Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-06-03
Civilized and Savage Life.


Having alleged ignorance of the laws o
health considered as science, we ma.
still compare the civilized condition
man with the savage, and say, whether
it seems that the civilized must needs b.
less healthful. The evils of savage Iii
consist in occasional want of food, toe
great exposure to the inclemencies of th'
weather, the want of proper exercise
the mental faculties, and the sudden vio
lence of enemies. The evils of civilized
life, on the other hand, form a much NOR
extensive list. An over supply of provi
sion leads to an over-indulgence of every
sensual appetite. The pampered ant
cloyed stomach and palate grow luxuriou:
and critical, and the cook is called in tc
supply by art the defects of vitiated di.
gestion. Stimulants, wine, beer, tea,
coffee, become part of the daily and ha-
bitual food of the masses, and are called
in the false language of those who use
them, the "simple necessaries of life.
Spirits are next resorted to, as being
cheaper and more condensed in form, and
these too are taken up into the daily dict
ary of the population. Can it be sup
posed that the blood of the masses, nour-
ished daily upon such exciting fluids, and
that too from childhood, can ever attain to
the cool, well concocted healthy blood
that, in less luxurious times, went to make
bone and springy fiber, elastic veins, and
electrical nerves. Again, the vocations
by which men obtain their daily bread in
civilized life, are with few exceptions,
all unhealthy. Men tend to crowd into
centers and cities grow, then unhealthiness
is added. Poverty and profuse wealth
meet-unhealthy poverty reacts upon un-
healthy stimulants. Then the poor starvc
the rich out of the matter of health, for the
rich never were robustly healthy, and the
poor cannot now recruit them with health.
At last, the whole mass, high and low,
testers with ill-health. Hospitals, mad
houses, dentists, medical practitioners,
sanatoriums and benevolent institutions,
abound every where. Do they mean
charity or science: No. They mean de-
composition of the masses, and the signiti-
cation of this building ofbricks, and press
activity in reporting of cases, lies IN two
words "bad blood" 1t means that we
have lost the art of concocting cool juice.
Besides all this, what we call education,
circulation of knowledge, elevation of the
masses, consists, in ninety-nine cases out
of hundred, in over-stimulating the
brain by cruelty stimulating its intellect
ual volitions, as we have already over
stimulated the body. The stamina Of a
people is broken down by what we style
civilization. Let not the reader point to
the fine-gr young men that some aris-
tocratic and middle class families produce,
or to what men of this stamp did in the
Crimea and the "pluck" (oh that word y
which they showed. Why should we de-
ceive ourselves-pluck is not stamina.
Nobody will dare to say that these men
were or are any of them equal to cope in
hardship and privation or even in mo-
mentary trial of strength, with the yeo-
manry of two centuries ago, nor yet with
the bare-legged Highland regiments of last
century; ifnot, what is pluck but an eu-
phonic phrase, Stimulating old heroism and
prowess, whilst what it really stands for
is /. sort of daredevil galvanlc action under
excitement. Ask, ten years hence, for the
Oxford boat crew of this year, and five
shall be dead or suffering from disease of
the heart, Yet "pluck" won the boat
race.-Eclectic and Cong regationat Re
rietc.