Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-08-25
HOW ARD.
The Lesson Of a Great LIfe-Temper-
ate in all things, he Braved Death
In Every Form for the Bene-
mt OF his FelIOwmen.
From an Appeal Correspondent. !

From an Appeal Correspondent
ELKLAND, TIoGA Co, Pa, August 19.-
The members of the Howard association who
are doing so much noble work at present
among the afflicted in Memphis should know
something of the character and habits of the
celebrated philanthropist whose name their
association bears; besides, In time like this,
it will be an incalculabe benefit to those who
read it. He proved, beyond doubt, that a
simple diet of grains, fruits and vegetables
not alone preserves health, but gives an i'm
munity from disease of all kinds, no matter
how malignant nor how pestilential the cli-
mate one may live in. He probably was
more exposed to the influence of pestilential
causes than any other human being that ever
lived. I'm tue period of sixteen years, :"
says his biographer, "he travelled between
fifty and seventy thousand miles for the sole
purpose of relieving the distresses
of the most wretched of the
human race. The fahgues, the dangers, the
privations he underwent or encountered for
the good of others, were such as no one else was
ever exposed to ir such cause, and such as
few could have endured. He often travelled
over roads almost impossible, In weather the
most mclement, with accommodations the
meanest and most wretched. Summer and
winter, heat and cold, rain and snow, in all
their extremes, failed alike to stay him for a
moment In his course. while plague, and
pestilence, and famine, instead of being evils
that he summed, were those with which he
was most familiar, and to many of their hor
rors he voluntarily exposed himself, visiting
the foulest dungeons filed with malignant
infection; spending forty days In filthy and
infected lazaretto; plunging into military en-
campments, when the plague was committing
its most horrid ravages, and visiting where
none of his conductors dared to accompany
him. Through all this he subsiSted entirely
on a most rigidly abstemious vegetable diet
carefully avoiding the use of toine and all
other alcoholic drinks; and such was the re-
suit of this mans experience and observa-
ton, that he earnestly advised others who
were exposed to the plague to abstain entirely
from the use Of animal food. This it cannot
he not been fully confident of the
correctness of such advice, both from
what he had experienced in himself, and
from what he had seen IN others. And it
must be remembered that Towards opportu
nifty to test the correctness of this opinion
was neither brief nor limited, but the most
extensive, varied and long during ever expo
rienced by any one man; and such was the
accuracy of his observations, and the sound
ness of his judgment, that, although not
himself physician, he was more successful
In treating the plague than any of the physi-
eIans whom he met Towards opinion on
such a subject is, therefore, of the highest
value. dis DlOgrapner Iurtner says: Inc
abstemious diet which at an early period of
his life he adopted from regard to his
health, he afterward continued and increased
in its rigor from principle and from choice,
as well as from conviction of the great ad-
vantages which he derived from it, And,
after all his experience, near the close of his
life he made the following record in his
diary: 81 am fully persuaded, as to the
health of our bodies, that herbs and fruits
rrr1n orr fr1r0 o0f 70 he-
yond the best flesh" Such was this noble
mans experience, and trust that all who
read it will lay it to heart and ponder well
over 1t. j. 8. MENKEN.