Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1897-08-12
TIE SNORING HABIT.
Fearful Trials Of Q 6t. Louis Wife
Told in Court.

A worthy st. Louis woman is apply.
ing for divorce ON the grounds that
her husband snores SO that she cannot
sleep o. nights. She has, she says, put
up with this habit with all wifely pa
tience for many years, but the time has
come when she feels that she has some
rights, and one Of these is the right tc
sleep. This has been denied her by
reason Of Mr.. JOhns'-JOhns Is his
name snoring habit. According to her
story, he begins his snoring as soon as
he has read his evening newspaper q
few minutes. This, Of course, Is excus
able in anyone who has to read St.
Louis newspaper. 1t is said that the
people OF that city fall into gentle
doze just after reading the morning
journals and again in the evening when
the other issues come out.
But these periods of snoring do not
especially disturb Mrs. Johns. 1t is at
night. when slumber's chain has bound
both her and her spouse, that her trou-
bles begin. Then it is that Mr.. Johns
rouses himself to his greatest efforts in
the snoring line, and sleep comes no
more to the eyelids Of his wife. 1t is no
ordinary stertorous breathing, superin-
duced by some uncomfortable posi-
ton, which Mr.. Johns acQuits himself
of. 1t is not the pnny effort OF q man
oppressed by too great an indulgence
in untimely repasts and suffering from
the visitation of a nightmare shod with,
Welsh rabbits; 1t is the deep rumble of
the organ struggling with the diapa
son; it Is the commingled noises Of the
limited express passing at full speed
over the Eads bridge and cyclone
sweeping through the Ozarks: it is as II
10000 Mississippi boats We're whistling
and snorting ut once. 1t is something
Cndescribably loud and shrill and deaf
ening from which Mrs. Johns prays
the court to relieve her without delay
and forever.
This is the first case in which the
snoring habit was made the ground for
divorce proceedings and the outcome
will be watched with interest. Count
less men and women have had their
sleep ruined and their lives made mis-
cradle by the snoring of their life CON-
panions, and IL Mrs. Johns is granted
her decree 1t is safe to predict that the
divorce courts will be flooded with
cases of similar nature. How many
men have cOurted and won gentle and
Govelike creatures only, alas, to find
out that when married they could not
sleep In the same block unless they
filed their ears with cotton. How
many trusting women have found ont
that the god-like men who wooed and
won them We're, when asleep, the in.
carnation Of pandemonium. Drink has
broken UP thousands of homes, but II
isn't in the same class with the snoring
habit for making hell Of married life
There have been some great snorers.
Suetonius tells of Roman general
who kept the whole camp awake and
betrayed the presence Of his troops to
the enemy by his snoring. Morse
mythology contains much about great
snorers. There was Knud, a mighty
snorer, whose prodigious efforts kept
awake the whole n0rthland and are
the subject of one of the minor sagas.
And there was Halfor Halforson,
whose SHORES could be heard by the re-
turning vikings far out at sea, not to
mention Snorri SnorrisOn, himself q
maker OF sagas, who was no SLOUGH at
the art and science Of snoring and
whose name has been given to the
habit.
Science has in vain searched for a
remedy for snoring. Surgeons have
performed operations which, SO far
from stopping the habit, have increas-
ed the capacity of snorers. Inventors
have devised appliances which not only
have not prevented the noise. but have
rather added shriller quality to it.
The popularity about snOrers is that
no one has yet been found who admit.
ted that he was guilty Of the habit.
Some Lawma king RO6iea.