The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-18
A SLEEPLESS MILLIONAIRE.
Routine Which Fostered the Malady OF
: Insomnia,

For 10 years Edward Balm, the mill
lionaire wagon manufacturer of Ken
osha, Wis, who died on Sunday at
Pasadena, Cal, never occupied a bed
or wooed sleep by assuming a reclining
position. Sitting bolt upright in a
high-backed chair or lying back in a
chair which tilted at a slight angle he
let his head fall upon his breast and
dozed away for few minutes of half
slumber which it seemed his body was
generally content with having.
Sometimes he did not sleep more than
30 minutes in the course of a night, re-
lates the Chicago Tribune, dividing this
into snatches of five, seven or ten min
utes and rising in the frequent inter-
walls to take long walks about Kenosha
There was, however, nights when he
secured nearly the average quota of
sleep, possibly an hour at a time, rising
at the end of that time for relaxation
before returning to the laborious en-
deavor 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 hourglass. He did
not seek variety; instead he assigned
routine, a schedule which he never
broke. 1t was this popularity of meth
cd, the result Of merciless self-dis-
cipline, that brought on in the first in
stance, says his physician, DR.. G. H.
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 go years of hard
labor that he could not sleep. Pre-
vious to that time he had never tried
to sleep.
Then suddenly he found himself a
man of leisure. The Balm Wagon COM
in a
he it's president AS Edward Balm, the
proprietor, there had been never-ending
employment for him: as Edward Bain
president. he had nothing to do but
attend an occasional meeting of the
hoard of directors and draw his divi-
dends.
DIR. Ripley asserts that insomnia was
not the result of any discernible ply
steal ILL The mechanism of the mans
brain appears simply to have under
gone a 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 normal state. He did not care
to return to work, but he set about
celebrating a daily time card. For
six months of the year, the period he
spent at Kenosha, there was no shift
ing of the programme for any cause
Awaking from his nap with the APP
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 a light breakfast he
walked from the house a short dis
lance to a 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 cultivated
The gates opening from one field to an
other were of the sort man in a car
rage or wagon can open without
1alighting. For nearl- 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 & Northwestern depot. An en-
ploye took the rig home and Mr. Balm
and the attendant came into Chicago
From 1880 o'clock, the time of the
trains arrival at the Wells street sta
ton, until o'clock in the afternoon, he
was on board street car. He rode for
one hour and As minutes in one direc-
ton. timing himself, and then return
ing by the same route to the depot to
step upon the train which bore him
back to kenosha.
During his street car rides. Mr.. Balm