The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-11-11
URGES LESS EATING.
Edison Says Americans Are
Food and Sleep Drunk.
HARDER WORK RECOMMENDED


For All Ills Men, He Declares,
Sometimes Eat and Sleep Them
selves Into the Grave.
Americans don't work enough; also
they sleep too much. Such are the as
sertions Of Thomas A. Edison, accord
ing to James Creelman, who recently
interviewed the inventor at his lab
oratory for the New York World. In
cidentally Mr.. Edison says Americans
eat too much, and as evidence Of this
he offers the fact that he has lived for
two months on four ounces Of food
three times a day.
Eyes, it's true the country is food
drunk" said Mr.. Edison. I'm not SO
much interested in the economic side
Of overeating at time when the cost
of living is increasing, but 1 have in
vestigated the subject enough to know
that man can't do good, clear, logical
brain work with his stomach full Of
undigeSted food.
1.-The fact is that people eat too much,
sleep too much and don't work enough.
The average man would be much better
off and would do very much better
work if he would cut down his food
and sleep and labor little harder.
Men eat and sleep themselves stupid.
Sometimes they eat and sleep them
selves into the grave. They talk about
working too hard. That is absolute
nonsense. Generally speaking, a man
can't work too hard.
"Why, I've worked for five days and
nights without sleep and with very lit
tie food and did as good work in those
conditions as l ever did in my life.
That was when was working out the
incandescent light idea. It's all mat
ter Of habit.
''Some time ago my stomach troubled
me- 1 didn't know what was the mat
ter, but l imagine now that it was the
X ray that caused some internal con-
striction. However, when my trouble
was acute began to experiment with
my diet to see what would come Of it.
1 had always been a light eater, but
decided to cut down my food still more.
For two months l lived on four
ounces Of food for each meal. That
course varied my food. would take
a teaspoonful of peas, small piece OF
toast and caviar, tiny sandwich, a
little bit of ham, fragment Of rye
bread, with Swiss cheese and so on.
"What was the result? At the end of
two months of this diet 1 weighed just
as much as when l began, exactly 1S5
pounds. l found that living on twelve
ounces of food a day for four weeks
had made me mentally brighter and
had neither diminished my strength
nor my weight. And, mind you, had
been working just as hard as before
cut down the size of my meals.
LAS for sleep, that is another prevail
ing form of intemperance. People sleep
too much. They drug themselves with
sleep. The truth is that this vice Of
Oversleeping is habit. If a man
will only try to get along with less
sleep he will be surprised to discover
how little he really needs. And he
will find his faculties very much i'm
proved by the effort.
'It is not so much the quantity as
the quality of sleep that counts. The
man who lies eight or nine hours in
bed, tossing about from time to time.
doesn't get anything like as much rest
as the man who sleeps soundly for five
hours.
1--WE are slaves to sleep. Why, for
instance, should we 60 to sleep at
night? The only difference between
night and day is that the sun goes
down in one case and comes up in the
other. What difference should that
make? 1 suppose it is simply habit
acquired through thousands of years
Of ancestry. We have become like the
chickens, who go to roost when it is
dark. l cannot account for it except
on the ground of long continued habit.
Another common mistake is to look
upon hard work as injurious. You see
Mr.. ThiS-and-th at-and- the-Other-fellOw
announcing that he has been working
very hard and must go off to Europe
for a rest BOsh! He has been eating
and drinking too much and hasn't
worked half enough.
1.-THE healthy man can't work too
hard or too much. When his work tires
him out he will go to sleep and will get
the right kind of sleep.
work, hard work, simply puts an
edge on man for more hard work. If
he Is dull and can't sleep let him work
a little more. If that doesn't help mat
tiers let him work still more and still
harder. In the end he will come out all
right.
Smoking tobacco is pretty good
working stimulant. 1 find it much bet
ter than drink Of any kind. Alcohol
seems to scatter the thoughts. It's a
poor thing to work on. But tobacco
helps.
"But cigarettes! They're deadly. 1t
isn't the tobacco, it's the acrolein pro
duced by the burning paper that does
the harm, and, let me tell you, acrolein
is one of the most terrible drugs in its
effect on the human body. The burning
Of ordinary cigarette paper always
l.