Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-07-21
#tisrellanenas,.
We Must Rest.

Work wastes a man. Brain works
upon all the system. Provision is made
for regular repair of regular wear,
but not for an irregular waste or COM
plete exhaustion. Men need bodily and
mental recreation. Food does much.
Sleep does much. A change of scene
and employment does much. No man
need be idle for an hour. Idleness is
lot recreation. But no man can put
himself to a particular kind of work,
and keep constantly at it, without
weakening not only his capabilities for
other employment but also for that
special work to which he has devoted
himself.
Business men must learn that it is
not so much the strong pull as the long
pull that does the whole life work. A
man might break his back or rupture
himself by an attempt to lift ware
house, and he would fail. But he can
begin at the top and remove every piece
of wood; every brick, every bolt, until
no sign of the warehouse remains. But
he must do this in detail, and take in
tervals of rest to accomplish the work.
1t is Just SO in business of any kind.
No great fortune is to be made in day.
But there are days that require the cool
est, healthiest brain, and the full
strength of manhood to carry the busi-
ness man safely over, or to give such
impulse to his business as shall push
him far forward. If he be worn out
early, those days of crisis will be his
ruin.
Men must learn the great value of
wise rests, pauses, breathing-places.
The horse must not be lashed up long
hill from bottom to top. The wheels of
the truck must be scotched until the
beast of burden takes breath. Our city
railway companies do not take up a
horse and drive him from the Central
Park to the Battery, back and forward,
day and night, getting all they can out
of him at once. That would be .foops
economy, which the satirist ridicules in
the fable of cutting open the goose that
laid the golden eggs. Give the goose
oats and grass and rest, and take the
days golden egg daily.
1 am not talking morals, l am talking
business sense. AS an investment. in a
money point of view, whether a man
believes or not in the Jewish Sabbath or
the Christian Sunday, nature has writ
ten the law of rest as plainly as the law
of activity in every man. Rest is as ne
cessary to activity as activity is to rest.
When there is a given and limited sup
ply of water to run mill, it is sheer fol-
ly to be pouring it over wheel which
is stopped by distractions. Quit feeling
that you are working when you are only
spilling your life.
Let our business men live much by
living long. 70 live long they must live
wisely. Wisdom is in knowing the ca
kability of the machine you work. You
will lose steam, or burst your boiler, if
you attempt to drive by five-horse-pow-
er-engine machinery which requires
ten-horse power to move it.
Recreate! Have your evenings for
other work, home work, reviving brain
work, purifying heart work. Take your
time for the country. In the old myth,
whenever Antseus was wounded and fell,
the touch of his mother Earth renewed
him. Go in the summer and roll in the
grass. You will not come back to your
work any greener. Have your Sundays,
not for drumming up customers nor in
writing up books, but for rest of body
and mind and soul. Have your little
benevolent pet schemes, some poor fam
lily to help, some little sweet flower of
goodness in a hidden nook to cultivate,
almost anything that is not your regular,
everyday, routine business.-[ Doctor
Deems.