St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-07

abundant physical exercise, nutritious,
wholesome food, and rational amuse-
mentS. He should cultivate all his
mental powers to the best possible adj
vantage, while at the same time he
should be careful not to overtask his
mind with the study of books or any
thing likely to impair his health. OF
course he must avoid every habit and
Indulgence which tends to weaken his
nervous force, and lead a natural,
wholesome, pure and temperate life.
The working power of the mind ought
not to diminish with the approach Of
age, and it is possible for us to do our
best work toward the close of our
mortal existence.
81 attribute my own health, which
has never been seriously impaired,
and my longevity, very much to the
inheritance which has been transmit
ted to me by my ancestors. I am de-
scended on my mothers side from
Rev. John Wheelwright, one of the
earliest of the Boston ministers, who
was banished from the Massachusetts
colony for heresy about the year 1640
He lived to an extreme old age, as
most of his posterity have done, my
81
years old the first time he ever sent
for physician.
SMOKED FIFTY YEARS.
"As to my own personal habits, 1
smoked tobacco faithfully for fifty
years, and then, seven or eight years
ago, / abandoned it altogetheS on
the ground that 1 did not care to be a
slave of such a habit any longer.
have not been a total abstainer, ex-
cept for certain limited periods, when
1 thought that the welfare of others
required it. 1 have been accustomed
to sleep as other people do, and with
out giving much thought to it. In
fact, scrupulous regard for sanitary
principles and special attention to bod
lily health have never interested me
very much.
I'm rgard to marriage as conducive
to longevity and everything else that
is good and desirable, I think that ev-
cry able-bodied man who has the
means of supporting a family is under
a moral obligation to marry as soon
as possible after he has reached the
age of twenty-one. II he expects to
live upon other people, like a parasite,
he has no right to marry at all.
WORK THE BEST MEDICINE.
"In order to preserve intellectual
health a young man, 1 would say an
old man also, should act and work
like a reasonable being, and always
have something on hand to occupy and
benefit and interest him. Inertia is
! the cause of old age. A machine that
lies idle for a series or years is de-
stroyed by rust, and it works in the
same way with human beings, whether
they are young or old. I do not mean
that a business man should keep on
going to his Office or his shop every
day and toll on as he has been accus-
toned to until the end comes. But
| there must be something to occupy the
mind if we would keep from dying be-
| fore our time.
LAS to ineomnia, go to bed every
night at II o'clock and get up before
| the next morning-taking a short
| nap during the day if I have the OPP
portunity to do so. I often keep on
writing until after midnight, as am
now doing, but this does not interfere
with my sleeping. I have no trouble
on that score.
| 'I have, in fact, no consciousness OF
old age, and but for the impeachment
1 in walking I should consider myself
| as young a man as / ever was.
| know, of course, that the end must
be near but it does not seem to me
any nearer than it did fifty years ago
1 have great reason to thank God~fo1
giving me such a serene and famous
old age.
. Every respectfully yours,
| THOMAS M. CLARK"