Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1886-05-14
ETHICS OF LIVING
Miss Frances L. Willard on SIMPLICITY of Life
Herald of Health.


| In reply to a request from the editor,
| Miss Frances E. Willard touches some
| points of personal experience, in her
| busy and well ordered life. Miss Willard
| says:
l am now i'll my i7th year ond though,
| since sharing the great and varied disa-
| bilities of more conventional life, have
| had two acute illnesses and several slight
ones, my health is so uniform that | have
often laughingly told my friends 1 had
| composed the first line of my great
epic, and it is this;
Painless in a world OF pain
The chief wonder of my life is that |
dare to have so good time, both physic
ally, mentally and religiously. | have
swung like q pendulum through my years,
without haste, without rest" What it
would be to have an idle hour find it
hard to fancy. With no headache, why
should l not think right straight ahead?"
My whole life has been spent in intelIec-
tual activities, having begun to teach
when about 20 years of age and pursued
that difficult avocation with no setback
or breakdown until | dedicated myself to
the temperance reform tn 1874. l should
except about two years and half of hard
study, writing and travel in Europe and
last twelve years | have been perpetually
''on the road" going $4,000 to 10000
miles per year. visiting in 1888 every
State and territory in the Union, and
holding a meeting once per day on an
average throughout the entire period. 1t
has been my custom to write articles and
letters and plain work being thus con-
stantly employed all day long on the cars
and then to give an address at night.
Now, am not aware that this is not
hygienic mode of procedure, and that to
breathe the car-air and audience-atmOs-
where year in and year out, is not con-
ducive to the best development. But it
was the only way for me to reach the
1000 towns set as my stint" a farm
fashion we had this of doing our stint"
persisted in as an inherited tendency,)
and feeling so adequate to the days do
ings, went steadily on, taking the OPP
portunity to recline in the quiet of my
apartmet, between the meetings, stating
to my friends that visiting was impos-
sible to me, and making it an invariable
rule to go direct from the platform to my
room. Here a cup of bread and milk, a
cracker, or a few spOonfuls of beef tea
were taken in order to set up a counter
action to the movements of the brain. and
| went to sleep few minutes after going
to my room, usually getting eight hours.
A bright Chicago woman said to me when
l told her this, You acted according to
the proverb, He who fights and runs
away, may live to fight another day for
l interpret that to mean, he who runs
away promptly at nightfall from the
days warfare will live to plunge into the
fight next morning, and so on from year
to year, and will be a victor always"
My rising hour has long been from to
half past Il wish it were earlier), and re-
firing anywhere from half-past to half
past 3, but when travelling it has been
about 10. l regard that hour as the dead
line of rccuperation, vigor and sustained
mental activity. Eight hours of writing
and study. all of them between breakfast
and tea, has been my rule. After the
evening meal at 6 o'clock | will not work
-lecturing Is, of course, excepted. In
this field | have studied the non-dramatic
style, because it is less wearing and fully
as well adapted to purposes of informa-
ton and conviction. Illustrations can be
used that involve but little acting. thus
keeping the circulation normal, avoiding
the exposures that attend Precipitation
and the reaction resulting from undue ia
tigue.