The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1868-11-04
Overwork anu Underworld.

OyerwOrk AMI underworld.
The majority Of mankind, says the Scien-
tifc American, need no caution against over
work. Where work kills one, the want Of
work kills ten, the fires of passion consume
twenty, sinful indulgence destroys fifty. In
cases where work seems to undermine health,
it is not SO often that the labor is too much
as the faulty way in which it is done, the
spirit in which it is performed. Labor, to
be permanently endurable, must be healthy !;
that is, it must be adapted to the menta! and
physical capacities of the worker, and cspe-
cially if brain labor, it must be pleasing. It
+, must not be allowed to intrcnch upon sleep.
to interfere with the regular and deliberate
taxing Of food, nor prevent proper amount
of recreation and exercise. Those who write
upon this subject rarely look beyond the sur
face of the matter Dyspepsia is traced to
hasty meals and want of exercise, softening
of the brain to excessive thinking, and 50 on.
The why the meals are hasty, or the brain
overtaxed, seems to escape notice.
It were easy to get hint that would lead
to the zeal truth-if the same superficial OBJ
servation did not prevent it-from the excep-
tional cases the men whose brows are sunny
and unseamed; whose laugh is hearty and
ringing. notwithstanding they perform an
amount of work which seems almost incredi-
bic to those whose own tolls are SO onerous
that it passes their conception how flesh, and
blood, and mind, could possibly endure more.
The healthiest men we know are those who
do not work the hardest but do the most
work. There is no paradox about this
Every business man sees among his employees
examples Of men who work hard yet accom-
plish little, others who easily accomplish
much.
How is this to be explained? Much is
attributable to the want of system on the
part of the inefficient, more to the want Of the
proper spirit. Nervous irritability is the
greatest weakness of American character
It is the sharp grit which aggravates friction
and cuts out the bearings of the entire hui
man machine. Nine out of every ten men
we meet are in chronic state of annoyance.
The least untoward thing sets them in state
Of ferment. Impotence is the poison that
heats the blood and ruins stomachs, more
than excess of pepper and mustard. Every
machinist knows that when journal begins
to cut, there is no help but to stop and cool
it off, if ruin is to be avoided Let it 60 on
aud it cuts faster and faster, till the crash
comes. We are less wise as regards ourselves.
We allow ourselves to fret, and acquire the
habit Of fretting until fretting becomes chron-
ic. We fret while we eat, and while we
ought to sleep, and by fretting rob nature
of needful rest.
The machinist, when he finds his machinery
squeaking, applies the oil; if the bearings
have become so hot as to endanger the works,
he stops ard allows them to cool. The hui
man machine should be treated in like man
ner 1t should be kept we'll oiled and cool.
What is the oil that will stop the squeak
inS-the lubricator that will keep the ma
chinery from heating. Dickens has given us
the formula in the words of his inimitable
Mark Tapley "Keep jolly" Good humor
is what will keep digestion perfect and the
brain from softening, while it will, at the
same time, keep the heart from hardening.
We know man who does, daily, an amount
of work, the mere contemplation Of which
would give some Of our nervous friends a fit of
Mysteries. We have seen his desk loaded down,
before his arrival at his office, with mass of
matter which would have made our neighbor
Stewandfret turn three shades more sallow
than is his wont, if it did not bring on an at
tack Of jaundice outright. He did not 60
iuto Mysteries, nor get bilious, he only laugh
cd good, hearty, rollicking laugh at the
good joke of supposing one good humored
pair of hands could get through with such a
stack of business in a single day. And then,
to turn the joke from himself, he went at it;
put it all through in good style, and had his
hearty laugh again, at the end of it, and
went home self satisfied and content. No
danger of his getting dyspeptic or his brain
softening; he keeps his machinery oiled. He
is not one of those descr ibed by Hood,
nMorBid. all bile md verjnce and-nerv
Where other people would make preserves,
He turns his trait into pickles.
He will outlive two such, and do the work Of
four. His sleep will always be blest with the
"Golden dreams that make men awake him.
gss.'