The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1893-01-20
WHY PEOPLE ARE NERVOUS.

saws the Chicago Inter Ocean, declares
this to be the age of nervousness, and
thinks the civilized race is deteriorat-
ing under it. Our lunatic asylums
are filing up at frightful rate;
women, who ought to be plump and
rosy, are pale and emaciated; school
children, instead of being joyous, &C
tive vigorous, are debiiitated, over
worked and unhappy; business men
have become engines Of perpetual
worry aud victims Of insomnia: social
life has become a nerve dlsorderlng
whirl of excitement; cities are clam
orous with the distractions of rail
roads. traffic, manufacture, and all
bustling affairs that destroy repose
and murder quiet. Everything is at
high pressure. Headlong, mad actiV-
ity has become the law of circum-
stances.
Health, peace, happiness and the
prospect of a serene old age are bar
tered at ruinous rates of discount Tor
swift coming fortune. Society seems
to be keeping pace to sort OF deYlls
tattoo, and out of all this reckless
squandering of vital energies some
thing with the dreadful name, neur-
asthenia has come upon mankind,
under which are classified an endless
array of nervous ills proceeding from
all sorts of causes and terminating in
premature death, insanity, paralysis,
anything, everything that is frightful
to contemplate.
The fact is this ageis bowling along
with frightful rapidity and the most
extraordinary erraticism. We crowd
a lifetime into a decade, land are
weary with earth before we have fair
ly made her acquaintance. We go
capering after business or folly when
we should be snugly tucked in bed and
fast asleep. We bother about matters
we should let take care of
themselves. We eat wrong things
andat wrong times. We smoke
to excess, 1--WE drink to excess.
We spend too much time in bad air
We don't do quarter enough exercise
to keep the muscles in good order, the
limbs strong, the nerves well toned.
In short, continues the Inter Ocean,
we are doing everything we should
not do, and very little that
we should. Yet the good
natured doctor says we need not
despair if we will let drugs alone and
learn to behave ourselves. The
things to do are simply enough; take
regular and sufficient sleep; eat SIM
pie and nutritive food: breathe in
plenty of fresh, pure air: do lots OF
outdoor eXcersise, hoe in the garden
if you have one, or use gymnasium,
homemade or public; be patient,even
if it takes all your time to cultivate
patience; let your mind be engaged
with wholesome thoughts, and keep
it from fretting.
But the Inter Ocean thinks that
while the advice which the good doc
tor gives as to healthy living is excel
lent and is worthy of being observed |,
he at the same time oyerdoes the
matter little and makes things out
worse than they are, and expresses
the opinion that men and women
who are worth much to the world are
not going insane very fast,or becom-
ing so nervous that they seem strick-
en- with palsy. Yet it must be adj
mitted that there are many cases
where persons are cut off in what
ought to be the prime of life, who
would be of great value to the world,
if their lives could have been spared
and their comparatively early death
can be traced to the high pressure un'
der which they have lived. Particu.
larly is this true IN public and bust
ness life. The doctors advice is sound
and ought to be closely followed.