Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-01-19
MarveIs from Dome Tanks of saRes
Thrill and Edify Less Fa-
vored MOrtaIs,

proper pride in the progress of
science Is the habit of every we'll reR1l-
lated mind Every man respects it as he
does the Ten Commandments, and, re-
specting IT, he respects himself 1t is in
tellectual virtue to believe every new thing
the scientists" tell him, and, believing,
TO marvel, and, marveling, to utter that
ever true exclamation, What wonderful
things science keeps discoveringl" The
sensations Of science entertain the public
equally with the sensations of crime and
politics, and II is hard to satisfy the de-
mand for novelties of knowledge.
Especially does the science of diseases
and their healing interest the general mind
Disease is the surest of human expecta-
tons Life is a course in IT, The list of
diseases In a medical cyclopaedia is the
curriculum. Not everybody, to be sure
gets through the curriculum, but that is
because of the shortness OF life. Every
body doubtless read with interest the other
day the news that a Chicago expert
neurologtst" had declared this country was
getting over nervous prostration from east
to west. Westward the course OF neuras-
thenia takes it's way. The east is recover
ing from its nervousness; the middle west
is in an acute stage, but it, too, will be
convalescent when the disease has reached
its height beyond the Rockies. The older
parts of the country are getting we'll first.
Nervousness is something like national
growing palms" Boston has acquired the
sedate and settled ways of age. There are
no nerves in Boston. which is nearer the
calm orient than New York, Philadelphia,
though without the advantage in longitude
over New York. is a town with an old
head on young shoulders. Nerves are un-
known in Philadelphia. We need only
mention the circumstances that the rest
cure originated and reached its highest
perfection in Philadelphia. Can any one
think of a rest cure in Chicago or Kansas
City or Goldfeld or Bullfrog or Big
Gulch?
In connection with this strange cir
cumstance is called to our attention. A
New York man visiting Boston a short
time ago took with him to that embodi-
ment of all that is highest in American
civilization his best and latest cut Fifth
avenue dress suit" He found, he writes
to the Boston Herald, that when he wore
II he was a conspicuous exception among
Bostonians. The men of that sedate and
unterrihed metropolis of the east, he says,
treat the first of the ten commandments
Of dress with superb Indifference They
wear what they like in the evening. and
immortality. Why is Boston so different
from New York in this matter? We feel
sure that Chicago and Omaha show no
such complacent disregard for the laws OF
dress We read constantly Of the anxiety
which is felt on that subject in such west
ern cities as Salina, Dodge City, Platte,
Keokuk, Cairo and Kalamaz ZOO The home
press OF western towns a decade or so
ago used to chronicle the arrival of the
first dress suit" as a matter OF prime
importance. Soon they began to boast Of
the number OF such garments in town.
The oldtime intermunicipal rivalry regard
ing population gave place to a rivalry re-
gardng the number of dress suits"-gar-
ments to hire excepted-which the towns
contained.
We note this westward course of the
dress suit" and ask. Has II anything to
do with the westward course of nervous
prostration noted by the Chicago scientist?
This is a deep medical and sociological
question, and it seems to us that a scien-
fist properly trained in inductive reasoning
might make much of it.-New York Tri-
bune