The daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 190?-1908, 1907-01-24
BY MARGARET E. sANesTER.

The prevalence OF nervous disease
cannot be ignored by anyone who is
familiar with social conditions in
America. Uoth women and men are
sufferers from a malady that creeps
on them stealthily and pounces on its
victims as a beast springs from am
bush. The nervous patient apparently
breaks down suddenly, but in reality
the disease has been making its grad.
ual approach with steps so slow and
symptoms 80 slight that they have
been unnotlced by family and friends,
and have often escaped the vigilant
eye Of the physician.
IL is no longer an extraordinary oc-
currence in life to be Obliged TO spend
n period of retirement at a rest cure
or a sanitarium, and the people who
require treatment for nerves are Of
no class or special degree of culture.
They include men Of brilliant abili-
ty famous at the bar, on the bench
and in the pulpit; women of fashion
and aristocratic breeding at one end
of the scale, and at the other they
number hard-working laborers, toiling
at a grinding and monotonous task for
a small daily wage, and the wives Of
farmers and workingmen to whom the
excitement of the social whirl are un.
known.
Among the victims OF nervous dis
ease are those who can afford to pay
princely sums for medical skill and
professional nursing. In the retreats
to which they go they are encom-
passed with gentle ministries and re-
ceive constant and sedulous care.
| When the pendulum swings the other
way and II is in the home of decent
poverty that nervousness binds a suf-
ferer in chains there are pitiful in.
stances of distress because OF the lack
of money. A few months ago an hon.
est man, earning a regular but small
income, knocked in vain at the doors
of a dozen institutions He was will.
ing and anxious to pay a sum in ac.
cordance with his means for the relief
of his suffering wife, but there was
not a hospital open to one like her
OF course, there are state asylums
and hospitals to which people are con.
signed, and where they may receive
scientific treatment without cost to
themselves, but there are thousands
of self-respecting and Independent
families living on small incomes who
would rather see their dear ones in
the grave than in a public and chari.
table institution.
What are the causes that explain the
increase of nervous disease? They
are not far to seek. A common and
frequent beginning of nervousness is
excessive worry. When anyone is un,
| er n continual strain, no matter what
it's nature, there is injury to the ply.
steal and mental fabric to an extent
that means mischief in due time
Doubtless, most of us worry too
much over trines. Little things vex
our souls and harass our patience
Larger things dwell upon our strength
too, and the burden grows greater
than we can lift or carry. A good
deal of worry would be prevented
| could we gain our own consent to live
| in the present and dismiss und ne
anxiety about the future. 1t is not to-
| day that wears us out half so often as
| II is tomorrow. We are afraid that
the house will take fire or the chill
/ dren have scarlet fever or whoopine
cough, or the money prove insufficient
for the demands upon 1t, or that q
| lad may lose his situation, or a CIR
be unable to get through college. We
| spend an enormous amount of oul
capital stock of wholesome vigor in
worrying about possible accidents anC
casualties, and we drift into a state
of chronic morbidness or melancholy
after which comes the deluge.
The attempt to do too many thing,
at once or to do single thing too wei
and with too much painstaking is an
other prolific source of nervousness
! Overwork is responsible for counties.
ills We might almost call overworl
national sin. The temptation to 4
is in the air we breathe. Idleness I.
everywhere regarded as a deep dis
! grace for we have inherited a strenu
Gus drop of blood from those whC
earliest sought these shores.