks that have to elapse before his humble two weeks' vacation, and feels like breaking the tenth commandment. He is under an immense delusion. " If all the year were playing holidays to sport would be as tedious as to work. " No man revels m twelve or twenty days' exemption from toil like the busy worker who has been plodding manfully for eleven long months to earn his bread, and who, in spare hours, has lived earnestly and fought valiantly in order to acquire a cultured mind and achieve a lofty character. No man need forswear the luxury of a holiday because he is poor. The most rational and refreshing delights are generally the cheapest. I have had better holidays for twenty dollars than I have had for two hundred. Those who travel most sometimes see the least. You may rush through Europe and squander your substance at fashionable hotels only to be bored by the inanity of table-d'hote chatter, bewildered by the eccentricities of railway porters, pestered by garrulous guides, and broiled by the hot suns of Continental cities. I shall never forget the fatigue I endured after my first visit to Paris. Those brilliant boulevards and glittering cafes and feverish crowds - how I tired of them all; and how supremely happy I felt for a week afterwards, resting in a quiet French seaside town, where I could dine when I liked, dress as I liked, and do what I liked, and where no one thought it undignified to lie on the sands in flannels with the Tauchnitz edition of the last new romance. I would not underrate the value of a European trip to a healthy young man - nothing surely could be more interesting or delightful ; but for a jaded mind and a weary body there is, perhaps, better relaxation to be found nearer home. There is no lack of variety in temperature and scenery within the compass of reasonable distance, and many delightful resorts are to be discovered by a little effort and inquiry.

When Mr. Ruskin urges us to play wisely as well as to work well, he gives us a very necessary and important advice. What can be more irrational than the way in which many people spend their holidays ? They frequently toil much harder during what they playfully term their " vacation " than under the most strenuous pressure of business. They either rush from monument to museum, from park to picture-gallery, from cafe to cathedral, in a cruel but conscientious attempt to "do Europe," or else they " rest " amid the shrill and vulgar choruses of nigger minstrels and the mad whirl of fashionable folly. All this is a huge blunder. Do you follow a sedentary occupation ? Then, why not spend your holiday on a wheel ? Mounted on a good cycle you can roam through the most charming country entirely at your own sweet will. The expense is inconsiderable, the exercise healthy, and the enjoyment boundless. Others will prefer rowing, and will gain equally beneficial results. I always feel that the vain creatures who deck themselves in gorgeous raiment, squander money on unnecessary luxuries, and then start up and down the crowded promenade of a fashionable resort all day, and breathe the vitiated atmosphere of the dancing saloon at night, are greatly to be pitied. What do they know of the simple, honest pleasures of pure air, plain food, genial companionship, and healthy exercise? Yet these are the chief desiderata of a real holiday, and while their value is priceless their cost is insignificant.

How can we make sure of an exhilarating and thoroughly satisfactory holiday ? Let me offer a few friendly suggestions. (1.) By going at the right time. September is probably the best month, if you can conveniently manage it. The air is cool and bracing, popular resorts are not overcrowded, and the voice of the strolling musician is no longer heard in the streets. (2.) By earning it. The man who has worked perseveringly throughout the year goes away with a clear conscience, and enjoys his vacation with a buoyancy of spirit and a lightness of heart sufficient to turn the idler and lounger green with envy. (3.) By preparing for it. The joys of anticipation are often greater than the pleasures of realization. Having chosen a place that will suit your tastes and temperament, read up all the best books that refer to it, plan a pleasant route, and inquire for comfortable but not necessarily expensive quarters. (4.) By sharing it with genial companions. It is far better to be alone than to endure the endless cackle of feather-brained chatterers, or the morbid growls of dyspeptic cynics. Amongst " genial companions " I would include books. To enjoy a holiday we need not put aside all work. What we want, as a rule, is not so much entire rest as change of scene and occupation. Why not take a few books for which no time could be found in the work-days ? To read about the places visited will help to store the mind with useful information, (5.) By keeping your eyes wide open. I know men who have been veritable globe-trotters, and yet they are as insular in their sympathies, and as narrow in their information, as the most thoroughbred Cockney. All the inspiring paintings and noble architecture, all the precious memorials of genius and antiquity, have failed to make the slightest impression ; but they will tell you with the utmost gravity, that in London the cost of shaving was only half as much as in New York; that in Venice the lodgings were shockingly vile ; and that Paris was the only place where they could get decent coffee.

Holidays have their dangers. Restraints are removed - no one knows you - and you are in the extremely perilous position of being able to do as you like. I have seen young men do things abroad which they would have solemnly condemned at home. Beware of the "gaiety of those whose headaches nail them to a noonday bed ; whose haggard eyes flash desperation and betray pangs." Healthy merriment and innocent pleasure will do us all good ; but may God save us from the "gaiety that fills the bones with pain, the mouth with blasphemy, and the heart with woe." There is such a gaiety, and it flashes with seductive charm in many a holiday haunt. No recreation is worth the name which does not make us buoyant with renewed health, eager for social service, and strong for daily toil.