The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-02-20
WORK AND LONG LIFE
Occupations Which Tend to
Shorten Ones Exist
ence..
'IATETIC; OF AMERICA AND EUROPE,
p~fessional Men and Manual Labor
ers Compared-Out of Door
Life the Healthiest.
'IATITIC; OF AMERICA AND EUROPE.
pfessional Men and Manual Labor

SaSSlD is Tile MOSG bO lOuS-
evity. Certain it is, says the Pacific
Medical Journal that no sooner is a
person known to have committed
murder than all the safe guards that
human ingenuity a devise are
thrown around him, and everything
is done to prolong his days on earth
in comfort, ease and even luxury. If
the vast sums of money, the valuable
time, the brilliant talent, the pro-
found learning. the resistless energy,
and the ~nauseating sympathy now
wasted on murderers were applied to
improve the sanitary condition of our
schools, il would be more humane,
and the result would be increased
health, wisdom and morality. There
were tw%enty-nine homicides recorded
in San Francisco last year, and the
number not recorded probably
reached up into the hundreds, for
there are many here who live by TAX
ing human life and advertise their
bloody trade openly in the newspa-
pers; yet we feel sure that it would be
q more profitable business venture
for any insurance company to issue
policies at reduced rates on the lives
of this great army of assassins. from
the bold and venturesoine highway
man to the sneaking and cowardIy
abortionist.
Among the learned professions, that
of pointing the way to Heaven keeps
its votaries longest on earth, while
those who engage in holding others
back, or smoothing their path, if go
they must, glide swiftly OH themselves
and soon loose their feeble grip on
worldly things; thus, according to
English statistics, the death rate
among physicians, between twenty
five and sixty-five years of age is
more than twice that of clergymen of
the same age, lawyers keeping about
equally distant in the race for i'm
mortality between those who preach
and those who practice. OF course,
it is easy TO see why medical men die
young; irregular habits, loss OF food
and sleep, exposure to the extremes
of weather, jolting and shaking over
rough roads. inhaiing m~icrobe-laden
dust or the foul air OF a close carriage,
the constant mental strain OF weigh
ing diagnostic symptoms and thera-
peutic indications with the fear of
erring where human lives are at stake,
and, last but not least; alas! with
many of as, the worry expressly for
hidden by the Master according to st.
Matthew vi. 25-34-all these various
agencies speed our journey.
OUT OF DOOR LIFE HEALTHY.
OF the manual toilers, those whose
occupation keeps them outdoor are,
with some few exceptions, the longest
lived, the exceptions being due to
other causes, as overwork, especially
sudden muscular efforts or strains,
liability to accident, and exposure to
inhalation of dust and poisonous va
pors. Thus gardeners, farmers and
fishermen are exceptionally long
lived, and sailors would be SO but for
the poor quality of food, insufficient
and frequently bad water, and the
cramped up, damp, dingy sleeping
quarters furnished them. In these
respects there has been a great i'm
provement of late years, but much re-
mains yet to be done. Jacks riotous
living ashore and too often INSULT
cient clothing at sea ere also response
BILE for many OF his ailments.
Carpenters and masons, whose work
keeps them mostly in cities, where
the air is less pure than in the coun-
try or at sea, are not as healthy as
farmers or fishermen, and painters
aad plumbers, who are almost con-
stantly exposed to noXious vapors,
and suffer more or less at all times
from chronic poisoning, die compare
lively young.
Tailors and shoemakers, who not
only live in a foul atmosphere, but
also sit all day in such a cralnped
position that respiration and diges-
Iion are interfered with, as well as
diapers, wool and cotton workers,
cutters, filemakers and printers are
liable to phthisis.
Liquor sellers and hotel walters are
extremely short lived, their death
rate being respectively two and
three-quarters and four times as great
as that of clergymen.
RaiIroading and other occupations,
requiring one TO be, more or less con-
stantly on the road, are extra hazard
Gus, not SO much because of the acct
dents to which one is exposed, as be-
cause of the continued Earring, the
superheated and foul air in the a
and severe drafts every time a door or
WINDOW is opened, anu lie uuo uuSG
which settles not only in the air pas
sages, but almost completely clogs up
the pores of the skin, throwing extra
work on the kidneys and giving rise
to the so-called railroad kidney"
For this reason. as well as for the
broken sleep and irregular meals,
commercial travellers are undesirable
life insurance risks.
DON'T BE A CAPITALIST.
To be a capitalists, whether busy or
idle, is somewhat risky; for, besides
being a target for dynamite bomb
throwers, If busy, the physical wear
and tear and the mental strain and
anxiety of specnlations will soon
shatter your mind and body, con-
signing o either to the inadhouse
or a premature grave; and if idle,
dissipation or ennui are apt to finish
you early.
On the subject ofpolitical excitement
we cannot do better than to quote an
editorial in the Medical Press and
Circular of June %, 1892:
THE excitement associated with an