Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1860-03-27
STAUNTON, VIRGINIA, TUESDAY MARCH u, 1860.

to bear here, and it is found that the oil of tur.
pentine exposed in saucers, where this match
making proceeds, absorbs the mischevous va.
por.
The glider of metals and the coverer of mir
rors are other sufferers. While the process goes
on, the workman is invested with mercuria]
| fumes; his body is spotted with rnetaliferous
particles, and he becomes shattered human
creature, with trembling muscles. brown visage
and blackened teeth The belle who surveys
her wonderous beauty in the glass would start
| back in horror if the yisage of this victim oil
luxury and vanity should but appear in dim
shadow far down the depths of her clear refiec
tor.
| Some of our green, arsenous wall paper pro-
duces disease. If its pestilential influence thus
affects even him who occupies the room orna-
mented with it, what must have befallen the
operator who prepared it, or the artisan who
smoothed it to its place on the wall?
! So with workers in lead and paints. The ap-
proach of disease in these cases is signazed by
an azure line near the edge of the gums, and
where this blue flag is hoisted, the workman
may well rest from his avocation, lest his bread
earning hand drop powerless by his side. A
drop of sulphuric acid to gallon of water makes
a lemonade which prevents ar postpones the
| familiar ''painters' colic'' or paralysis.
A large contingent to the army of death, is
| furnished by tailors, bakers and milliners in
large cities. They are mostly killed for want
OF fresh air, which does not reach them in their
| constrained positions or in their confined or
| heated rooms. The story of sewing women need
not be told here. Their suferings are elements
OF our advanced civilization, as well as of that
OF England. And from the very nature of the
case, their wants aud perils are most familiarly
known, but known only to be pitied or disre-
garded.
The article from which we have gathered
the foregoing statements, presents also the sta.
tistics of mortality among various other classes
of labor, and contrasts the general influence of
out and indoor occupations, as connected with
more OF less exercise.
Proceeding to the educated classes and to
those having more means of self-indugence,
another problem is presented. These do not
enjoy length Of days. They lack the wholesome
stimulus of labor, and one element of health and
longevity is eliminated. Vital force is fed up
on regularity, sobriety and activity of body and
mind. Comparing the three professions of law.
medicine and the pulpit, the race is close, bat
the pulpit leads by a trihe, and the lawyer suc
cumbs before the physician. This statement is
based, however, only upon comparison of
persons who have already passed the age of So
~ liiS i6hAS u cuS AlOOlutY dTc 6utGfSQ,
gevity is inyersely proportioned to the eminence
Of the rank, and the King, fenced in by all the
divinity that doth hedge him abont, guarded
from casualties, and carefully screened from dis
ease or harm, drops into the grave ten years be-
fore the clergyman.
| 1T could be clearly shown, says Mr.. Nelson,
in bis Vital Statistics, by tracing the various
classes of society in which there exists sufficient
| means of Subsistence, by beginning with the
| most humble, and passing on to the middle and
upper classes, that gradual deterioration in
the duration Of life takes place and that Just as
life, with all its wealth, pomp and magnidcencA,
would seem to become more valuable and tempt
ing, so are its opportunities and chances OF en-
| joyment lessened.
| AS far as the results of figures admit of jndg-
| ing, this condition would seem to flow directly
from the pampered and luxurious style of living
among the weather. classes, whose artificial
habits interfere with the nature and degree of
those physical exercises, which, in simpler class
of society, are accompanied with long life. Tru-
ly, there is spirit OF Compensation 10 this life.
it We could only 'distil it forth The poor ooun-
tryman of thirty years OF age, who takes his fru-
gel repast under a hedge, has chance of thir-
teen years longer life than the monarch of the
same age clothed in purple, and lord, perhaps,
| of half the habtable world !"