The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-06-03
AGE AND OCCUPATION.
The Man Who Works Hard Almost Always
Outiiyes the Idler.

The Man Who Works Hard Almost Always
OUTLINES the Id1er.
II is true. no doubt that there are
men without intellectual occupations
who live long n right of constitutions
without weak places in them, and true,
also. that freedom from anxiety of IT.
yelf is favorable to longevity; but. to
Judge from the scene around us, no an
tiseptic, no preventative against decay,
is quite equal to an occupation which
requires steady tax upon the brain
Number of these ancient men" too,
can still walk, ride, tricycle., bowl in a
way their sons can only just surpass,
and exhibit degree of physical health
which makes one wonder why inSur-
ance Offices should accept them for an
nuities. or why experienced surgeons
should whisper that after eighty-five
the scientific expectations of life may
be calculated by DAYS We do not hes
itate TO say that if brain-power were
neutrality-suspicious.. pace Mr.. Gallon, it
IS not. or al least not without intervals
"a race of men men living for ages by
intellectual occupatio alone would
radically modify all theories as to the
expectation of life: would add to it,
that is by at least ten solid years
Nor is it impossible to guess with at
least some approach to conviction at
the physical cause of the longevity
often displayed by the intellectual, if
physically they are fairly sound. No
proposition is more fully established
than this-that use. within certain linn
its of moderation. strengthens instead
OF weakens the faculty used. The
Gamekeeper who walks all day can
walk at seventy better than any seden-
1ary man; huntingmen. though they
lose their nerve, never lose the muscles
which control a horse: and q gardener
of seventy will dig without fatigue,
while his employer of fifty-tive gives
In. 1t is said. on good evidence, that a
Japanese dentist can train his fingers
70 pluck out teeth without instruments:
and even the eyes can be made by hab-
it abnormally strong. DR.. Brudenell
Garter, in an admira BILE paper on this
subject. proved that the popular notion
about use" destroying the eyes was a
pure fallacy, journeymen watchmalers
using their magnifying glasses-fiXed,
remember, not in both eyes, but in one
of them for. forty years cOnsecutively
without apprecia bic injury or decay of
visual power, Training" it is true,
often exhausts force; but that is be-
cause we train in athletics in order not
30 improve the normal strength for
normal eXertion, but to obtain abnor-
NAL power for short abnormal effort,
sometimes too great for the springs of
life to bear. Use is the great preserva-
tive, not DESTROYER. of strength. and
the use of the brain protects and de-
velops the horsepower of which it is
the reservoir, and on which, in part,
longevity depends.
You may Kill a man with anxiety
very quickly: but it is difficult to kill
him with work. especially if he retains
the power which most men of intel
1ectual occupa tions more or less possess,
of sleeping nearly at will, and without
torpor. You may see some Judges do
it every day and with the most singular
suddenness, not only the intellect but
diSo lilt Stl1St Vi ltdI i1lE Stt1nlup 10 Dt
suspended by an act of pure volition,
The man who has used his brain all his
life, say for six hours Il day, has. in
fact. trained his horsepower and
placed it beyond the reach of early de-
cay, or that kind of feebleness which
makes so many apparently healthy men
succumb so readily to attacks of dis
sase. Doctors know the differences
smong men in this respect quite well
and many of them acknowledge that
the habit of surviving" which they
find in their best patients arises from
two causes-one. which used to be al
ways pleaded, being that soundness OF
physical constitution which some men
enjoy by hereditary right. and the
other. some reconcile form of brain
power, seldom exhibited. except under
strong excitement, by any but those
who throughout life have been com
PEELED to think and. so to speak. use
their thoughts as other men use their
GgamentS and muscles. If such man
is tired of life, medicine will not save
him: but. as a rule. his will. consciously
or unconsciously. compels the trained
nerve power to struggle on. Whether
the brain can actually give power to
the muscles is not certain. though the
enormous strength sometimes developed
in last rally looks very like it: but
that II can materially affect vitality is
quite certain. and has been acknowl-
edged by the experienced in all ages
London Spectator.