Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-01-08

ute he orders it and departs at the min
ute he wishes it to go, as Napoleon
when he wrote: Different affairs are
arranged in my head as in drawers
When l wish to interrupt one train OF
thought, close the drawer which con
tains that subject and open that which
contains another. They do not mix
together or Inconvenience me. 1 have
never been kept awake by an inVol-
1ntary preoccupation of mind. When
L wish for repose, 1 shut up all the
drawers, and 1 am asleep. L have al
ways slept when l wanted rest and al
most at WILL But I think in most
cases we feel that sleep is not the re-
suit Of a resolution, but a direct gift
from God. You cannot purchase it. A
great French financier cried out, "Alas,
why is there no sleep to be soldY
A Divine Gift.
Do not take this divine gift as a mat
ter of course. Your seven or eight
hours of healthful Inconsistencies is
a blessing worthy Of continuous and
emphatic recognition. Praise the Lord
for 365 resurrections in a year! Arti-
fetal slumber can be made up by the
apothecaries, but natural sleep is a
balm, a panacea, a catholicon that no
one but God can mix. With it he
bathes your eyes and brain and nerve
and bone. 1t is a soft robe woven in
heaven, with which he wraps your
body, mind and soul.
Remark the second: Consider among
the worst crimes the robbery of our
III oI,
Der. Much ruinous doctrine has been
inculcated on this subject. Thomas
Moore gave poor advice when he said,
1.-THE best way to lengthen our days
is to steal few hours from the night"
We are told that, though they did their
work at night, Copernicus lived to be
70 years Of age, and Galilei IS years,
and Herschel "a years. Yes, but the
reason was they were all star hunters,
and the only time for hunting stars is
at night. Probably they slept by day.
The night was made for slumber. The
worst lamp a student can have is ''the
midnight lamp" Lord Brougham new
er passed more than four hours of the
night abed, and Justinian, after one
hour of sleep, would rise from his
couch. But you are neither a JUS
tinian nor a Lord Brougham. Let not
the absurd apotheOsis of early rising
induce you to the abbreviation of sleep.
Get up when you are slept out unless
circumstances compel otherwise. Have
no alarm clock making it's nerve tear
ing racket at 4 o'clock in the morning,
unless special reasons demand the for
saking of your pillow at that hour.
Most of the theories about early rising
we inherited from times when people
retired at s or o'clock in the even
ing. Such early retirement is impossi
BILE in our own times for those who are
taking part in the great activities Of
life There is no virtue in the mere act
Of early rising. It all depends upon
what you do after you get up. It
would be better for the world if some
people never wakened at all
But most Americans do not get sleep
enough. The sin of late retiring is one
most widespread and ruinous. What
is much needed is that in all our cities
those who are leaders in social life
turn back the hour of drawing room
assemblage from 10 and II o'clock to
8 or half past Z, so that the guests at
10 or half past 10 may meet sleep at
the right hour in their own dormitO-
ries. Two or three social heroines
could do that in all the towns and
cities. Thousands of men and women
are slain each year by late hours. Five
years is more than the average of en-
durance. The vitality of men and wo-
men e depleted, and they go into
chronic ailments, if they do not die Of
dyspepsia or consumption or nervous
prostration, and the beauty goes out of
the cheek beyond all restoration Of cos
metics. Late retiring is the mother of
premature wrinkles. Lack of sleep as
sassinates social life. A reformation
is needed, ard if the customs Of the
world could be changed in this mat
ter and the curtains of social life could
be rung down at a reasonable hour of
the night 20 per cent would be added
to the worlds longevity.
Consolation For Martyrs.
Remark the third: ALI those ought to
be cOmfOrted who by overwork in
right directions have come to insom-
mia. In all occupations and professions
there are times when special draft is
made upon the nervous energy. There
are thousands of men and women who
cannot sleep because they were injured
by overwork in some time of domestic
or political or religious eXigency.
Mothers who, after taking a whole
family Of children through the disor-
ders that are sure to strike the nursery,
have been left physical wrecks, and
one entire night Of slumber is to them
a rarity, if not an impossibility. The
attorney at law who, through a long
trial in poorly ventilated courtroom,
has stood for weeks battling for the
rights of widows and orphans or for