The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-12

but, they made themselves so by run
ming counter to the laws of health,
in this eagernesS to get rich, in high
living or in dissipation of some kind.
But to say that, as a rule, men beyond
sixty are useless, is an absurdity that
is we'll calculated to make one doubt
the saneness of the man who gives ut
terance to it.
But the insult is couched in the
further remark that it would be an
incalculable benefit to the world if
men, who have reached sixty years,
should stop work. Added to which
the suggestion is sneakingly made
that it would be a wise thing to do to
precipitate the seXegenarii from a
bridge that is, put them to death out
right, or give them a year of retire
ment and meditation before a peace
full departure by chloroform. The
monster!
/ am glad the Doctor is going away;
| wish all of his way of thinking would
leave. He's a dangerous man. One
suicide, the supposed result of his
nonsense, has been committed and,
it is reasonable to suppose there are
many men, whose minds have been
weakened by disease, or who have
been discouraged by Universities, disap-
pointments and Affections who may
conclude, as he did, that it would be
a good thing for the world for them
to commit suicide.
DR.. Osler is a Professor of Medicine,
but a man who holds such views, as
are expressed in his valedictory at
Johns Hopkins, to be consistent would
not try to save the life of a sixty-year-
old man; on the contrary, it would be
his duty to give him "a peaceful de-
parture by the use of chloroform, as
soon as possible.
1t is a disgrace to the high profess
sion for Doctor to speak of human
life as if it were a worn-out machine,
or a horse with a broken leg; and he
clearly shows in that kind of talk his
utter lack of belief in the doctrine of
mans immortality. He sees only the
mortal and speaks of it's destruction as
he would of destroying a useless thing
or of killing helpless dog. 1 don't
Know to what school of advanced
thinkers he belongs; but, it is very
evident he doesn't get his advanced
thoughts from that old book, people
used to believe in, called the Bible;
therefore he must not believe in the
God IT the Bible and therefore he
must be an infidel. though he may
not be willing to admit it.
"Uselessness of men above sixty
it. / can't run as fast as ! used to; I
can't do as much hard labor, physical
ly, as l used to do, at from thirty-five
to forty-five; but, / claim that / am
still self-supporting. and am daily con-
tributing to the common fund that
feeds. clothes, and educates the race
And ] know hundreds of men who are
doing the same thing. In fact. | do
not know we'll man, beyond sixty,
who is not doing the same thing. The
shops, the stores, the factories and
especially, the farms can furnish
vast host of sexegenari, to say Moth
ing of the grayhaired preachers, law
yers and DOCTORS whose activities and
labors successfully contradict DIR.
Osler's second fixed thought"
l guess the Doctor did not have i'm
his mind the working classes, but wAs
referring to those parasites who, be
cause they live on the labors of Others
eat too much. become gluttons. and
are Knocked up with the govt or are
soaked i'm whiskey. If he did, his
remarks and suggestions are about
half right
/ wonder what the next sensation
will be. and who will start it? We
can stand any number of them. The
Booker Washington affair didn't turn
the world over. nor does Doctor
Oslers second fixed idea" scare the
old boys worth a cent; and as for
stopping work Wen raise no rumpus
about that. provided the young bucks
are taxed to raise a fund to give us
all pension. which they could wei
afford to do, just to hear us tell about
1.-THE good old times when we were
boys"
The boys of these days if they live
to be sixty, will have "reminiscences
that will startle the nations, when
they reproduce the sensations of our
times.
Raleigh, N. c.