The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-04-30
THE ART OF LIVING.
Rules Tor Sleeping, Rising and Bathing that VIII
Promote Health.

Living is an art that has been practised
for many thousands of years, and if any,
might he supposed after much practice to
have been made perfect. Yet there is lit
tie presumption in saying that neither in
theory nor in practice has it yet reached
anything like a standard OF perfection, or
completeness. am not thinking of our
detection from the higher counsels of wis
dom and philosophy, OF of impelfections
induced by poverty, oyercroN ding, or the
completely Of modern conventions.
1t is probable that opinions as to the
best methods Of living and its highest OBJ
jects will always differ while ethical aims
and social aspirations vary. | am not
thinking of the overcoming of cities,
the brick Wildelnesses with which man
has defaced " hat God has created, nor OF
those miseries and defects to which our
poverty and not our will consents but
take the case OF the wealthy, the wise,
the healthy, and those who are neither
cribbed nor confined for want of space OF
means. Do any of our ordinary habits
aud customary practices show signs OF an
intelligent understanding OF the art of
living? IL appears to me that at the end
of ), 600 years very few persons under
stand the elementary principles of com
fort and health or carry them out i'll their
ordinary everyday practice. AS an ex-
ample, says writer in The Queen, | will
take such very simple questions as GLOW
to Go To Bed, ''Ilow to Get Up, How
TO Battle, and GLOW to Dress
The management OF the BIT droom and
art OF going to bed would seem to be very
simple matters, as to which some rational
principles and comfortable and healthy
customs might be expected to prevail.
Take the case of the ordinary we'll to- do
man. He leaves in the winter a warm,
well lighted and perhaps sumptuously
furnished room, and he ascends through
cold staircase to a room OF which the
temperature is not determined, and is very
apt to be below so degrees.
The clothing is then removed, and the
unhappy person puts on something which
is called ''nightgown," a sort of linen or
cotton sack with sleeves, which leaves the
lower limbs and feet more or less uncov-
cred, and at once makes man an uncom-
Portable and ridiculous object. 1t is the
clothing of the plimeval savage. If a
e.
it is commonly created by night alarm
at which the sleepers appear in this ridicu-
lous guiSe at the bedroom door. The bed
is ridiculous continuance, having the
worst of all coverings, linen sheets, the
foster mother Of rheumatism, and the
worst OF al material for contact with the
skin. 70 counterbalance its defects and
increase the miseries, aheavy superabund-
IN ic
and to prevent any comfortable or free
movement of the limbs these are ''tucked
in around the edges, constituting huge
set OF swaddling clothes as only savages
now employ even for children The fire
now is generally allowed to become ex-
tinct, if ever lighted, and those who have
passed their days in warm rooms often
spend the night in a chamber in which the
temperature is not much above freezing
point, and to mitigate which a complete
reclothing Of the body is required.
The reasonable practice would require,
first, that for the present hideous and ri
diculous nightgown pajamas of various
degrees of warmth OF thnness should be
provided. The present bedspread and
be dclothes should be altogether discarded,
and two light eiderdowns like the Indian
resai OF the Japanese futon should be sub
sututed. Night socks should be worn of
texture suited to the season. The couch
should be supplied with a convenient head
rest, which falls forward at a touch. BY
the bed should be one lever, wi ich con-
trolls the gas, fire and temperature, and
one which controls the light, either a
Byepass bed light or an electric light, as
may be most convenient. The room should
be kept at a temperature which never
falls below go degrees and in another part
of it should be placed a long "deck chair"
with cushions to which if the sleeper
grows restless, he can easily transfer him
self, and repose at an angle. That is how
to 60 to bed nationally, heaIthily, prepar-
ed for the emergencies of the night,
whether of sleeplessness or household &C
cident The present customary method
is at once ridiculous, uncomfortable and
unhealthy.
And now as for getting up. With a
comfortably warmed apartment. conven-
iently lighted if need be, and dressed in a