Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-01-31
Suicidal.

Suicidal.
Americans live in spite of their most
determined efforts to kill themselves.
They live under constant strain.
The brain of the professional man is
worked in season and out of season.
From early morning until the clock
tolls the hour of midnight, it is
STRAINED to its utmost capacity. Head
alches, and the usual warnings of ap-
preaching nervous prostration, pass
unnoticed in the wild rush for knowl-
edge or wealth, and when the sun of
life is at its meridian, when the day
should be brightest, the evening begins
to cast its shadows, and the gloom of
night soon swallows up the glories of
noontide. At the time when the fac
ulties should be keenest they are the
dullest; when the nervous system
should be the most perfect, it is shat
tered, and when man should bemost a
man, he approaches idiocy. The mer-
chant and business man generally is
likewise guilty Of thus everlasting
the brain. AS people we are entirely
too busy for health and comfort. The
great majority of active business men
are less familiar with their homes
than with almost any other place CD
earth. Many are scarcely more than
sufficiently familiar with them to en-
able them to get into the house and
get out again. How some men recog-
nize their own children is beyond COM
prehension-- little do they see
them, and one would suppose that
they would forget the features
of their wives for tive same reason.
There are men who arise early on
Monday morning, before the rest of
the family are awake, take their
breakfast, go to the Office Or counting
room, remain until a late hour in the
evening go home, read ttae paper, and
60 to bed. Children, and perhaps wife,
have retired before such a man re
turns tor his home, and if his wife has
not, she will conclude that she had
better pretty soon after tAe husband
gets SO mach interested in, the news
paper that he does not hear word she
says to haza, and is entirely oblivious
of her presence. This course is pur-
sued every day except the Sabbath, on
which the Faculties and bodies having
been completely exhausted, the man
shuts himself up from his platting lit
tie ones, and the music of their sweet
voices and 5le sunshine of their smiles
are entirely lost to him. Such man
was the father of the boy who, when
he happeness accidentally to meet his
father one 1orning at the breakfast
table, and was jestingly introduced to
him 10y the mother, said g . am glad
to have met You, father-I have fire.
quently hea1d mother speak Of you"
Well, such = continued tension OF the
mental faealsies-such ceaseless
strain upon the brain must sooner or
later end ia serious disaster to the
nervous system, and in death. Men
play too little-laugh too little-and
sleep too little. They work too much
and mourn too much. 1t requires but
tritle to start man tears, after all,
especially is that triile relates to the
depreciation of his bank stock, or the
shrinkage of his pocket-book. The
loss of Ii few hundred dollars will
cause man to weep away five years
of his life most amy time. Play is
thought by many to be below their
dignity. Such an idea is a capital one
for the DEBTORS. A good romp with
the children over the snow, er on the
green, and hearty laugh, will do
more to- preserve health and enliyen
the spiri5s thana whole barred of med
icine can do. Men should play, and
the tiresiae in winter and the beaatg-
full lawns in summer should be the
froiichag grounds. Those little pets
with their tow heads, and sparkling
eyes and childish pranks. are the beau
tiful roses which Heaven has given
you, fathers, to relieve the dali monpt-
ony at life's th0rny pathway. to draw
your weary minds from the sad to the
lively, and to remind you that the
world is not without adjournment. Do
not pass them by-do not forget them.
but gaze on their beauty. and be
charmed by it into a forgetfulness of
your cares and bodily ailments. Play
with the children, seek opportunities
To laugh, and never neglect an oppor-
tunity to sleep, and it will be a more
satisfactory Investment than your
railroad shares or money expended for
the best medicines. - Western Rural.