Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-06-18
Hurry and Worry.


Az agent was explaining to lady the
best way of managing sewing machine.
said he: With proper care this sewing
machine will last lifetime. But you
must not run it at lightning speed at one
time and leave it unused for months at
another, till it gets rusty. Above all, you
must be sure to prevent friction by keep
ing the machinery well oiled. Running a
sewing machine with unnecessary fric-
ton of the parts wears 1t out in short
time"
To me it seemed that he spoke in
parallels, and that every word he said
about sewing machines would have ap-
piled with equal propriety to the human
organization.
He wanted to have his machines run
regularly, evenly, smoothly and moder-
ately; and these conditions make up the
very summuns bonum of hygienic prosper.
ity-the "mens sana in corpore sana" OF
the ancients.
That "the race is not always to the
swift" we see amply exemplifed every
year, when one or more of those who are
becoming shining lights among men go
down suddenly, pass out from among us,
leaving places which no other may NIL,
at the very time when they should be In
their prime, with twenty, thirty, or forty
years of usefulness yet before them. tits
because they have lived too fast-have
worked in season and out of season-have
driven the machine at lightnings peed,
regardless Of friction, until suddenly,
some day, the whole machinery stops and
will never run again, because 1t IS pre-
maturely worn out.
The inseparable attendant of hurry is
worry. People are mistaken when they
think they are going very fast because
they hurry. The shoes Of swiftness are
not the ones that are tripped up by the
wayside stones; and oftenest he who
starts out in re greatest hurry is the
last in at the goal. There never was
truer proverb than that haste makes
waste. There is such possibility as
training ones self to do thing quickly,
but without the least hurry. Hurry
comes of helplessness and inefficiency. 1t
is a confusion of the brain, tumult OIL
blood, a warfare of the nerves and muscles,
and leaves the body and mind in state
of disastrous reaction. 1t Is eminently
expensive. False steps are taken, things
are dropped or forgotten, and mistakes
are made when one is in a hurry; and
after it is over the reaction makes per-
son SO perfectly miserable! People who
live in state of chronic hurry are short
lived; and because of the worry that
comes with hurry they are prematurely
old. You can't hurry without worry, be-
cause hurry leads you to do things that
you can't help worrying over.
There was living in New York year
or 80 ago very old woman-but wom-
an 80 well preserved that she did not
look anything like her real age, which
was nearly hundred. She was a very
CHEEKY and independent old body, too;
enjoying life more than many people
Younger than herself by forty and fifty
years. She thought she owed her pro-
ionged life to the fact that she had made
it a rule never to be in hurry, no matter
how fast she might go. Through this
precaution she avoided that bane of human
ife-worry-which kills ninety-nine peo-
pie where hard but regular work kills
only one.
We need not wonder that Americans of
this generation are killed off SO early,
when we remember how they hurry and
worry. They jump out Of bed as If pro-
PEELED thence by boot-toe; jump into
their clothes and then gobble their
breakfasts between two breaths; then
they "streak it' for the train--if they
live out OF town--or rush madly for u
street car, always preferring to run them
selves out of breath for the one that is a
little ahead of them rather than wait ten
seconds for the Que that is coming along
behind. This way of commencing the
day is a fair sample of the way 1T goes on
Your American of this class is always
Just getting Of, or getting on, by the skin
of his teeth; and his life is made up of
close lodges, hair-breadth escapes, and
superhuman efforts, which would not
have been necessary at all were it not
for the causeless state of chronic hurry in
which he exists. And yet the people ex-
pect to survive, and to enjoy life When
--Hosoard Glyradoa IN Science Of Health.