Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-19
LIVING MUCH TOO FAST.
The American Works Harder Than Any
Other Man ON Earth.

Tho American Works Harder Than Any
Other Man ON Earth.
San Francisco Chronicle.l
DR.. Cyrus Edson in the current number Of
one Of the American magazines has an ex-
cellent and very suggestive article on the
question, Do we live too fastf He says:
"The American works harder than does any
other man or woman on earth. His business
is always with him. He has no rest, no ces-
sat1on, no relief from the strain. His daily
routine Is one of intense and ever-present
excitement. What is the outcomef To sup.
ply his rapidly exhausted system he is COM
pelled to consume large quantities of rich
food and to stimulate himself with alcoholic
beverages. One of three results almost in
evftably follows: First, he becomes an inc
Dr1ate and is destroyed by the alcoholic
poison he consumes; second, escaping the
pitfall of acquired drunkenness he rapidly
1mpa1rs his digestive organs by his abuse of
food, and in consequence of that his stom-
ach and intestines no longer properly per-
form their functions; third, the over-indul-
gence of his appetite crowds upon the ex-
cretOry apparatus an amount of work that
sooner or later embarrasses andGlisorders it,
iat IS accumulated, and the muscular sys-
tenn undersoes what is termed fatty degen-
eration."
Unfortunately this diagnosis is entirely
too accurate. We have but to look about us
to ind abundant instances of each of the
classes OF which the writer speaks. Men of
genius and enormous brain power who drive
the mental machine at top speed all the
time put OIL into the furnaces in the shape
OF some form OF alcohol, or, failing that, in
the form'of rich ana highly seasoned viands,
or Durns out and collapses, and then comes
death or the insane asylum. But is there
any remedy, and if SO, what is it and where
IS 1t to be found? The spirit of the age de-
mandS speed in everything Bitter com.
plaint is made if an ocean steamer is an hour
Dehind her schedule time: railroad trains
are being continually pushed to a higher
rate OF speed; Improvements are being made
sages, and shorthand and typewriter are
superseding the old-fashioned pothooks and
hangers OF our boyhood. With all this at
tempt to gain greater rapidity in things
material, what wonder is it that the mind
feels the impetus and makes an extra effort
TO keep up with the rush and hurry which q
we call progress?
We can see no help for the present condi-
shall swing across to the other extremity of
the arc and the human family shall revert to
ideas and habits moro nearly pristine than
those which obtain to-day. We laugh at the
golden age and declare that IL is as much
myth or fable as the Olympian Paradise
or the Enchanted Isles, but there was time
when there we're, or seemed to be, more
minutes in the hour, more hours in the day
and moro days in the week than in this
nineteenth century: when there was time
for thought and calm reflection as well as
for action; when mere money grabbing was
not the aim and object of the world, and
when to be richer than anybody else was
not the ultima thule OF human ambition.
That was the golden age of the world, if ever
there was one, and 1t were well for us all If
the wheel OF time In its revolutions would
we might rest without feeling that doing
nothing was an absolute waste of time.