Weekday

“ There is an undefinable character and distinctiveness about Sunday morning which is not possessed by any other day of the week.
Not that the remaining six are lacking in individuality. Monday is a depressed and reluctant individual; Tuesday is a full-blooded and energetic citizen; Wednesday a cheerful and contented gentleman who does not intend to overwork himself to-day,—this is probably due to the fact that we used to have a half-holiday on Wednesdays at school ”

“ There is a holiday on every red-lettered saint's-day in the calendar; when this, or no other excuse occurs, it is termed "a regular week," when Tuesday is a whole holiday, Thursday half an one, and Saturday three-quarters.
The longest period of time a boy uninterruptedly enjoys to himself may be said to comprise two hours, commencing each time at twelve, four, and six o'clock, on whole and half holidays ”

“ Sneeze on a Sunday, your safety seek— The devil will have you the whole of the week. Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for its living, And a child that's born on the Sabbath day Is fair and wise and good and gay. ”

“ Idleness we now must shun, another week of work begun, another hill that must be won, for 'tis Monday morning. Clear in brain and strong in limb, now we're in good fighting trim, Sunday's joys are growing dim, for 'tis Tuesday morning. Energies have reached the crest, we've ambition, hope and zest, work, of all life's gifts the best, on this Wednesday morning. Duties pile up thick and fast, the middle of the week is past, now our goal's in sight at last, for 'tis Thursday morning. ”

“ Why is Sunday the strongest day in the week? Because the rest are week days.
Why is a needle one of the most persistent of forces? It always has an eye open for business, and invariably carries its point. ”

“ But week slipped into careless and robust week, and when he awoke in a stable, smelling the sweet hay and the horses and the lark-ringing prairie that crept near to the heart of these shanty towns, he cared only for the day's work, the day's hiking, westward toward the sunset. ”

“ And Monday morning we feel as we used to, refreshed for another week of toil on the road another week of the journey of life another week of the labor of self control, and of effort to make the most of the enjoyment of the social and domestic relations. ”

“ What pleasure was there now in sitting at home Sundays, cleanly washed, with a neat red shirt on, when there was no one to be clean and neat for! Sundays were the longest days of all, days when he was forced to idleness and weary thoughts; nothing to do but wander about over the place, counting up all that should have been done. ”

“ You will be able to assume a new part in life once in each week. For the one hour after midnight on each Saturday, that is, for the first hour of the new week, you will remember all you have been and whatever characters you may have chosen for yourself. ”

“ Where one is utterly powerless—a mere iota in a house—when, whatever one might desire, one's opinion has not a straw's weight with anybody, what is the good of vexing one's self in vain!
I shall content myself with giving a straightforward, succinct account of the week; this week which, I cannot deny, has made a vital difference in our family. Though outwardly all went on as usual—our quiet, monotonous life, unbroken by a single “event,”—breakfast, dinner, tea, and sleep coming round in ordinary rotation; still the change is made. What a long time it seems since Sunday week. ”

“ Let us be diligent during the week, and lengthen our days by beginning them earlier, so as to do most of our work in the morning; then with a clear conscience we may leave off our play as early as we please and go to rest: we shall enjoy the Sunday repose which we have earned, and find ourselves refreshed instead of wearied by it. ”

“ The Sunday gave way to the week-day. There is nothing happening on the roads on the Sunday; the tramp is left with Nature, but directly Monday comes the work and life of the people reveal themselves, and adventures are more frequent. ”

“ SUNDAY ought to be the most cheerful, sunniest, happiest and best day of the week in every home. In most homes it is the dullest and most dreary day of the week to the children, and the most taxing and the most wearying to the parents, especially to the mother. ”

“ You always think that you will get so much done, but there are things about your room and clothes to see to. I always ‘mend and things’ on Saturday, as Jane says. But there is some time, and study hours in the evening. Sunday I absolutely rest, and visit, in the afternoon, and write letters home. Then I get up early on Monday, look over lessons and get in what study I can in between classes. Probably Lilian can get ahead a little on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Her Monday evening will account for the two recitations of Tuesday, and so will the Wednesday evening take care of Thursday. ”

“ The first day of the week, is, however, only a holiday once a month, for the majority of workmen. On the afternoon of pay-Sunday the workman takes his family outside the barrier for a walk into the country. ”

“ On the Monday we have an allegory as lively and ingenious as Lucian’s Auction of Lives; on the Tuesday an Eastern apologue, as richly coloured as the Tales of Scherezade; on the Wednesday, a character described with the skill of La Bruyere; on the Thursday, a scene from common life, equal to the best chapters in the Vicar of Wakefield; on the Friday, some sly Horatian pleasantry on fashionable follies, on hoops, patches, or puppet shows; and on the Saturday a religious meditation, which will bear a comparison with the finest passages in Massillon. ”

“ A man will work I am told four days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, but he has his wages on Friday night, so he does no work on Saturday, it is market day. Sunday of course is a day of rest, everyone knows it would be wicked to work on Sunday, and Monday is banana day—the day when the bananas are taken down to the port. ”

“ At the end of the week we buy a weekly, or a Sunday, paper, which as the name implies has been written on the Saturday, and at the end of the month we buy a monthly. Thus do we keep in touch with the world of events as practical men should. ”

“ The value of a Sunday is that everybody in the family is at home on the same day. What is the use of talking about a six-day working week in which six members of a family would each have his day of rest on a different day of the week?' Id., at 2198. ”

“ It's only holiday work, but it'll last five weeks. And if you do it all right I can get you the whole of the holiday work on the column. That comes to a good lot in the year. We're always taking odd days off. ”

“ We go on working with gradually increasing excitement until Saturday night, when some sensible friend hints that it is too late to make a bad week's work good; precious Sunday comes to ease the strain, and the human machine is oiled and cooled. ”

“ The day-week is decidedly better. You work only ten hours, from seven to five. Those evenings men spend with their families, or at the movies, or going to bed early to rest up for the "long turn." It is not, however, as if it were a "ten-hour industry." Some of the wear and tear of the seven fourteen-hour shifts of the night-week protracts itself into the day-week, and you hear men saying: "This ten-hour day seems to tire me more than the fourteen ”

“ Why do we divide time into weeks of seven days, and call the days Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and why are these names of special planets, or of the special gods associated with them, identical, and occur in the same order among so many different nations? ”

“ Strive that your work on Monday shall be better done than it was on Saturday; and when Saturday comes round again, you will be able to do a still more skilful day's work. We at the North sometimes learn three or four trades. If any one of you feels sure that he can do better for himself and his family by changing his pursuit, he had better change it. ”

“ Some things we can't do; we can't stop the creakin' sounds of the world's work; the big roar of the wheel of business that rolls through the week days, can't be oiled into stillness; but Sundays they might get a little rest Sunday is the only day of rest for thousands of men and wimmen, nervous, pale, worn by their week's hard toil. ”

“ We have all sorts of weeks, don't we! There is Sunday School week, Go to Church week, Boy Scout week, Red Cross week, Social Welfare week, Hospital week, Y.W.C.A. and Y.M.C.A. week. Sometimes we wish we could have one week all to ourselves. ”

“ If the master of the house has a half holiday on Saturday, and the mistress of the house does the housework, the work of Saturday morning must be only the daily work and such preparations as will leave Saturday afternoon and Sunday as free from work as possible. ”

“ So Saturday came, and both were rather the worse for so much idleness, since daily duties and studies are the wholesome bread which feeds the mind better than the dyspeptic plum-cake of sensational reading, or the unsubstantial bon-bons of frivolous amusement. ”

“ In the forms for the days of the week, Sunday almost always occupies a conspicuous position. “When the plane changes, this day is higher than the rest, so that in passing from Saturday to Sunday, a step up is made.” ”

“ These industrious women, panting with the enthusiasm of work, enjoy Saturday more than any other day of the week. The enjoyment springs from various causes. There is first the delight that comes from a vigorous exercise of the muscles. This pleasure is heightened by the knowledge that the work is for a good end, and that on Sunday the house will be resplendent, immaculate, and peaceful. ”

“ Thursday I regard as one who ploughs steadily on his way, lacking enthusiasm but comfortably conscious of a second wind; Friday is a debilitated but hopeful toiler, whose sole joy in his work lies in anticipating its speedy conclusion ”

“ ADSUMUS. With no pregnant words, that tremble
With awful Purpose, take we leave to come:
Yet, when one enters where one’s friends assemble,
⁠’Tis not good manners to be wholly dumb.
So, the bow made, and hands in kindness shaken,
⁠Accept some lightest lines of rhyme, to speak
Our notion of the work we’ve undertaken,
⁠Our new hebdomadal—our Once a Week. ”

“ Our uncivilized Sundays are responsible for our Monday morning headaches and for the gloom which, in many a household, does not wear off until Tuesday morning. If Sunday were a day of fasting instead of a day of feasting, Monday might be radiant occasionally instead of riotous or revolutionary. ”

“ On our streets, Monday is very like Sunday: they show no life, save late in the afternoon, when the girls come out, one by one, and shine and move, just as the stars do an hour later. I don't think there's a man in town who could be induced to go into his neighbor's store and ask him how's trade ”

“ That it has penetrated so profoundly into our natures that even ethnological scholars and travellers are not always able to get away from it, is due to the connexion with the seven-day week, which is regarded as a division of the month, and also to the fact that we so seldom take any notice of the concrete phenomena of the heavens. ”

“ Fair week is holiday. We should have a revolution if they attempted school upon us. For this one week in the year we change places with our fathers and mothers, pastors and teachers. They obey and we command. ”

“ Wednesday is very similar to Tuesday, though the men are not quite as fresh and vigorous. The pace, though still smart and good, will fall a little below that of the day previous. Three days’ toil begins to tell on the muscles and reserve of the body, though this is counterbalanced by the increase of mental satisfaction and expectation, the knowledge of being in mid-week and of getting within sight of another pay-day and cessation from work. ”

“ On a Saturday evening you will see a long line of road, leading to the nearest large market town, grouped every where with pitmen and their wives or “lasses,” laden with large baskets of the “stomach’s comforts,” sufficient for a fortnight’s consumption. They only are paid for their labour at such intervals; and their weeks are divided into what they term “pay week,” and “bauf week,” (the etymology of “bauf,” [189] I leave thee, my kind reader, to find out.) ”

“ You see them all the week buried in business, unable to think of any thing else; and then spending the Sunday in idleness and refreshment, in wandering into the country, in such visits and jovial meetings as make it often the worst day of the week. ”

“ Many if not most of us feel lazy and desultory on Monday morning (which therefore had better be employed on some kind of desultory and irregular work) , and we only get ourselves warm in the harness by the middle of the week. ”

“ One full day and one half day off each week, making a total of forty-four hours weekly which is the standard working week in most industrial occupations. At least two free Sundays a month should be given and a convenient week-day substituted for the other two Sundays. If Saturday is not the best half day to give, another afternoon may be arranged with the Home Assistant. ”

“ A few years ago, having occasion to learn the day of the week of certain events that were transpiring at regular intervals on the same day of the same month, but in different years, he was led to investigate the subject more thoroughly, so that he is now able to give rules for finding the dominical letter and the day of the week of any event that has transpired or will transpire, from the commencement of the Christian era to the year of our Lord 4,000, and to explain the principles on which these rules rest. ”