The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-06-25
Cheating Old Age.

Old age, which used to come gradually
and be in no particular haste to begin
its visible progress, has recently caught
the spirit of the time and advanced upon
some people at galloping pace, The
fault is with the victims themselves.
The lfe-endurance of any given person
is fixed by nature, and the man who
draws most largely and steadily upon
his physical capital must be the first to
display gray hairs and discover chronic
bodily weaknesses. In New York any
one can find scores of men who at thirty
five have whitening heads and nerves
that need ''bracing" at short intervals
every day. Whether they reach this
condition by too much work or too much
play (of the kind that uncharitable per
sons call dissipation1, the indications OF
Fastening age are equally significant.
How is the progress of the destroyer to
be arrested?
Many physicisns in New York are
devoting themselves to the task of pro-
longing the lives OF persons who are not
III, yet have begun to wear away too
rapidly. Among the practitioners who
study the subject carefully, there seems
to be but little difference of method.
| Their first and hardest work is to con-
vince their patients that it is dangerous
to live 'fast'-a word which has q
special significance which makes it alb
solutely insulting to many eminently
respectable transgressors of the laws Of
health. 1t seems impossible to persuade
merchant who does more work in one
| hour than his best clerk can do in three,
| that he is guilty of fast living and dis
sipation; even if he never drinks DROP
and refrains from all improper
| pleasures. The lawyer or broker who
accomplishes wonders in the morning,
but feels a sense of ''goneness" early il
the afternoon, cannot be made to be-
lieve that part of him is literally ''gone,
and that if he urges himself beyond that
point, without first taking a little rest
he expends vitality with frightfu
rapidity. Ladies who, between house
hold cares, religious duties and socia
responsibilities, are steadily active from
eight in the morning until midnight
sometimes wonder why they lose the
freshness of youth, while some of theil
sex, whom they occasionally see, bu
would not for worlds speak to, preserve
face and figure in spite OF lives of which
the less said the better.
| But when these, as well as less limo
cent classes, are convinced that they are
living too rapidly, and physicians begir
to arrest the advance of age by urging
rest. No practitioner of high standing
now prescribes stimulants to any per
sons not really i'll, excepting those who
are absolutely compelled to more eXer
ton than is good for them. Shor
periods of relaxation throughout the
day are always found beneficial; somt
business men have been greatly helped
by dropping upon q lounge for five
minutes in every hour or two; they may
not-cannot-stop thinking, but there
seems great relief in merely assuming {
reeumbent position for little while
During the recent civil war genera
whose men were noted for coming on
of hard march in fine fighting condi
| ton, attributed his success to his imper
alive order that his men should lii
| down whenever a halt was ordered
Regular and full hours for sleep ar,
also insisted upon, and until the patien
endeavors to adhere closely to this rul,
he does not begin to comprehend how
natures great restorative is diminished
in quantity by the demands of business
and society in a great city. One or TIVE
half-nights of sleep per week do no
seem to mar the health of young PEG
pie, but any person who has reached
the age of thirty-five is weakened BY
such privations, and few of them wht
have active nerves can ever make gooC
the loss.
High living" is remorselessly ia
booed-not only the custom of drinking
great deal of wine at dinner, but tina
of eating concentrated food, with slim
ulating codiments and sauces. Mucl
meat and little vegetables is the ruiz
with active people in large cities. 1t il
the result Of physical craving, born o
rapid waste of physical tissue, for slim
ulation A hard working farmer, wht
is in the open air all day, would not
because he could not, eat as much mea
as slightly-built business man will
consume daily in New York, ant
| he would become eXcitable almos
to madness were he to partake a
sparingR OF bread and vegetables