The Mena weekly star., 1896-09-09
SLEEP AS A VACATION.

Complete Bodily Rest Is oftsn Better
 Than Change Of Scene and Climate.
 It has been suggested that what some people want is sleep holidays. They do not need to go to watering places end summer hotels and to be entertained by round of gayety with band al- ways playing. The apostles of the new method say that many people would be
 benefited if they just went to bed and slept for heightened periods, and that they might do we'll to take holidays in just that way. They affirm that as a rule men and women and children do not get sleep enough and that the old adage; Early to bed and early to rise makes man healthy and wealthy and wise" needs changing. There need be no reference to early rising in It. For "early 10 rise" Hate to rise" might be substituted. The advice of that old saw was concocted, they say, in days when there was no express trains, no tele- graphs, no telephones, no hurry. Where is the use of telling people to get up earlywhose brains are racked by anxiety and worry and who are really being burned up by the ever-increasing rate at which things have to De done7 The proper thing to say to them is to get as much sleep as they possibly can on every possible occasion. The sugges- tion of occasional sleep holidays, when worried people of this kind could tenn porarily shuffle off their mortal coil, is on this understanding quite intel ligible. There would be no difficulty in making arrangements to carry the scheme out. The proprietors of the summer resorts would no doubt be glad to provide accommodation for any num- Der of somnolent guests. The prevail ing question would be not What is there for dinner?" but "Is my Ted ready?" There would be memoranda
 as to the length of time sleep had been indulged in or was to continue. "Mr. A came on Saturday; he is to be called on Wednesday night" "Mrs. B. will sleep for one week." etc. No
 doubt if the fad were started, establish
 ments would vie with each other in the perfection of their sleeping prepara- | tions, and we should be told that abso-
 lutely unbroken repose for any desired period could be obtained.
 | Joking apart, however, there may be | something in the contention that a 1 greater amount of sleep is required ny | people nowadays especially brain | workers-than was formerly the case. | Nikola Tesla, the electrician, Is credited with saying that he believes nan
 might live 200 years if he would sleep | most of the time. That is why negroes | often live to advanced old age, because | they sleep so much. He also alluded to
 the current report that MT. Gladstone
 now sleeps IT hours every day. There
 is something distinctly pleasant in the
 idea of an old age of such commanding
 intellect being kept vigorous by this
 simplest of remedies. But the worst of precepts, like those of modern apostles
 of sleep is that their instructions " III
 be taken advantage of by the lazy and
 brainless as an excuse for an inactivity
 for which they have no manner of war;
 rant, either in the development of their
 brains or the delicate adjustment of their nervous system. When the pro- | fessional tramps read of Gladstone we
 shall find stacks of them asleep by the | oadside.-Toronto Mail and Empire.