Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-09
HOW TO REACH OLD AGE.
DIR. MILBURN TELLS HOW A PUNY
BOY BECAME A STRONG MAN.

How to Breathe-How u Blind Man Ex-
ercises-Sun Cure for Baldness-won-
derfuI vaseline Baths-Story of a Man
Who Was an Unpromising Child.
Born apparently into the lap of con-
sumption! Blind and sickly at twenty
one! Weak and feeble at thirty-five!
The picture of health at threescore and
ten!
1t reads like patent medicine adver-
tisement, but it is the story of the Rev.
DIR. Milburn, the noted blind chaplain of
the house of representatives. The blind
parson told it in voice as strong as that
of boy. Said he: :.
"For fifteen years was one of the
most fragile of men you can imagine.
had to hold book at the end of my
nose with my hand above to shade the
page, and by moving the book continu-
ously along / managed, by seeing one
letter at time, to read and to spell my
way through school and college. The
result was that when very young man
Ifound myself afflicted with curvature
of the spine, a curvature of the breast
bone and disease of the heart, and
there seemed absolutely no prospect of
my ever becoming healthy man.
~ was also extremely delicate, and
when between nineteen and thirty-fve
years old my weight ranged from 107 to
115 pounds. was working hard, how
ever, all this time, and paying attention
to all sorts of things except the laws of
health and life. went to England
when thirty-four, and got some hints
from there. In those days very little
attention was paid to'hygiene, and after
returning began to put into practice
what had learned, and ever since that
time have increased in weight and size.
increased my chest measure twelve
inches, and my weight from fifty to sixty
pounds. My weight increased steadily
from the time l was thirty-6ve, and you
will be surprised to know that this was
done without my eyer going into gym
nasium or adopting any of the practices
which are prescribed for such purpose.
HOW TO BREATHE.
81 could only use the means within
the reach of blind man, and one of the
principal means of increasing my size
and weight which l adopted was air,
taking larger and larger quantity into
the lungs. have cultivated breathing
as the basis of life, SO that now sup
pose can inhale and exhale as large
quantity of atmosphere as. any living
man. That is the secret of the develop
ment of physique-to take into your
lungs the whole amount of air which
your lungs are intended to receive, and
that is, in the case of a man of fair chest
proportions, $50 cubic inches. The well
built men in this country do not take in
200 inches.
''The first thing you do when you
awake in the morning be sure you have
a current of fresh air passing through
your room. Remove the heavy bed
clothes from your person. leaving only
sheet over you; lie as nearly fat as you
can, draw up the knees and relax the
muscles of the abdomen Then, with
your mouth closed and your chin raised,
in order to relieve all constraint about
your breast, draw in all the air you can
without violence, doing 1T gradually and
without painful effort.
''Hold the air as long as you can, and
breathe it out through the mouth or
nose, in the former case with effort
Close your lips as soon as all is out, and
practise doing all your inhalations
through your nostrils, never, under any
circumstances, inhaling through the
mouth.
81 would rather drink the water left
in a finger bowl at the close of White
House dinner than to take in one spoon
full of Washington air through my
mouth. Do this breathing while in bed
in the morning for five or ten minutes.
This has been my constant habit for a
number of years.