The Democratic advocate., 1878-09-21
Hurry and Worry.

An agent was explaining to lady the
best way of managing a 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 machine we'll oiled. Running a
sewing machine with unnecessary friction
of the parts wears it out in short time.
To me it seemed that he spoke in para
bles, and that every word he said about
sewing machines would have applied with
equal propriety to the human organization.
He wanted to have his machines run
regularly, evenly, smoothly and moderate
ly; and these conditions make up the very
sunlmunl bORum of hygienic prosperity
the "mens sana in corpore sana" of the
aneients.
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, 20
down suddenly, pass out from among US,
leaving places which no other may fill, at
the very time when they should be in their
prime, with twenty, thirty, or forty years
of usefulness yet before them. 1t is be-
cause they have lived too fast-have work
ed in season and out of season-have
driven the machine at lightning speed,
regardless of friction, until suddenly, some
day, the whole machine stops and will
never run again, because it is prematurely
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
the greatest hurry is the last in at the goal.
There never was truer proverb than that
haste makes waste. There is such pos
sibility as training ones self to do thing
quickly but without the least hurry.
Hurry comes of helplessness and inefhcien-
cy. 1t is q confusion of the brain, tu-
multi Of the blood, warfare of the nerves
and muscles, and leaves the body and
mind in a state of reaction. 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 a person so perfectly miserable ?
People who live in a state of chronic hurry
are short lived; and because of the
worry that comes with hurry, they are
permaturely old. You can't hurry with
out worry, because hurry leads you to do
things that you can't help worrying over.
There was living in New York a year
or so ago a very old woman-but woman
so well preserved that she did not look
anything like herreal age, which was nearly
hundred. She was very CHEEKY and in
dependent old body, too; enjoying life
more than many people younger than her
self by forty or fifty years. She thought
she owed her prolonged life to the fact
that she had made it rule never to be in
hurry, no matter how fast she might 90.
Through this precaution she avoided that
bane of human life-worry, which kills
ninety-nine people 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 propelled by a
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 a
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 one that is coming along
behind. This way Of commencing the day
is a fair sample of the way it goes on.
Your American of this class is always Just
getting off, or getting on, by the skin of
his teeth; and his life is made up of close
lodges, hair breadth escapes, and superhu-
man efforts, which would not have been
necessary at all, were it not for the cause
less state of chronic hurry in which he
exists. And yet these people do expect
to serve, and to enjoy their life When?