The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1869-06-24

The following extract is from an article
in the Wide World, combating the COM
mon idea that every hour taken from
sleep is an hour gained:
We boast that we are a wide-awake
people SO far as that relates to the
quantity of our wide-awakefulness, it is a
serious question whether we do not pride
ourselves upon a serious blunder. Our
late hours and our early hours our night
work and our night pleasures; our travel
ing and reveling when we had far better
be on our downy touches or hair mat
tresses, recumbent, are far from salutary
to bodies, or brains, or character. There
are crowds who, to get gain, indulge their
ruling passions, carry out their projects,
are necessarily con the 60" with all their
faculties at the top of their speed, toiling,
thinking, planning, scheming all day, and
far into the night, and stunning repose as
if it were an objectionable sin. We hear
men talk of doing nothing but to stick
day in and day out to their business; of
reading nothing but newspapers and only
the commercial portions of those; of rush
ing from Dan to Beersheba without stop
ping, as fast as steam cars can carry them;
of doing any amount of work, and doing
it in the jump, as though they we're eter-
nally running against time. When we
hear men talk thus, implying that all this
haste and restlessness is a matter of their
own will, we fail % see what there Is so
very commendable in their conduct, or
why they should speak of such indefati-
gable, wearing and tearing smartness, as
something praiseworthy.
1t is in sleep, in regular rest, in quiet
and composure of body and mind, that
compensation for the exhaustion of toll,
the renewals of the mental and physical
forces, are to be found. For this reason
provision is made for needful repose-
profound, dreamless-repose- repair
the waste of the waking and active hours; ;
and for this reason human beings should
be careful to allow themselves the full
maximum of slumber, leisure, stiffness
and invigorating recreation they require.
The consequences of their failure to do
this are seen In the increase of insanity,
in the commences of softening of the
brain, in the prevalence of dyspepsia, in
shattered nerves, In broken frames, pre-
mature old age and untimely graves; they
are evident In the demand for stimulants
and narcotics, and in the various devices
resorted to to patch up and keep running
the physical system; nay, they are only
too marked in still worse forms; in NOR
bid feelings, in vitiated appettes, in fiery
passions, In uncontrolled tempers, In all
those mental and moral alterations, so
haggard and unnatural, telling of rash
violence done to the human constitution
violence that is as suicidal as would be
the deliberate drinking of prussic acid
We speak strongly-possibly a little
strongly. But we speak from the convic-
ton that the tendency of the evil we are
discoursing Of, if not checked, is towards
disaster, greater or less, to individuals and
society generally. IF we could have more
of repose, both for the flesh and the spirit,
by parting with fifty per cent. of our pros
perfty, or diminishing by fifty per cent
the rate of our speed 20 conqnering and
subduing this continent, and developing
its resources, that repose would be cheaply
purchased