Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1891-01-09
UNWHOLESOME SLEEP.
The Surest Way TO Procure Sound, Health
mi KgDOse,

The surest Way TO Procure Sound, Health
ful Kepose.
Not always is sleep tired natures
sweet restorer." Sometimes, instead OF
a balm, 1t 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 thing as late supper.
An indigestible Welsh rareb.t at eleven
D. m may result in big, suffocating
black dog across his chest at one o'clock
in the morning; an overplus OF loaf-pas-
try, which his gastric juices can not oon-
veniently assimiate, may precipitate
him from precipice in dreamland into
a bottomless abyss or surfeit OF pate
de fote gras send him to a Morphean gal
lows, there to endure all the fortunes OF
actual strangulation. This sort OF thing,
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 bed
ridden in his sleep by nightmare TOO
strong for his vitality-oven Death.
The torn nightmare is supposed to
have been derived from Mara, the name
of a demon which, according to the
Scandinavian mythology, pounced upon
men in their sleep and held the will In
thralldom. The old Saxons called the
distemper Elf-sidenne, or elf-squatting.
With the doctors, who are nothing, II
not classical 1t is Ephialties, from
mythic giant Of that name who under
took to climb TO Heaven, but, missing
hts foothold, tumbled into the fathom-
less depths. Most Of us have probably
been convulsed in our sleep with the
Same sort Of horror which the tripped-up
Titan is tabled to have experienced dur
ing his "lofty fall" from the celestial
battlements.
In our boyish days, or rather nights,
we were frequently pitched headlong
from the tops Of sky-cleaving mount
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 illimi,able chaos; or being
caught up by the hair into the realms Of
ether and there kept dangling and kick
ing, like umping-jack, without any
apparent prospect of rescue. Well do
we remember the start OF terror with
which we awolte on such occasions, and
the deep-drawn sghs OF relief which
followed the consciousness Of safety. 1t
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 gormahdizer, 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 nice condi-
ton. No wonder that of the internal
fermentation, caused by such stufing
and swilling, hobgoblins and hippogriffs
in endless variety were born.
The surest way to avoid the night
mare, and procure that sound, healthful
repose, with VIII oh each days life should
be rounded of, is to live temporarily,
regularly and honestly. Ay, honestly,
for a troubled conscience, as well as an
over-laden diaphragm, may engender
evil dreams.-N. Y. Ledger