The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-06-26
A MOTHERS TALK TO BOYS.
In All Your Plans, Don't Neglect to Plan
for Health.

for Health.
My boy, you with the bright eye and
springing step, and the slightest shadow
on your upper lip, great plans for the
future are forming in that active brain.
You are going to do grand things when
you are a man. Whatever vocation you
have chosen, you intend to be success
full in it. And that is right. But, in
all your calculations, have you planned
to have good healthp You look as if
you thought that foolish question, but
| mean it. You have not planned to
lose time by sickness, but have you
thought how you may avoid itP You
supposed sickness was inevitable, and
that we had to put up with it when it
cameP Oh, no; the most of sickness
might be prevented, if we would take
the trouble to learn the causes and
avoid them.
l presume you have not read Sir
James FACETS statistics, where he
shows that in England and Wales IS
much labor is lost each year, by illness
of laborers, as 20, 200, GOO of people
could do in a week, and that would be
about what 400, 800 could do in a year,
and that does not count the cripples,
chronic invalids or professional people,
or those who live on their incomes.
Buck says, in his Hygiene, that 100, 900
people die every year in the United
States from p%revcntable diseases, and
that 150, 1000 are constantly sick from
the same causes. Notice he says pre-
ventable. Now are you going to be one
of that NUMBER You will not want to
be laid aside with suffering in the midst
Of your grandest schemes. What will
it cost you to have good healthP Will
it compensate for the troublep
Let us count the cost of keeping
well. First, you will have to give up
that dainty cigarette which you are
twirling so gracefully in your fingers,
for it will weaken your nerves, impair
your digestion, dull your brain, affect
your eyes, throat, lungs and heart, and
waste your money. You will have to
avoid all use of wine, beer and alcoholic
drinks, for science has proven that
even the moderate drinker is degener-
ating physically, and can not endure
accident, exposure or severe exer-
ton as can the temperate man. You
will have to seek your bed at an early
hour, when others r beginning their
rounds of gayety, and rise when they are
sinking to slumber. You will have to
avoid the luxurious fare of the epicure,
and live on the simple food Of the
philosopher. You will have to study
the laws Of your body and obey them
at whatever sacrifice. 1t will require
moral courage, but if you've the true
manliness, the grit to persevere in
spite of ridicule, your turn to laugh
will come, when you, IN a vigorous,
useful maturity, look upon your
friends who flung health away in the
service of pleasure, and see them
writhing in pain. or silent in the grave.
Your vitality is like a sum Of money
put into the bank, at your birth. at
compound interest. You can %squands
it in youth, and enter manhood in
physical bankruptcy; or you can use it
judiciously, increase it and begin
active life with a capital of vigor that
will be the most important factor in
your success. In all your plans, don't
neglect to plan for health. -Mary a.
allen. M. D., IN Conqregationalisk