The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-01-03


indeed, the most frugal and temperate
men on the earth; and here is the ex-
PLANTATION of the degenerate condition
of the Southern Latin races-they are
fast ivers, and copy to the extent OF
their ability the vices OF their heroic
ancestors without initiating their vir-
tues. Sickness, like every other process
of organic growth and decay, proceeds
rapidly under vertical sun, and the
same climatic influences which once de-
veloped the genius of Greece and Rome
develop nothing now but extraordinary
diseases.
A cold climate, on the other hand,
while it stunts Southern animals, plants
and arts, checks likewise the progress
of Southern maladies, destroys fever
germs, and enables the human body to
resist the influence of various intoxi-
cants. Cold itself is tonic, but not q
healthy mechanical one, like physical
exercise; its agency is rather chemical,
and exhausts the vital power very rap
idly, unless its ravages are repaired by
dietetic invigorants. 1t may be ex-
aggeration to say that the temperature
of high latitude forces us to stimulate
our system, and thus to wear out life be-
tween two grindstones, but nobody can
deny that the North is the land of in
temperance par excellence, and there is
no doubt that the antiseptic power of
cold is strictly that of an d1ltidOte-i. e.,
counter-poison. Like quinine, strych-
nine and belladonna, heavy frost acts
like ferbrifuge; like salt and pepper,
it preserves animal tissues from decay,
but chemists would tell us that all these
anti-zymotic efforts prove cold to be an
enemy of organic life. The most viru-
lent mineral and vegetable poisons are
more friendly to our nature than frost !;
no man can ever learn to relish it, as
millions relish opium, alcohol and
arsenic; our skin may become hardened
against certain degree of it, as the
drivers cudgel hardens the hide of a
canal mule, but to feel it means to de-
test it. In the unmistakable language
of our senses, nature warns us to avoid
cold as a hostile agency.
By four or five weeks of steady appli-
cation the President of any temperance
society could become devotee of ardent
spirits; but who ever heard of person
being afflicted with passionate desire
of having the blood chilled?
Take me from this icy desert
Up TO Thee, Eternal One!
prays Rueckert's Circassian to the sum-
after twelve-years' exile in Siberia, in
stead of having taken a fancy to the
climate, as he probably did to Russian
schnapps and mare's-milk cheese.
A few animals, two or three out of o
thousand, stay with us during the season
of short days and long nights, but do
they appear to like the weather? Does
it seem to improve their condition? Do
foxes and crows look healthier in Janu-
airy than in July? The unanimous tes-
timony of the vegetable and animal
kingdoms contradicts the idea that there
is anything salutary or desirable in a
low temperature; and all our fellow
men who have to brave the rigor of
winter in open air still echo the peans
of the ancient Druids, who celebrated
the return of spring as revival of our
Mother Earth from an unnatural death
trance.
DR.. Book, of Leipzig, used to distin-
guish between self-caused and frost
caused diseases; summer complaints,
which all might avoid by regulating
their diet, and winter complaints, which
the weak cannot always avoid, except
by emigration to warmer climate.
Weak lungs are affected by cold wealth
er as a weak stomach is by indigestible
food, or infamed eyes by lurid light.
Every one knows how often slight
wound, sore hand or sore foot, be-
comes malignant under the influence of
frost, and in the same way slightly dam
aged lungs may become hopelessly
tuberculous by ride in a snow-storm
or an attempt to sleep in open air under
a threadbare army blanket. Cold con-
tracts the blood vessels and initiates the
exposed nerves of wounded animal It's
sues, the process of reconstruction comes
to a full stop, and modification sets in.
Aeronauts know that it is time to open
their valves if they are overcome by a
respiratory sremor; we shudder mt mar
scous food, and, if cold air makes us
SILVER, we ogght to take the hint auSb q
speedy departure.
The civilized portion of the human
race might be divided into sun-worship-
ers and fire-worshipers- the inhabitants
of sun-warmed fields and of stove
warmed houses-and it may be said that
the latter class enjoy more regular ana
perhaps larger supply of caloric but ID
is to this indoor climate, not to that o3
the open air, that Northern nations owe
their Hoasted civilization, for the-cpen-
air inhabitants of a snow-affiicted ooun
try are certainly the worst barbar;ans on
the face of the earth. Neither the
equatorial regions Of Africa nor the
southern coasts of India and Siam pro-
duce human beings whose savagsry and
brutality could be compared with thss
of our REDSKINS or the nomads Of
Northern Tartary; and, though Canada
and the New Dngland States haHs- besn
settled by the best races of the. Oai
World, it is certain that the soienees
and arts woun not outlast their store
of fuel for n single generation.
Nations Or individuals whs wOsold
regulate their mode of life by the Laws