Wichita eagle., 1888-02-09
THE LAW OF REST.

lHE LAW VI RENl.
A MAN MUST SLEEP IN Proper
TON TO HIS LARoRs,
| Else He Curtails His Own Ability, Health,
| Strength and Life--Habits Formed III
| Childhood-The Greatest Folly Of Our
Modern Life.
A man must sleep in proportion to MS Ia
bors. The average demand is eight hours. or
one-third of the day. Whoever clips this is
sure to clip his own ability, health, strength
and life There is no release from the law.
! A man may believe himself an exception.
For short time he may seem to be such, but
he is doomed to illustrate the law with an
emphasis. There is no crash and break up
like that of powerful man, when he gets to
broken wheel He lacks the recuperative
power of men comparatively more fragile.
He cannot bend, he breaks The probability
is he will betake himself to narcotics or stiIn-
ulants-and after bondage OF that sort go
out ANONYMOUSLY. No, there is one law that
must be obeyed. You must sleep or go to
pieces. Grant said he could do nothing with
less than nine hours sleep. Napoleon was a
superb sleeper; but when his ability to sleep
waned his power went with it.
l propose to suggest where the mistakes
arise that lead to sleeplessness. First OF all
there is vital error with children. A child
should be in bed as the fowls are. at shutdown
at least. And he should be allowed to rise in
the morning as soon as he wakes. 1t IS not
only torture but an unhealthy mischief, to
compel children to lie in bed, awake, two
hours, to prevent disturbing older people
abominate night parties for children. be-
lieve every physician does It is not SO much
the exposure, and the eating in the night, and
the had associations formed tof high
toned sort, possibly, but the breaking into
the sleep habit Equally bad is it for chill
dren to study in the evening. 1t gorges their
brains with blood; and if they sleep they
dream You cannot emphasize too strongly
the mischief of children's night study.
Whatever stolid lot of animal natures
can do, our American children are sensitives
and cannot do-that is, safely sleep two in a
bed. No matter in what else you economic,
there is criminal folly in economizing beds
Every person needs his own bed more than
table. And the best bed in the world is a
good bed Of fresh straw covered with plenty
of quilts No child should be allowed to
sleep on feathers or animal refuse of any
other sort. But to sleep two in bed is a
vital damage One is sure to absorb the
electric energy of the other. What we must
look for is to accumulate constitution for the
child, and establish stout, conservative ten
dency Our American life viii be sure to
make heavy drafts on him If he has no
capital he can pay no interest. This habit
of sleeping alone should be retained through
life under al circumstances More mischief,
as well as immortality, comes from the opposite
course than from any other common habit.
A good deal of nonsense is sometimes pub
lished about sending children to bed with
full stomachs This is well enough so long as
babe is an animal and has not awakened to
much use of the brain, but as soon as child
has come to an age of active thought he
SHOULD have q chance for light exercise and
sport after his meals, never, however, allow
ING him to 90 to bed excited. Above all
things to be deprecated is the stormy season,
SO frequently INDUCED just at retiring. The
child prefers to sit up, and invariably retlres
in a storm Of passion, added to by the storm
of nurse or parent. He should be calmly and
firmly restrained from all such outbreaks.
There is great difference il. children about
retiring: some very active brains grow sleepy
and desire to retire early, others equally &C.
tive grow wakeful and excited.
When shall we break up our habits formed
in childhooda Most certainly they should
never be modified beyond the absolute de-
mands of life The proper time to sleep is as
the active hours pass into the passive. All
nature at the withdrawal of light is lulled
into rest. Man only, with few predatory
animals, ressts the impulsion of nature, and
undertakes either to shorten his sleep or to
readjust his rest to later hours His power to
thus adapt himself is far more limited than
ne supposes. With the rarest exceptions, each
person in turn, sooner or later, breaks down,
and must submit TO nature or suffer the con
sequences We have become nervous peopls,
because we do not sleep and recuperate. l
never have seen five Americans that slept too
much: rarely have known one who slept
enough. There is no escaping the one great
law that life depends on rebuilding regularly
what is used up by daily activity. There
fore, say, as far as possible. retire at en-
early hour and regular hour throughout
1t viii tuch as "SAi a. "s'NfAS~A~a
your days beyond any and all other habits.
The great folly Of our modern life is the
supposition that there can be any substitute
for sleep The stupidity produced by mar
cotics is mockery. 1t stops waste, to de-
gree: but it does not assist to any adequate
degree in repair. The function OF true sleep
is repair OF all the narcotics, that which
gives the nearest resemblance TO sleep is
choral hydrate But its operation is 50 vio-
lent that it rapidly degenerates both the heart
and the brain. When il does not kill cut
right, it produces evils that are worse than
death-semi-lu nacy and heart disease. No
drug has yet been discovered that can give
us warrant for disobedience to natural inn
pulses. Break up your habit for sleep, and
Won are al once in danger. Put yoursel;
under the power of a drug, and you will De a
slave more completely than any negro that
ever obeyed and suffered in rice swamp IL
your bondage has begun. YOU must break II
by returning to natural habits, or you will
die miserahly. There IS no escape from the
dilemma Return to nature, sleep at natural
hours. and don't expect to live on your capl-
tai, but on the in.erest--A Maurice, n ID.
in Globe Democrat.
A "Red Flag" Meeting.
One of tins London papers published an