The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-11-16
The majorities by states as estimated are as
How to Live to q Good Old Age.

The first lesson to be taught and
learned is THAI all disease is the re-
suit of broken law; that much of it
might easily be avoided by the observ-
ance of the laws of health on the part
of the individual that much more,
which is beyond the reach of individuals
might be prevented by the combined
efforts OF communities and the state
and that those diseases which are en-
tailed upon this generation by the law
of heredity, might by obedience to law
oe gradually stamped out of existence,
and future ages be freed from their
curse.
The next thing to be taught is the
laws themselves-and with the laws,
and of even greater Importance, the
habit of obeyiug them. We know a
great deal more than we put in.practice.
This is the fault of the common modes
of health teaching. Our newspapers
and periodical literature contains vast
deal of popular instruction in these
matters. They are treated of ID an
abundance of well. written books which
are within easy reach of all who care
to read them Our schools are taking
hold of the good work, and instruction
in hygiene is fast coming to be recog-
| nized as an essential of even an element
airy education. But all these do not
reach the evil, or if they do, they only
touch it on the surface.
Our schools are full of good gram
marians who do not use respectable
| English in common conve rsation. So,
too, they may be full of glib reciters of
the laws of health, who do not observe
a single one of the laws they have
learned. The main point is to secure
obedience. The greatest criminals are
usually well versed in the laws of the
land but their knowledge does not
avail to keep them out of the peniten-
tiary when they have broken these
laws. Neither will knowledge of the
laws of health keep man from being
his knowledge. We are creatures of
imitation. Example counts counts for
more than ptecept. The par ent knows
the law, and the child knows it too.
When the parent keeps it, then the
children will keep it also. 1t does little
good for child to learn at school that
the food should be properly mast Gated,
when three times every day at home
he sees a hungry group crowd about
the table like pigs around a trough,
and bolt their food as nearly whole as
it can be made to 90 down. The child
whose mother gives it bite of some
thing to eat every time it cries for it,
will not be in condition to profit from
an understanding of the law that food
should not be taken between meals,
until it is too late for the knowledge
TO be of much service. The law of
pure air and proper ventilation may be
taught ever SO plainly in the tex books,
but TO the boy who is brought up to
sit and to sleep in close, UNIV, inflated
room, foul with the breath OF living
beings, and shun fresh air as he would
a plague, the knowledge will be of
little avail. While his fathers cellar
is filled with decaying meat, vegetables
and all manner of filth, and the cess
pool smells to heaven from beneath the
kitchen window, all the teachings of
the schools will not prevent his having
typhoid fever, or diphlheria, or some
form of filth disease, when the summer
sun calls into activity the germs of
disease which are latent there. If
liquors are kept upon the sideboard
, aud wines are served upon the table in
his home, not all the teachings Of all
the temperance text.b ,oks in the land
can be relied upon to produce in him
habits of sobrie'y and total abstinence.
1t is the practice of the PRINCIPLES of
hygiene in our homes, and this alone,
which will lessen the rate of disease
and death to-day, and develop strong
: er race tomorrow. rhe child who had
/, /, learned the laws of health from his
father and mother by seeing them con
tinually aud persistently applied, will
, come TO follow them in his own case
as be will conduct hims II properly in
good society. if good society has beer
u his birthright, and gentlemanly conduc
= has become habitual,-[Good House
keeping.