Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-02-20

crate about three times as many fears as
boys: the latter are more timid from II
to ID years; the former from 10 to Is.
Again. everybody has certain chronic
at least. fear disgrace. calamity. God or
d!sh2nor, and many otherwise very per-
fears that are distinctly morbid.
Excessive fear is degrading, restricts
freedom of action, modiiies careers and
some children, especially if they are feeble,
are a prey TO scores OF terrors that keep
them from going into the dark. being alone,
riding, swimming. and perhaps even going
out of doors.
Some fear is. of course. necessary, for it
may be defined as anticipatory pain: Again.
are Just ceasing to fear: so that one object
of education should be, not to eliminate
fear, but to rightly direct it and gauge its
intensity and use its tonic. Higher forms
o. fear are almost always substituted for
the lower. and If man were without fear
he would not only fail to survive. but would
lose a wealth of motive power. Once more.
we fear God better because We have feared
thunder. Fear is supplanted by reverence.
casts out fear. education progresses. EX-
cessiye timidity in children is such a calam-
itv that the old English service book has a
prayer that our children be not poltroons.'
Microbe of Fear
Fear has its own symptoms so sharply
marked that Brown-Sequard thought he
could immaculate it's microbe. 1t is iomi-
nant in delirium tremens, and has its art.
as in Poe, Hoffman and WiertZ. The tlmid
do not resist disease, and fear seems to
invite it. Some experts in nervous dis
eases always question patients as to their
fears. Fear makes people selfish as few
other things do.
Widespread of the excessive fears.
Fear of high places and falling-Many
fear to look down high places. dread ele-
vators. cannot climb, dread to sleep in
| high rooms in hotels fear stairs cannot
sit in the front row of galleries. Some
cannot climb hills or even see them with
in a high floor. driving near banks or by
mountain roads or gorges. of the very idea
of flying, habitually cause nausea and
perhaps dizziness. These panics may
haunt the dreams of people otherwise nor
mai.
Fear Of losing points of compass
Some suffer constant fear of losing sense
of direction, dread angles or corners. think
they are always in danger of being lost,
sweat and feel faint if they cannot In
stantly locate their doors and windows on
waking suddenly: are haunted in strange
and even familiar places with the dread
of losing their way. forgetting right and
left. and are always confused and turned
around.
Fear of closeness-Some can never have
their doors shut or locked, cannot endure
a close carriage. fear ravines and all mar
fogs should settle down and choke them.
The thought of snakes suggests smother
lllS- dlfl tktl HOl "tdlItE Hldy 10 Ine
same. Such people often provide tubes in
their collins or want tools to dig out buried
with them. They may even dread odors or
cannot bear to wear a ring. Some of these
fears are common in people with defective
lungs. or especially defective hearts.
Fear of water-This is almost universal
at some stage of childhood. 1t is not the
dread of being washed so much as pad
ding on the beach, hearing the noise OF
the driving near it. and especially sailing
that every rain will drown the world. can
not look down upon the water without an
uneontrollable impulse to jump in, or are
Strong as this fear is. it is generally over.
come by the opposite love of water. The
children, and there is much to suggest that
it is an echo of the soul of the earlier and
far longer life in the sea. from which al
amphibian and later land animals gradual
ly developed. When life on the land was
well established. those most fearing water
had the advantage at n certain stage ovel
NAL souls struggle up to n harmonious bal
ance. so that We can have all the pleasure.
OF the dater with all the safety of the
land.
Wind and the Emotions.
Wind is a powerful schoolmaster of the
emotions. Some are always excited or de.
pressed, or fancy moaning animals; can.
not sleep If 1t blows hard, imagine them.
selves at sea, and in extreme cases watch
every movement of the boughs a hundred
times a day to see If 1t is increasing. 1t.
noise often suggests animals, but some.
times machinery, battles, the sea or uni
versal dissolution. The wind is exceed.
ingly real. bringing rain. destruction, chang.
of mood. ETC., though no eye ever saw it
Hence it has been a great school of tn,
invisible.
Celestial objects are sources of very com
mon morbid fears. Clouds suggest dragons
the end of the world, faces of dead rela.
tives, God. angels, Bible pictures, signs
etc; Many, fear the sun. moon. meteors viii
fall on them; that the sun will go away
burn up. go out, burst; or dread snow. rain
northern lights. with an intensity that |:
; pathological. The heavens are the chic
} fields of projection of human fancies.
Fears of fire are very liable to becom,
excessive. especially in boys. for whom II
has a strange fascination. Some have spell.
of lying awake and dreading it: others ali
, ways make periodic tours of the house
fear their hair will burn. are nervous lbou,
~draughts in the stove or furnace, or tn.