The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-12
SIMPLE HABITS.
Great Men Attribute Their Success in
Life to Them.

Benjamin Franklin, who is famed for
his discovery that lightning is cleo
tricity, and who introduced the Ameri-
can colonial postal system, and who,
furthermore, will be remembered,
served America at the court of France
as minister plenipotentiary, was one of
the leaders of early modern times in
the study of nature and natures laws,
and not the least in domestic science.
His first maxim was: Eat not to dull
ness; drink not to elevation" Even in
his youth his mind was filed with
schemes for self-regulation and guild
ance. and he set before him the task
of acquiring the habitude of certain
cardinal virtues based upon simple liV-
ing and habits of thought. His con-
slant effort was to better the conditions
of mankind. and his methods were in
tenSely practical.
Since the early times simplicity of
preaching, teaching and eating has been
the great factor in the worlds advance
ment. The great mass of mankind do
not understand nor care for abstruse
reasoning.
The record - the life of Abraham
Lincoln is traced back to that time when
he was seen sitting on a rail fence in
one of Americas small western villages
with law book in one hand and with
a piece of maize bread in the other
Abraham Lincoln was a man of simple
habits, and his greatness was to no
small extent dependent upon that early
simplicity and goodness which gave
strength to conscience, mind and body.
Frederick the Great foStered, above
all, agriculture and the cultivation of
fruits and vegetables. His endeaVor to
benefit his people was based upon the
natural laws pertaining to their health
and simple happiness. He recognized
the fact, ever since clear to the minds
of the leaders of the Germans, that the
body is the basis, and must be simply
and completely nourished in order to
perfect the soldier, statesman or the
peasant.
Bismarck's great work had for its
basis the recognition of the simple laws
, of nature. He followed them, and as
a result there came about a new man
hood and a new womanhood, first in
Prussia and later in the empire. Bis
marcks natural and acquired astute-
ness taught him, as a similar perception
and reasoning had taught Frederick the
Great, that political economy, rural
| economy and domestic economy aIe, as
sciences, closely interlinked and inter-
dependent in their relations to the state.
While in France as United States
minister Thomas Jefferson wrote re-
speeding the education of a daughter
who was with him in Paris: "Of do
nestle economy she can learn nothing
| here; yet she must learn it somewhere,
| thing else" To his friend, Peter Carr,
he said: "A strong body makes a
strong mind" Jefferson practiced his
| preaching by subsiSting mainly upon
simple natural foods, and he labored
zealously all through his busy life for
the upbuilding of an American system
of education which should teach men
how to live in accordance with the laws
of nature. He died at the age of 81,
and he had not lost a tooth nor was one
of them defective.
1t will be recollected that the laws of
Moses are replete with instructions re-
garding the care of the body in SANTA
ton and diet, as well as in fasting and
in religious duties. 1t is due to these
laws that the health or the Jews when
in reasonable condition is so universally
superior to that of the average of other
peoples.-London Catering World.