The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-01-25
Wisconsin's Sleepless Millionaire.

For fifteen years Edward Balm, the
mllionare wagon manufacturer oil
X nosha, Wis, who died recently al
= ,sadena, CAL, never occupied bed
or wooed sleep by assuming reclining
position. Sitting bolt upright 10 q
hi1h backed chair, or lying back in a
clair which tilted at a slight angle, he
let his head fall upon his breast and
dozed away for the few minutes of half
-lumber which it seemed his body was
generally content Withdrawing,
Sometimes he did not sleep more
han thirty minutes in the course of a
night, dividing this into snatches of
five, seven or ten minutes, and rising
III The frequent intervals TO take long
walks about Kenosha. There was,
no wever, nights when be secured near
ly the average quota of sleep, possibly
an hour at a time, rising at the end of
that time for relaxation before return
ing to the laborious endeavor to entice
forgetfulness.
-Four times a millionaire, by the esti-
mate of his friends, he did not use his
Golfers to help him in the contest he
waged against the hour-glass. He did
not seek variety; instead he assigned
to every part of the day particular
routine, schedule which he never
broke. 1t was this popularity of
method, the result of a merciless self
discipline, that brought on in the first
instance, says his physician, DR.. G. II.
Ripley, the malady which was destined
to be his constant companion. BY
method, also, he in all PROBABILITY fos-
tered the disease. Always a nervous
man, he found after sixty years of hard
labor that he could not sleep Previous
to that time he had never tried to
sleep.
Then suddenly he found himself a
man of leisure. The Balm Wagon
Company became in 1882 corporation
and he its president. As Edward Balm,
the proprietor, there had been never
ending employment for him; as Ed
ard Balm, president, he had nothing
to do but attend an occasional meeting
of the board of directors and draw his
dividends.
DR.. Ripley asserts that insomnia was
not the the result of any discernible
physical ill. The mechanism of the
mans brain appears simply TO have
undergone subtle change that made
it an example of continuous motion.
Mr.. Balm constituted himself his own
doctor, and seems to have reasoned
that system might again restore him to
a normal state. He did not care to re-
turn to work, but he set about elaborat-
ing daily time card. For six months
of the year, the period he spent at Ken
osha, there was no shifting of the pro-
gramme for any cause whatever.
Awaking from his nap with the ap-
pearance of the first light in the east,
he was hurried by his attendant to a
bath, then rubbed vigorously and
dressed in fresh garments. In matters
of attire he was scrupulous to the last
detail. After light breakfast he
walked from the house short distance
to horse block, where his buggy
awaited him.
On the outskirts of Kenosha Mr..
Balm owned large tracts of land, fenced
into farms, and for the most part cult
waited. The gates opening from one
field to another were of the sort a man
in carriage or wagon can open with
out alighting. For nearly four hours
Mr.. Balm drove from farm to farm,
looking at every object, but never
speaking to his tenants.
At 10 o'clock every morning he was
set down on the platform at the Chi
cago and Northwestern depot. An
employee took the rig home and Mr..
Balm and the attendant came into Chi
cago. From IL: 80 o'clock, the time of
the trains arrival at the Wells Street
station, until three O'Clock in the after
noon, he was on board street car.
He rode for one hour and forty-fve
minutes in one direction, timing him
self, and then returned by the same
route to the depot to step upon the
train which bore him back to Ke-
nosha.
During his street car rides Mr.. Balm
sat always on the right side of the
car. At the half way point lie &C.
cured his lunch, glass of some mild
beverage and sandwich. When he
reached Kenosha at about 4:30 o'clock
in the afternoon the buggy was await
ing him at the platform. He climbed
into it and made the same round of the
farms he had made in the morning.
He took dinner with his family in the
evening and after the meal came down
town, going either to the Grant House
or to one of the saloons. He did not
drink, but took seat and talked with
his friends and neighbors.-Chicago
Tribune.