The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-01-07


| FORBIDDEN FRUIT once heard
gentleman friend tell a story of his
youth which exceedingly amused me.
His mother, an old-fashioned house
keeper, had 'sjam-closet," which he
only entered on the rare occasions when
new shelves were to be added or old
cnes repaired. and" said he, s'ma'am
insisted on my whistling all the time I
was at work; the moment the whistling
stopped in she came, suspecting that
my mouth was full of JAM After the
laugh consequent upon the story had
subsidized, some curious one asked, "Did
you ever NEEDLE with the jam? p. 'Did
I? Of cou1se I did ! One mouthful of
it, III my opinion, was worth 9 sound
thrashing Had the jars remained open
it is exceedingly doubtful that I should
have touched their contents. But you
see they were forbidden fruit. That
was the secret. Human nature has not
radically changed since the days of
Eve. The craving for forbidden fruit
seems to be as strong now as it was In
Eden's bowers. [ was not little anus
ed lately at observing professor of the
science of rat-catching wrap up the
poisoned food which he was laying for
his prey in piece of newspaper. The
proceeding excited my establishment SO
that I ventured to inquire the object of
SO covering the food before burying 1t
in their ''runs, when he gravely inform
ed me that it was ''to make the rats
think that they were not to touch it, %
which would have the immediate effect
of making them desire it exceedingly:
SO closely does rat-nature, in the opinion
of those learned therein, approximate to
human nature in longing for that which
is forbidden. 'Don't put him under
the pump" says the landowner in
famous Irish play, alluding to an OBJ
jectionable process server. Of course
the helpless man was seized and made
thoroughly acquainted with pure ele-
ment which SO many of his countrymen
shun. So with the ''good books SO
frequently written for children. AS
rule, the youthful readers sympathize
with the scamp and pity the good boy,
who, In the end, gets all the sugar-plums,
but has had none of the 'sgood times"
Alas for poor human nature We are
all of us akin, in nature, to ''Mary, Mary,
quite contrary" who would ''grow"
nothing in her garden SO profusely orna-
mented with cookie shells al in
row.
The DANCE. itself is a
harmless and healthful amusement when
not carried to excess; but the seeds of
death are too often sown III the ballroom,
not from dancing, but from the circum-
stances under which it is carried on.
For instance, what can be more likely to
produce apoplexy or some serious illness
than the practice of eating ices when
thoroughly heated by violent exercised
Again, the atmosphere of many ball
room, crammed as it often is with three
times as many people as it can comfort
ably contain, is enough Of itself to
poison any one not acclimatized to suffo-
cation by previous training. Then there
are the changes of temperature to which
young ladies, insufficiently clad, are ex-
posed on leaving the heated rooms as
they return home, oyertired and in
precisely the same condition under
which such changes of temperature are
likely to affect them if they have any
tendency to lung-disease. The Late
hours also, which are necessarily kept
In the season, cannot be- otherwise than
| preiudicial TO the health of both old and
young, and probably cause many i'll
| nesses that are unjustly credited to 9TH
er sources.