Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-04-12

dition. In this Parliamentary recess
the public attention has been called to
half a dozen such cases, the head Of her
AIaiesty's Government the leader of OBJ
position, the Chancellor of the Exche-
ouer, the President of the Local Govern
m4nt Board, and two or three other we'll
known men, having been i'll with illnesses
of different kinds and degrees, all tracea-
BILE IN one way or another to Overstrain.
They are but samples, and poor samples,
of thousands more-English Ministers
being almost invariably men of excep-
tional vitality-from studying whose
complaints the specialists have become
abnormally discerning. They can tell
almost at glance where anxiety has
been the cause of disease, and where, as
sometimes, though seldom, happens, it
must be sought in actual overwork;
where drugs or alcohol have assisted the
decay of nervous force, and where ascot
icism, tried as a remedy, has seriously
injured the resisting power, diminishing
the fuel, till every day threatens to
empty the store. They differ considera-
bly,, we are told, in their practice,
some having a lingering faith in
the milder narcotics, which others
have lost; and some in sleep by itself,
which others think is only perfectly
recuperative when it comes unsought, the
phenomena of sleep, and especially the
differences in the quality of sleep, are not
half investigated-bu they all agree in
recommending perfect crest" Their
patients, who have instinct to guide
them, and some memories of quick recov-
cry during accidental or incidental lulls
in life, always agree with them, but
always start in reply the question how
the rest is to be obtained. It is, as society
is now constituted, the most difficult
thing in the world to get-as difficult as
''the silence that is in the starry skies" is
to secure in London.
The obscure can, if driven desperate,
get away, and once away, can lose them
selves out of reach of letters or kilograms;
but the great have not that power. For
them there is but one retreat from the
storm of communication deck of
yacht, which, once in the open water, is
such a refuge, so charming a retreat
from the troubles of the world and the
Fostering of a tOo-perfect post, that
Sir Stafford Northcote, though he
is no Viking or lover of Kingsley's
"Wind of God" wisely sought it even
in midWinter, and with the deadly bay
to cross.
Now, why should not the doctors, and
the leaders of fashion, and the journalists
among them establish an etiquette bind
ing the world, when once man has an
nOunced that he is seeking rest and is in
retreat from his fellow-men, to leave him
temporarily alone? Could they not
make it a social outrage to call on a
quietist-there must be a word, and as
the sect is extinct that will do-to send a
letter to him without imperative neces-
sity, to stare at him as he passes, or to
! record his movements more than once a
day, or with the smallest particularly?
A dozen men in London, if they only
agreed could shut up the great micrOs-
| cope whenever q quietist came withi9 its
| field; and a few physicians, few great
! ladies and few club men could soon
secure the remainder of the required i'm
munities. They are secured very fairly
well for men who are in grief. No one
insists on seeing man whose daughter
! is dying or wife dead, or feels afrOnted
because he is avoided on the day of the
| funeral of dear relative. Suppose we
| extend that pity to the brain-weary, and
regard the announcement that Master is
quiet until the 10th,'' as a sufficient rea-
son for our friends temporary disappear
ance from the world? Let us make it a
6etise to poster the avowedly tired, and
''bad FORM to intrude, even by letter, on
time of retreat. He might get rest
then, even at home, which is sometimes
the best place, without the distracting
thought that in seeking rest he is
insuring enmity, and that his sleep of a
fortnight will be blamed as fortnight of
neglected duty.-LOndO1a Spectator.