The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-23
RECIPE FOR INSOMNIA.
The Published Remedies for ,
Wakeful Brain and Inability
to Sleep.
After a Modest Supper and an
Evening of Love and Duty,
Go to Bed.
Think on Ways to Make Others Happy
Plan Joys and ChAnces of the
Moral Sort.

Moral Sort.
/ have tried all the published remedies
for q wakeful brain and persistent inability
to sleep, and some of them are good, writes
Mary f. Spencer in the Sunday Globe
Democrat. They are at least amusing, and
if some one will collect them all in a vol
umo ! will warrant the reading of them will
mako night hours very light to pass away.
One man advises to hold the breath; an
other to breathe as fast as possible. One
would have you get out of bed and take a
shower bath; another would stand on one
foot till exhausted. One would count one
hundred backward; another would name
over every article of furniture in the house
from garrett to cellar. One advises eating a
hearty meal before retiring; another woald
only swallow a cup of hot water in sips.
One would walk a mile after supper. which
would quite upset some other one, who ad-
vises the most quiet and idle way OF spend
ing the evening. To go to a theuter
or place of amusement is panacea.
says A, but B likes better a novel. which
he reads till drowsy. John Bright always
read in n volume of american Poetry
preferably Longfellow; and Bismarck
BInOkeS Will II plcuby u Dopl. Iuo AS"su
touch of a stimulant will assist enc, but
quite prevent the least thought Of sleep for
another, / have tried the onion remedy
and am convinced it would do for an os-
trich; and tho peanut remedy, which would
quite kill ever an ostrich.
Now, let me tell you what l believe You
would find to DO the very best insomnia
cure possible. After a modest supper Of
oatmeal or toast, and an evening of homely
love and duties, go to bed. AZ soon as your
head is on your pillow begin to plan who
you can make happy in the morning and
household there are always ways that you
can easily think over by which you can SOW
joy in evory heart and face. Then
look over your friends and recall those
you have a love for. What a delight it
will be to add one joy to each of a select
circle. There are neighbors, also. who can
be touched for good, and poor acquaint-
ances who can be helped in life's struggle.
Outside of oil are your enemies. or those you
have abhorred or hated; or, at least, those
you have gone by on the other side. No
matter now about remorse or regrets; we are
simply planning for the better, which is the
true method. Perhaps you will already be
asleep. But this ! know. for l have tried
it, your worries will be gone 80 far you can
not coax them back. Your frets and brain
clous foretaste Of what you have planned
fills you with a glow of delight and peace.
You have not laid out a great expenditure
of strength or money. Doing good is the
least costly thing in the world. What wears
on US is being selfish. To hate Or to despise
berry. To give is in most cases to get. 'Tis
q big blunder to be forgetful of Others
feelings.
For the most part I find that what I owe,
really owe, are trihes as the world speaks of
them. But are the smiles and gentle words
triHanp d farIlv1a naoNa OrnyUfh- NnNrQA-
ter, hangs on your having a sweet face and
gentle ways. When l am trying to get to
sleep after this manner it comes to me very
clearly that there is no one in the house
hold but may be made unusually happy in
the morning. All! but VIVA can be more
delicious than a group of grateful, happy
children? Have you been a little stubborn
in sympathizing with one of our boys?
Has Mary lacked the tenderest conscious
ness that her mother enters into her emo
ships; have you lived fully and freely in all
their daily emotions, SO that you can help
them to love wisely. or are you only &
and annoyed that their hearts wander away
from yourself? No matter how it is, You
are now planning that in the morning your
tongue, your arm, your eye, all OF you
will be busy making people happy. You
know you can do it. You see it SO clearly.
And never did it seem 80 beautiful. You
feel like the blue sky arched over head and
s%pangled full Of stars, for your soul arches
over Rll friends and foes, II your sweet
comes rest, and 10! you are asleep. l do not
think you will waken before morning, and
then you will come forth strong, pure and
radiant.
Tho moral cure is by all odds the best
method, not only in cases Of insomnia, but
of many other ills. l have yet to see any
trouble or i'll that did not need moral pur-
pose to cure it. I am not preaching a fad.
I ain not denouncing physical remedies, but
RELOCATING them from the front. When you
have begun, as l have suggested, to think
over the beautiful and design the good,
glow with a delicious sense Of
rIchtness. All trouble comes from u breach
of nature. Every effort to be right, and do
right, improves the bodily health. Pare
thoughts and kind purposes rub creases out
of the forehead. l am glad that 3 certain
part of faith cure has had it's advocates and
believers. One need not be a moral idiot
because she believes in the power of moral
thought, moral hope, and moral will.
But if thinking nobly can soothe the tired
brain, and smooth the fretted nerves. and
give recurerative sleep. why cannot much
more be done? Ae there not other hour
of the day when trouble or fret grips us
tenaoiously and will not lot us go, and relief
might come as fully by beginning to plan
ROOu Things LOT OLu6fk! lily ~. L lot OuG
have a few familiesthat are Invaluable to me
as curers of hcndache and dyspepsia. One is
aninvalid mother and two invalid daughters.
1t does me good to send to them a basket of
oranges and j%ellies and other nourishments
Another is O family of boys, bright and
manly, but the mother lives by working,
and l find the little chaps with their arms
in the suds rubbing clothes. 1t is an in
dustrious lot. enough to do, enough to eat,
and enough to wear: but no balance for
luxuries. A dish of ice cream in summer
or a basket of candies and fruit in winter
is what adds to their lives. The very things
that are bad for me and mine break up the
routine of such peoples lives and carry in
sunshine. We can not decently get on
without poorer neighbors. Average wealth
and universal equality would decrease the
JOYS of the world. | am sure of one z eat
tguth-that seliishness is very painful ia
we'll az mean. and kindness is u wholesome,
life-giving sentiment.
But | must not wander too far way from
insomnia. This terrible plague is Ameri-
can, because Americans are go persistsntly
given to work. Is not our work too self
seeking, rather than too burdensome?
Have We not lost the end of
work; the true aim of living? Even
our religion is touched with Il furious
passion to get final peace at the expense of
our best friend. We are RcramblinR to pile
up a big heap to enjoy by and by; and ITO
lay up treasures in heaven" il Unexpectedly
us In tho same way, as II great pile of self-
denials and worships and PRAYERS and other