The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-03
why We Tire Out So Early.

| Half century or more ago, among tn
hardy boatmen Of our harbor, there was on
tall, sinewy and handsome. Now he woulC
while away his hours in ferrying people few
miles down the coast; anon in unearthing tn,
basking clam or succulent oyster and escort
ing them to the Battery and q market In those
halcyon days, like Jesse's son of old, he little
dreamed of the great work he would one day
lay on the back he was then making strong
for its burden. Years rolled by, and now al
eighty, when he rides easily king among the
men of the iron road, he loves to tell how once
Us night came on and black storm with ii
he fooled his brother fishermen into thinking
they had better keep under shelter while he
in the friendly dusk hove up anchor, and, run
ming for the city, manipulated firm corner
on the juicy bivalves for nearly whole week.
What in him we would note is not this way OF
getting rich, SO suggestive of a Rothschild after
Waterloo, but the stout health he got, which
has stood by him SO we'll that now, at four
score years, his eye is yet stark and strong, like
hale mans at thirty-fve, and his nerves keep
SO steady that he daily relns with sure hand a
pair Of fiery steeds almost as swift as his
iron ones which gallop West in seventy-mile
dashes. How is it that this man has kept to-
gether this priceless stock of health and vigor,
and in these days, too, when SO many men
are worn clean out at forty? He has GER
tainly hit on some way of taking care Of him.
self and keeping up his wondrous force and
energy till no man can yet say what will be
their limit, which would indeed be worth the
knowing. To ask whether he, half grown
boy, tugged numerous books to school, and
day and night pored over them, that he might
be the village prodigy and tickle his foolish
masters foolish vanity, as is the fashion now
adays, would be to ask question which would
be self-answering. Whether by chance or good
planning, until the man was well grown and
his joints thoroughly frightened, there was, as
there should have been, abundant vigorous
hearty outdoor life, boyhood stretching on
to we'll nigh thirty, and then, when later years
brought their responsibility, he was ready for
it, and the more he got the better he seemed
to like it. He never hurried, and not until
long afterwards had he anything like wealth
All know that men seem now to break down
much earlier than they used They see it
everywhere. Our Vice President an in
valid; Senators also Fort Fishers hero
''aging" fast; an editor, aspiring to our
highest place politically, Keeling into his
grave, even his great brain unequal to breast
ing the storm of detraction and shameless in
suit one must face if he would try for that
much coveted prize; one Of our judges break
ing down before he is forty; busy, able
lawyer Of our city driven by overwork first to
home for those whose faculties have been
shattered and then to terrible suicide; the son
of another member of our Bar bringing home
the highest honors Of an English university,
and shortly after going out and taking his
life; Brights disease, of late alarmingly preva-
lent hurrying off q great railroad mag
nate at sixty-six, and talk heard constantly
that softening of the brain may any day
shelve his successor; ministers preaching
the need of bodily training but forced to pre-
face their words with pitlful apology for not
practising what they preach; hundreds and
thousands of our people worn out prematurely
and running away to Europe for little rest,
SO that they may come back and tire out again.
Well, is there any remedy? There is, as
surely as there is for the case of the hungry
man. There is no more need of this ex-
haustion and shortened life than of cutting
off ones right hand. No need for every
American, reading from the pen of q recent
British author the lines, "Out Of England we
never find boys; only little men, embryo
soldiers, lawyers and doctors, with the
specialtes Of their avocation sprouting upon
them; and their schools have nothing in
common with ours, present no point of re-
semblance," to feel forced to admit that there
is too much truth in them. Vanderbilt found
the remedy in the little periauger, which
has now become historic few OF the men Of
Harvard and Yale, Columbia and Cornell and
the other colleges soon to meet in bloodless
struggle on Saratoga Lake, are finding it now;
many Of our most successful professional and
business men found it long ago at the plough
tail. Let the same farmer-blood, that has told
80 well in city life, DO quickened and tingled
by sharp ride-not drive-or brisk walk, or
quiet row of five or six miles o day, and be
sure that nothing interrupts this exercise;
soon all the old keen appetite and sound sleep
will be back, there will be more snap in the
work, everything will wear SUMMER look, and
Europe, especially in year like this when
most men feel the need Of saving, can be
omitted. Let no minister, for instance, lay
to his soul the fattering JUNCTION that man
cannot do so much athletic work and shine in
the pulpit too. There is gentleman over In
pulpit in Brooklyn who might have some
thing to say on that point Only the other
day we saw him and looked with admiration
on the breadth Of shoulder and depth OF chest,
the broad loins and strong legs OF this genial,
ecclesiastical giant, as he stood with hearty
smile playing all over his broad face and keep