The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1904-01-09
Give a Thought 10 Health Conditions.

| Vi health WHICH we arc WE'LL Dul VIC
are are liable to overlook the need
for the precautions that have made
and may keep us well. We begin to
take it as a thing ofcourse that we
shall remain strong, bright and free
from pain; we cease giving thought
to the preservatives that have help
ed to build us up into bodily happi-
ness, until there comes a sudden
breakdown, and then we bitterly
repent, and up-braid ourselves for
playing carelessly with the greatest
of earthly blessings.
The same process Is followed by us
collectively as a community. SAM
tary safeguards are gradually relax
ed. The health of the town contin-
ues good. We ask whether we cam
not save part of the expense of
what may, after all, be little better
than scientific "fads;" and so even
the official mind is made up to resist
the perfection of it's system for dis
posing of refuse or the new scheme
for supplying the place with pure
water. Then disease swoops down
on the district, and brings 4 profuse
repentance; or some terrible epidemic
comes near, and we hasten to ae-
knowledge that, collectively as well
as Individually, there is no money
so well expended as that which en-
sures health as far as it may be COM
manded.
So it is by disease, pain and dan
ger that we are able to feel the
worth and delight of health, ease
and safety; and the cholera lowering
near drives us into an appreciation
of our immunity from suffering and
pride in the preparations that can
combat such terrible foe.
There is no test of character so
thorough as that of ill-health; the
most amiable of men and women Of
ten succumb and become peevish,
unreasonable, and an annoyance to
themselves and their friends. We
may be chastened by affections
borne secondhand, as when those
we love are taken away from us;
but affections that touch us person.
allv often BRING n certain denraA al
mental and moral disintegration,
and make us querulous and exacting.
Those who are made meek and con-
ciliatory by suffering must be very
pure Of heart to begin with. Were
there no positive pleasure in robust
health, we might shrink from losing
it because of the disclosure of weak
nesses which sickness brings.
No question leads men into greater
extremes than that of health preser-
walton, the robust taking very little
care of themselves, while others live
in constant misery from their own
coddling. These latter regard health
as an unfathomable mystery, which
they are always vainly trying to
probe. They cannot see it as a very
simple matter, regulated by a few
great principles. The fact is that all
practical writing about health must
be very simple and commonplace.
1t is not the doing of any great
thing-as Naaman thought-but the
keeping of a few easy rules that
chiefly conduces to health. Thus the
devotee to drugs cannot be made to
realize that the mystery of health is
hidden in food, air, exercise, cleanli-
ness and clothing.
The relative healthiness ofthe coun-
try and town life is an interesting
question, on which opinion probably
will be pretty equally divided if the
comparison be made with care.
There can be doubt that life in the
slums oflarge towns is much more
precarious than life in the country,
for it has all the drawbacks and none
of the advantages of rural surround
ings, and, taking an average of all
town life with all country life, the
urban people are much the worse of;
but, if the comparison be between
the residentsin the open, well-paved,
well-drained streets of large town
and the residents in a village under
the ordinary conditions ofrural life,
it is open to argument whether the
sweetness and cleanliness ofthe town
do not more than counterbalance
the gain from the fresher air of the
country, polluted as it is at intervals
by disease-breeding exhalations.
1t cannot be denied that in towns
human ingenuity is sometimes re-
sponsible for the careful arrange
ment of avenues by which disease