Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-08-26
A Needed Lesson Of theDay.

lesson of to-day, and by none needed 50
much as by Americans And, we ask,
when will they take 1t, not fitfully, but
systematically, for themselves and give il
To their employees. Not, we fear, till they
learn that the incessant pursuit Of wealth,
for its own sake. is one OF the poorest
speculations man ever entered into; not
till they learn that the best work is done
by sound mind and a sound body. in
which the laws Of physical hygiene are
strictly fulfilled: not till they find. as so
many dc. 10 their cost, that relaxation and
proper rest give zest 10 life that no mere
requirement of wealth can furnish. There
are several sides to this question; let US
look at few OF them.
Take that wonderful, mysterious con-
nection between our spiritual and our
physical natures. A wound in Words
worth's foot was made sensitive to irrita-
ton in proportion as he worked or ceased
from labor. and, though hard worker,
by tramping over the Cneyiot hills ana
breathing the fresh air he reached four
score. Shelley found that working hard
at the Ceaci brought on severe pain,
which ceased with cessation OF work.
Hamerton records the case OF tradesman
whose constant attention TO business pro-
duced alarming cerebral symptoms, which
disappeared when he had recourse to rec
reation. And it is, furthermore, the tes-
fimony Of the superintendent OF one of
our best insane asylums that very large
proportion of the inmates owe their sad
condition TO over-work These hating
paits-the painful steps and slow of
the paralytics, the anxiety and deep
burrows of care visible upon SO many
faces-tell not so much OF hard
work as of want of rest. In fact, so uni
yersal and complete is the testimony
showing physical exercise-when the con-
stitution is strong enough to bear it, and
simple relaxation when il is motto be es-
sential to all conditions of successful la
Dor, that the mighty fact of the absolute
need of recreation is incontrovertibly
established, an attempt to ignore which is,
a crime against nature that sooner or later
brings its own deserved punishment.
Heaven is filled with saints who have
gone there with a large part OF their earth
work unfulfilled; and if earth be but a
preparation for heaven it is pity that
overwork sent them into the other world
not half so well prepared as they might
have been.
In business and in professional pur-
suits-in which the mind is equally taxed,
but i'm different way-Englishmen, Ger
mans and the French find time for rest;
only Americans set out TO do the work OF a
century in a generation, and worry and
hurry and push and fret, only to fall into
premature graves Lord Jeffrey, at the
age of sixty, said that were it not for the
relaxation he obtained from his love of
nature and poetry his heart would have
died within him years before. DIR. Chal-
mers, whose favorite speculation it was,
which he afterward put into practice, that
the seventh decade of human life should
be turned into the Sabbath of an early pill
grimage, and spent scientifically, as If on
the shore of an eternal world, he and such
workers as Goethe, and Kant, and Ruskin
and GuiZot, and in our own country JET
ferson, and Webster, ana Sumner, and
Greeley, and Walworth and Edward, all
found time for rest; and their work was
better and their lives sweeter for 1t.
1t is this over-work-met with on every
hand, showing the determination of Ameri-
cans to realize the sentiment so finely eX--
pressed by Milton
To scorn delights, and live laborious DAYS,
which is making mental, moral, and physi-
cal wrecks OF young men, and bringing
those in mIddle-life on the threshold OF old
age. 1t is this which fully justif1es the
observation of an English writer, who, in
reply to remark made to him that the
Americans have no physiognomy, says:
ITO me their physiognomy seems most
strongly marked. The features, even OF
the young, are furrowed with lines of
anxious thought Every American looks
as if his eyes were glaring into the far
West and the far future. The Ameri-
al Ia 10 inIf IN "a
play either of mind or muscle. The
Americans are the most serious people in
the world" And he concludes:
"The same terrible earnestness is, am
persuaded, at the bottom OF that ill-health
which is so serious a curse TO American
life. No doubt other things contribute
climate, stimulants, sedentary occupations,
and so forth; but the deepest rooted cause
of American disease is that oyer-working
of the brain and overexcitement of the
nervous system which are the necessary
consequences of their intense activity.
Hence, nervous dyspepsia, with consump-
ton, insanity, and all its brood of fell dis
orders in its train. In word the Ameri-
can works himself to death"
That is just it. Six words tell the whole
story: 1.-THE American works himself to
death" Parents, employers, shall we ever
get beyond this? Merchants, bankers,
lawyers, machinists, artisans, men of all
trades, business and professions, will you
not heed the lesson which comes from
ovcr-strained humanity; will you not
listen to the voice which comes up from
thousands of premature grave and give
yourselves, your children and your en-
ployes needed rest? A prominent Wall
street broker assured the writer not long
since that if they would only do it, the
entire Wall street fraternity could do their
business in five days of the week, taking
Saturday for vacation. And yet even now
we hear of those who are cutting down
their employees vacation to ten days.;
others give only week, and we know Of
some who do not give even day in the
whole year. All this is a crime against
nature. Americans, as individuals, scarce
ly have youth. A young man dies, if
not hundred years old at least prema-
turely aged, with wasted form, a haggard
face, and puny voice. Consumption
claims more victims from over-work than
from anything else. And the corroding
influence OF this weary, wasting, never
ceasing habit of work consumes MT only