The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-04-13
GIVE Us A REST"
A Needed Warning to Busy Profess
sIonaI or business MEN.


From the Washington Star
A recent article from the pen OF all
eminent medical authority calling at
tention 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 tinancier or actor or au-
thor or statesman is closing his mind
The insane docket has become prom.
inent feature of the court records and
press report. Hsr ily week passes
that the murderOus violence of some
"crank" does not appall the public. Ii
| this is true of the present generation,
more may be expected of coming gen.
eratiOns. The Americans, partly from
climatic influences aud partly from
their habits of life, are conceded to be
an extremely nervous people. 10 the
sturdy and phlegmatic Britisher, with
his regular guaffing of ale and porter,
his Yankee cousins enforced absti-
nence from even tea or coffee 10 pro-
ductive of amaZement and ridicule.
The natural nervous susceptibility OF
American fathers is Increased by q
prolonged. unceasiDg, all-absorbing
devotion to business, which ia nnpar-
alleled i'm other nations. The average
American mother adds to maternal
cares n combined amount of household
manual duties, intellectual endeayOr,
society cares and religious or philaD-
thropic work found in women of nO
other nation. Such are the parents Of
the children of this country.
AS for the children themselves, but
slight attention seems to be paid to the
physiological law that the mental pow.
ers are slower by five years than the
physical. At 4 years of age children
must be in the kindergarten; at z in
the grammar school; at 1S in the high
school or earning their living. Take
the record of al average 14-year- old
girl in q well-to-dO family i'm any city
From Monday till Saturday it is schoo
through the day and study at night.
Saturday from 10 o'clock till noon il
the dancing lesson. In the afternoon
is the thester matinee or the sewing
society of the girls of her age i'll the
church. Saturday night comes the
studying of the international Sunday
school lessons. Sunday there is morn
ing service at 1880 a. m., Sunday
school at noon, Young Peoples meet
ing at p. IN. and evening service al
8. How much rest has that child from
one weeks end to another?
Perhaps it may be urged that matt.
| nees at the drama or opera however
injurious they may be to children il
some respects-are relief from menta
strain. This is a delusion. 1t is a
narrowing or emotional plays that thu
greatest crowd of children's faces are
seen. Nor is the majority of the liter
ature which they find limited time fol
perusing any less stimulating, as intel
ligent, mature readers know beyond
dispute.
In view of all these facts concerning
the constant mental and emotiona
stimulation of grown people as we'll al
children, 1t is not at all surprising tha
nervous and mental disease is on the
Increase, and that medical men anC
students of mental phenomena are cal
ling upon us to halt. and to remember
that to take no daily rest or respite
but to pnsh increasingly on, expecting
to take our vacation 'in lump" is al
idiotic proceeding as for man to at
tempt to defer regular slumber till HI
can make his sleeping arrears all up a
once.