The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1896-07-28
HARD WORK AND HEALTH.
Men Injured More by Imprudence Than
by Continuous Labor.

Men Injured More by Jmprudence Than
by Continuous Labor.
A number of successful business
men were engaged in most anil
mated conversation in one Of the
rooms of an up town club the other
day, when the conversation turned
on newspaper paragraph that an
nounced with great impressiveness
that q man known all over the civil
Lied world as q brilliant writer and
humorist was dying from overwork.
Regrets were expressed at the condi-
ton of one who was known to many
of the members of the club, and
some comments were INDUCED in ON
the folly of working oneself to death.
A man of IS or thereabout broke
into the conversation with the re-
mark:
II don't believe that any man ever
died of legitimate hard work, and /
am willing to back up my statements
against any reasonable proof that
may be furnished.
This naturally created sensation,
and there were very sharp criticisms
on this mans position. But he per-
sisted and gave his reasons, which
were so full of common sense and
logic that most of the company were
compelled to admit the truth of
them.
Men do not die of legitimate work,
neither do they, as rule, die of
what they do during business hours.
If the man would leave his Office and
60 quietly home to rest or to reason
able recreation, he would not be like
ly to suffer in health. But he does
not do this. He goes out of his Office
to the hotel, to the billiard room, to
the saloon, the opera house or other
occupations or amusements even less
reputable.
Many man rushes through his
business simply that he may get
away to plunge into excuses of va
rious sorts, There may be instances
in which a complicated business,
handicapped by lack of means to
carry it on in a comfortably smooth
fashion, may wear on a mans mind
during his waking and sleeping
hours and eventually undermine his
vitality. But this is not legitimate
business. No man has a right to
work against such desperate odds.
1t is very much better to begin on a
smaller scale, to adapt ones hopes
to the means at hand and remember
that vital force is too valuable to he
squandered in straining for the al
most impossible.
straightforward commercial trans
actions, unattained with the enor-
nous risks that many men take, are
healthful and rarely bring bad re-
suits. Indeed, all things being equal,
it is not business worry that kills,
except as a man lifts the burden of
business worry on shoulders weak
ened by excuses, designations and
unwarranted indulgences.
If men would attribute their i'll
health to its just cause and would be
honest with themselves and the
world, in the majority of cases they
would be forced to admit that it is
outside matters that cause the drain
On their systems and eventually
bring them to broken health and
shattered intellects. The man who
has something to conceal, who has
unwarranted businesS or domestic
affairs to look after, matters about
which he must be perpetually on the
qui vive lest some one should detect
him, is the man who, nine times out
of ten, will break down, and this dis
sipation is almost invariably charged
to overwork in business.
"Poor fellow, he was so devoted
to business that he wore himself out
at it,' is the verdict, and more IN
just and unwarranted one it would
be difficult to render. New York
Ledger.