OUR "SATURDAY NIGHTS.
The Cotter's Saturday nights of which Burns wrote, and over which he has thrown the halo of poetry, romance, and religion, evidently were very unlike the Saturday nights of this day aud generation. Of his " Cotter's Saturday Night " Burns Sung : — " From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, That makes her loved at home, revered abroad ; Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, An honest man 's the noblest work of God." Our Saturday nights are not given to " making old clothes look almost as well as new," nor does the " gudeman" of the house, as a rule in modern society, give reverent thanks over his Saturday night's supper for the blessings of the week. Our Saturday nights are nights of torture, worriment and fierce contortion ; nights in which all the troubles of the week accumulate and dart horrors into the innermost soul, and hsnee to many they become nights of dissipation. On Saturday eve the vigilant creditor promptly makes his round, death is not more prompt than he, is in his calls ; grocers, bakers, and bntchers must be paid, and even that nuisance to California — the Chinese washman must be settled with, or "no can hab them shirtee for Slundee." These are a few of the horrors that congregate on Saturday nights and make one fervently wish the night was blotted out of the calendar, or that the devil would fly away with all pestilent duns ; and may Jupiter confound the man who invented credit and other adjuncts of civilisation. But to some, Saturday night comes as if with healing on it wings, a messenger of hope and pleasure. Callow lads and callow lasses, fooled to the top of their bent with the deliciousness of love's young dream, haU its approach, for it is a time when lovers can meet, whisper soft nonsence into willing ears, sip the cool ice cream, suck the succulent candy, and generally make themselves ready to enter upon the miserable future which, happily, they cannot foresee. — " Sacramento Bee."
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Bibliographic details
Tuapeka Times, Volume XI, Issue 753, 6 March 1878, Page 3
Word Count
339OUR "SATURDAY NIGHTS. Tuapeka Times, Volume XI, Issue 753, 6 March 1878, Page 3
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