Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-06-05
UNWHOLESOME SLEEP.
The Surest Way to Procure Sound, HoAlths
full Repose.

The SureSt Way to Procure SOUND, Ho4lt06
full Repose.
Not always is sleep "tired natures0
sweet restorer." Sometimes, instead OF
balm, it brings bugaboo in the shape
of the nightmare. Man is a wonderful
piece of work. but his machinery may
be thrown out of gear and set a-whizzing
by so slight a thing as = late suppee.
An indigestible Welsh rarebit at elevsn
D. m. NAV result in big, sufocAtinR
black dog across bis chest at one o'clock
in the morning; an overplus of loaf-pae-
try, which his gastric juices can not co0s
veniently assimilate, may precipitat0
him from precipice in dreamland into
bottomless abyss; or a surfeit OF Es0ss
de foie grds send him to . Morphean gale
lows, there to endure all the fortunes 0f
actual -strangulation- This sort of things
by the way, is only one remove from
apoplexy, and the incubus-ridden victim
of inordinate and untimely self-indul-
gence is likely enough to be at last bea-
ridden in his sleep by nightmare too
strong for his vitality-even Death
The term nightmare is supposed to
have been derived from Mara. the name
of a demon which, according to tho
Scandinavian mythology, bounced upon
men in their sleep and held the will in
thralldom. The old Saxons called the
distemper Elf-sidenne, or elf-souattin2.
With the doctors. who are nothing, il
not classical, it is Ephialties. from q
mythic giant of that name who undef~
took to climb to Heaven, but, missing
his foothold, tumbled into the fathom-
less depths. Most of us have probably
been convulsed in our sleep with tho
same sort of horror which the tripped-up
Titan is tabled to have experienced dur
ing his ''lofty fal1'' from the celestial
battlementS.
In our boyish days, or rather nights,
we were frequently pitched headlong
from the tops of sky-cleaving mounts
aims, throw over staircases and into
wells from which the bottoms had
dropped out; to say nothing of falling,
bed and all, through trap-doors in the
floor into illimitable chaos; or being
caught up by the hair into the realms of
ether and there kept dangling and kick
ing. like a umping-jack, without any
apparent prospect of rescue Well do
we remember the start of terror with
which we awoke on such occasions, and
the deep-drawn signs of relief which
followed the consciousness of safety It
is doubtful whether any waking agony
surpasses the torment that has been en-
dured in dreams
There can be little doubt that many
of the specters of the dark ages were
Maras begotten of indigestion Your
Saxon gormandizer, who sometimes
Toasted far into the night on boar's flesh
and venison pastry, washing them down
with frothy mead, must have gone to
bed with his stomach in a nice condi-
ton No wonder that of the internal
fermentation, caused by such stuffing
and swilling, hobgoblins and hippogriffs
in endless variety were born
The surest way to avoid the night
mare, and procure that sound, healthfn1
repose, with which each days life should
be rounded off, is to live temperately.
regularly and honestly. Ay, honestly,
for troubled conscience, as well as an
over-laden diaphragm, may engenceF
evil dreams.-N. Y. Ledger.