The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-05-10
SECRET OF LONG LIFE.
How Blind Parson Milburn Be-
came . Strong Man.
THE SUN CURE FOR BADNESS.
Justice Bradley On Longevity - How
Horstio King, Buchanan's Post
master General, Keeps Young.
wAsHrssroy Crrr, May Especial Cor

respondence.1 =
Born apparently into the lap of consumption;
Blind and sickIy 1t tweaty-one:
Weak and feeble at thirty-fve;
The picture of health 1t three score and ten
1t reads like patent medicine adver-
tlsement, but it is the story of the Rev.
Dr. Milburn, the noted blind chaplain of
the House of Representatives. It is q
story OF the triumph of reason and will
over body and disease It is story which
may give any weak man courage. The
blind parson told it in voice as strong as
that OF boy. His gestures were as forci-
Die and easy as those of an athlete, and
nom time to time he laughed while telling
1t with an enthusiastic ha! ha! ha! which
comes only from perfect lungs, happy
soul and good digestion. He smoked as
ne told 1t, and he enjoyed his pipe like
veteran tobacco user. Said he:
For fifteen years l 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 continuously along,
managed, by seeing one letter at a time. to
read and spell my way through school and
college. The result was that when q very
young man found 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 10
and % years old, my weight ranged from
lO7 to 115 pounds. / was work
ing hard, however, all this time.
and paying attention to ali sorts of things
except the laws of health and life went
to England when 81, and got some hints
from there. In those days very little at
tention was paid to hygiene, and after re-
turning | began to put into practice what
/ had learned, and ever since that time
have increased in weight and size. I in
creased my chest measure twelve inches
and my weight from fifty to sixty pounds.
My weight increased steadily from the
time was 50, and you will be surprised to
know that this was done without my ever
going into gymnasium, or adopting any
of the practices which are prescribed for
such purposes.
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 I adopted was air, tax
ing larger and larger quantity into my
lungs. have cultivated breathing as the
basis of life, so that now suppose can
inhale and exhale as large quantity of
atmosphere as any living man. That is
the secret Of the development 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 . man
of fair chest proportions, $50 cubic inches.
III l~.s1 - Al - n
take in 200 inches.
.sThe first thing you do when you awake
in the morning be sure you have current
of fresh air passing through your room.
Remove the heavy bed clothing from your
person, leaving only sheet over you, lie
as nearly dat as you can, draw up the
knees and relax the muscles of the abdo-
men. Then with your mouth closed and
your chin raised, in order to relieve all
constraint about your chest, draw in all
the air you can without violence, doing it
gradually and without painful effort. Hold
the air as long as you can and breathe it
out through the mouth or nose, in the for
mer case with effort. Close your lips as
soon as 1t is all out, and practice doing
all your inhalations through your nostrils,
never under any circumstances inhaling
through the mouth. l would rather drink
the water left in finger-bowl at the close
of White House dinner than to
take in one spoonful of Washington
air through my mouth. Do this breath
ing while in bed in the m orning for five
or ten minutes. You will remember the
Bible says: God hreathed into mans
nostrils the breath OF life, and he became q
living SOUL Shakespeare and other
famous men speak of the nostriis as the
only proper channel to be used in breath
ing, and it is an uncontradicted fact that
the Indians who never breathed through
their mouth were never subject to thous-
ands of our diseases until coming in CO n
tact with modern civilization he was in
duced TO adopt the white mans silly
method, and he at once became susceptible
TO all of those ills of the Caucasians. In
the pulpit the very moment | need sup
ply of air | clio sc the mouth. and the great
range and power of my voice / attribute
most largely to the development of the
lungs through my great breathing
capacity.
BALpNEss AND THE SUN CURE.
Air is my first prescription. - continued
DR.. Milburn. 1.-THE sun is my next.
often walk about with my hat of in the
sun, and it was practice of Goethe to do
thisfor an hour at noon. He said il stimu-
lated his intellect, and that there was q
vital and quiekening power in the suns
rays. Thirty years ago began TO be bald
NY father and younger brother were as
bald as the palm of your hand when they
were forty, but told them when they IN
formed m that was getting bald that
would ever be so. / had resolved to pre-
vent 1t and / did. l never wear a hat
when l can help il. and am not as bare
footed today on the top of my head as
was in 1st1. / wash my hair whenever
wash my face and hands.
HOW A BLIND NAN EXERCISES.
81 have a muscular exercise, light
dumb bell exercise, Dr. Milburn went on.
and have often used Indian clubs, and in
addition have some gymnastic movements
for the arms, legs, chest, etc As 10 the
massage treatment, I suppose 1 am the
most expert massage operator in this
country, and am also the best groomed
animal IN this respect. Immediately after
getting out OF bed l take cold, tend or
warm bath and rub down vigorously, and
| spend from o ne to two hours every day
In grooming my venerable carcass.
II used TO be brought constantly in con-
tact with Henry Ward Beecher and other
prominent characters OF large physique
thirty years or SO ago, and they were
always bantering me about my small vi
tally. Why don't you laugh and grow
fat = they would say. Well, | would re-
ply, L laugh enough, but don't know how
To grow fat Since / have changed nv
plan of life have buried them all
Il use horsehair mats in rubbing down I"
he continued, land then put on yaseline
or oil and rub into ali parts of my body.
The oil taken up by the skin in this way is
as good as food, and il keeps the cuticle in
erFelient condition This r,ss NJ al 49,