Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-21
"GIVE Us A REST.o
A Needed Warming to Busy Professional
or Business Men.


recent article from the pen of an eminent
medical authority calling attention to the
alarming increase of brain diseases has been
widely copied by the press. The warning is
needed Every few days the public learns
that some eminent financier or actor or au-
thor or statesman is closing his mind" The
insane docket has become a prominent fea-
ture of the court records and of the daily
press reports. Hardly week passes that the
murderous violence of some crank does not
appal the public If this is true of the present
generation more may be expected of coming
generations. The Americans. partly from eli
matte influences and partly from their habits of
life, are conceded to be extremely nervous
people. To the sturdy, phlegmatic Britisher
with his regular quaffing of ale and porter, his
Yankee cousins enforced abstinence from even
tea and coffee is productive of amazement and
rldicule. The natural nervous susceptibility of
American fathers is increased by prolonged,
unceasing. all-absorbing devotion to business
which is unparalleled in other nations The
average American mother adds to maternal
cares a combined amount of household manual
duties, intellectual endeavor, society cares, and
religious or philanthrOpc work found in the
women of no other nation. Such are the
parents of the children of this country.
AS for the children themselves, but slight at
law that the mental powers are slower by five
years III their development than the physical
At four years of age children must be in the
kindergarten; at seven in the grammar school;
at fourteen in the high school or at work earn
ing their living. Take the record of an average
fifteen-year-old girl in a well-to-do family in
any city. From Monday till SATURDAY, it is
school through the day and study at night
Saturday from 10 o'clock to noon is the dancing
lesson. In the afternoon it is either the
a mo 1ynn nr 49,, Al
girls of her age in the church. Saturday night
comes the studying of the international Sunday
school lessons. Sunday there is morning service
at 1870 a. M. Sunday school at noon. young
peoples meeting at p. m and evening service
at s. How much rest has that child from one
weeks end to another?
Perhaps it may be urged that matinees at
the drama or opera-however injurious to
children in some rcspects-are relief from
mental strain. This is deluson 1t is at
narrowing or emotional plays that the greatest
crowd OF chlldren's faces are seen. Nor is the
majority OF the Hterrture which they find
limited time for perusing any less stimulating
as inteIhgent mature readers know beyond
dispTte.
In view of all these facts concerning the con-
slant mental and emotional stimulation of
grown people as well as children, it is not at
all surprising that nervous and mental disease
Is on the Increase. and that medical men and
students OF mental phenomena are calling upon
l
| daily rest nor respite, but to push increasingly
on, expecting to take our vacation sin lump"
Is as idIotic proceeding as for a man to at
tempt to defer regular slumber till he can
make his sleeping arrears all up at once.
The Norwich Bulletin publishes a poem on
| the short poem" fad that is now raging The
poem is as follows:
What
Rot.
Clerk-"Yes"
,Caller-"May see him for a minute?"
Clerk-"You will have to come around to his
| desk There is Montreal excursion to-day
and his feet are i'll the stocks. "-Lo,rel Citizen.
Sweet Girl-"Mother, George told me SOL
EMMY that this pretty hairpin-holder he gave
me cost 50, yet to-day saw exactly the same
kind on sale for 10 cents"
Mother-''You know, my dear, George is
very religious. Most likely he bought that at a
church fair "-Nelr York WeeLb