The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1858-11-26
a Model Merchant.

81 dincd yesterday with, who may
well be called model merchant not be-
cause business scccms the business ofhis
life, but precisely because it Is not so. He
makes business subServicnt to hlm he is
never the slave Of business. | was asking
him after dinner about the colonial trade, Of
which hr is thoroughly convcrsant, but to
my surprise he waived reply, very politely.
however, and said, "colnc TO my counting
room in business hours, letwrcn 10 and 3,
and will give You all the information you
want. | have madciL it u rule for many
yca,s, never To talk business away from hu-
isncSss." This led 10 further remark, when
hu toll me he devoted rs little tim. II, was
absolutely necessary to business purposes,
and experience had shown him that rs much
could he effected in Il well regulated com
ting house between ten and three, as longer.
That he let his clerks do for him all thai;
they could do !c and his partner doing
only wha. the others could not do he had
his share of business. making business Il
! pleasure. and Vet as brief Il pleasure asp"s-
siblc. contining such thought ana actni,
within rs few hours rs he could, and when
lie left his counting, house he would no more
let commercial mattcis iniru.!c into his do.
mcs.ic and social life and conversation, than
he would let snake into his pleasure
grounds. "lf your countrvmrn wonid let
business he an accessory anl not IN end OF
life, they would find life very different
matter than many, t" my knowledge, now
do. When | visited the States in 1S49
one Of the most agreeable men met with
III the counting house WIS; but out Of
his, money mi.i," as | indeed told him, he
Was the most unintcrcStnr-hc conl,l talk
Only Of husircss-as TO books, he knew
nothing Of their contents. although his lib
rarv shelves were rs well filled as inlnc-
pictures and art and literature, and music.
were but as SO many words whose rich sw-
nifcancc were lost to him. What vnur
countrvmrn want most is to shake off their
tcttCrs, an'l force themselves into Il purer
and more li;c-likc atmosphere than they in
hale among warehouses and ships. Some
Of them know this now. and are coming
over here for rccrca:inn," hut it. will do
them no good if they fall back into the OLE!
! channels when they get home. Us con
scrvatorv is the very b;J"u Of exotic dream
land, and You would hardly suppose it was
! the pet pleasure Of Il man who does SO much
/ in-- moIn$SoS >"
! Ertruct9u lcttcrdohd Lon1on, Oct 10.
| %
! Mental Hygiene.
! From the report of the proceedings of.hc
Association Of fSupcrintcndan,s of the Amc-
! rican Hospitals for the Insane, at their late
meeting i'll Quebec, VIC extract the following
remarks made by DR.. RAY, in the course OF
! 4 discussion which followed the reading of
n paper on Mental Hygiene. The statements
! thus made deserve most careful attention
! from all who are engaged in the training OF
! the young, if they would avoid the fatal er-
ror, widely prevalent, no doubt, in most of
our communities
81 sec no cause in operation more calcu-
lated 10 dcteriorate the power Of endurance,
both physical and mental. than our system
of education. 1t is n matter Of common
observation, and none the less SO, | fear, on
account OF the Imposition it has encounter
cd from every one who has the least idea of
! the misclicfit has produced. Still we can
not a:oid the duty Of bearing our testimony
against it on every suitable occasion.
"Chiidrcn are put into schools almost rs
soon as they can 80 alone, and kept there
six hours a day, and rs they advance the
work increases. If fortunate enough to
reach the age Of twelve uninjurcd. then the
great physiological revolution in the system
takes place and renders it more sensitive un.
der the strain to which it is subjected. They
go into tlie.hgh schools, where the sessio ms
are five or six hours long, and not for the
purpose ofstuly alone, some do not study
at school at all, the time being occupied
solely in recitation. Out Of school they are
kept at their studies frequently until ten or
eleven o'clock at might. am astomishcd
every lit lc while at some new revelation re-
specting the extent of these practices. a
few weeks ago Twas informed that many Of
the girls attending the high sclIoot.in Rrov-
idence-gi'ls who ought to be in bed Mt 0
o'clock-wcre up habitually jnitif eleven or
twelve, getting up their exercises for the
next day.
The number of youth that break down
in consequence of excessive cerebral activity
is countless. The disease may pass under
some other name, even dyscntery, as in
case that cauic under my notice only last
week. A lady infopned NE that her only
child, a daughter, fourteen years old, had
died in school of dysentcry, though the dis
ease seemed light, and ler physicians had
declared, an hour or two before she died,
that there was no danger, asccrtained,
however, that she was one Of those intellec-
tual children who are fond ofstudy, and
that she had been crcouraSc.!to use her
brain to the utmost extent, with mono of
those exercises and rccreatons Which might
have checked the riiinous effect of such
course. III this condition she was attacked
by a disease which,; under other circum.
stances, would not have been serious, and
she wanted tile nervous energy to resist it.
This case illustrates an effect of EXCESSIVE
cerebral exercise too much oyerIookel. i
mean the inability to bearlhe least silocck Of
disease in any other organ, as iftbe tital3
forces had all been assa yp.in slpplyingtlie,
demands Of the brai sEhe efdihssy. nlanii..s1 s
.f,efo of