Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-03-15

w NOOh bhNAA AhHA SA VI luub Olll
they 60 into camp, to eat and rest
and be in paradise for a few hours.
"What is the reason that men
who take less exercise should eat
oftener than they do? According
to natures plan we should not mar
ry for money or rank, but for love,
not 60 to sleep till we are tired, and
not eat to kill time or in Obedience
to etiquette, but because we are
hungry. Thorough digestion re-
quires a longer period than that IN
tervening between our meals; the
jaded appetite is therefore stimu-
lated with spices, coffee and ardent
spirits, with such consequences as
might be expected. The poor
stomach muddles along the best way
it can till arrears ofun6nished work
bring on a serious disease, which
the sufferer ascribes to the dispen-
sation of a mysterious providence,
and tries to subdue it by consulting
a popular priest in South America
or a fashionable doctor in the
North. Thousands are thus born
and die without knowing what it
means to have lived; their exist
ence is a prolonged fight against
gastric diseases, creditors who may
be pacified for time by a high rate
OF interest, but are sure to present
their ruinous account in the end.
Our feeling, if not our reason,
might tell us that nature demands
rest after repletion, and more of it
than the man Of business or the
coffee gardener (the railroad laborer
we would say in the States gets
between his dinner and resumption
of his labor.
How much happier as we'll as
healthier we might be if we would
manfully abstain from food till our
days work was done, and then have
a long, merry evening, besides all
night for siesta Spleen, hypoeaon-
dria and Underlined languor,' as
well as dyspepsia, would be un-
known among us if it were not for
our thrice accursed three daily
meals"
The reform proposed by the her
init of the Sierra Frontera would
hardly be popular in country like
ours, where hot lunches, deieuners
n la fOurchette, after-dinner coffees
and might caps have been super
added to the South American
" thrice accursed three meals" and
where the only art upon which we
have made advances upon the stan.
dards of Greece and Rome is that
Of cookery. How many opportuni-
ties for a short suspension of toll
our poor would lose? how many
respites Of ennui our rich ?
Still, health and longevity would
not be too dearly bought at such
prices, That the Hebrew Wrists
threescore and ten was not our
original term of life will not be de-
MED by orthodox readers of the
Mosaic genealogy, and the ablest
biologists agree that it would be far
below the normal average even now,
If our manner of life itself were not
wholly abnormal. 1t would explain
the most vexing contradictions and
enigmas Of our existence if we
could be sure that by a strict
observance of the health laws
OF nature the Psalmist's maximum
might beincreased by thirty or forty
years-it would almost amount to a
satisfactory solution of the whole
problem of lie. In the present
condition of things our lives are
mostly half-told tales, dramas end
ing in the middle of the first act
our season terminates before the
tree of life had time to ripen its
its fruits. That "hunger after i'm.
mortality" which is often alleged
as q proof of a future existence.
arises most likely from an instiac,
tive perception Of tho truth that
our present span Of life is too short
for reaching the goal of our desti. |
nation, for these vague warnings
were unknown to the Semitic and
patriagchs. They died in
peace, "full of years." and satisfied, |
as any reasonable man might be-
who had witnessed hundred rota. |
lions of the four seasons and en-
Dyed all their blessings in per-
ect health. f. 0swA1b.