The daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 190?-1908, 1907-01-24
Nervousness Increasing
Rich and Poor Are Alike Afflicted in Tie Strenuous
Tines -ExcessiUe Worry the Most Common
Cause Of Breakdown.


work and play is difficult for the ma.
iority. Any effort to reduce the hours
of a working day so that there shall
be space left for amusement and rec
| reation, as well as for healthful sleep,
is movement I'm the right direction.
| II ought not TO be forgotten that the
men and women who work hardest
and are most frequently spendthrifts
Of vitality are not those at the bottom
of the ladder, but those at the top.
! The man who works with his brain Is
more likely to drain his vitality by
continued overwork than the man
who digs a trench or wields ham.
mer.
Overwork depresses vitality, and
wasted vitality is forerunner of ner.
vous disease and sometimes Of men
tai arrangement. Many a life has been
nervously wrecked and many a prom
! Using career effectually checked by re-
course TO stimulants and narcotics
| Morphia In its various forms spells
| ruin to those who indulge I'm its peril
/ GUS ease from pain. IL is more to be
| dreaded and its clutch upon the sys
tenn is more deadly th'n the PERM
| cious effects of alcoholic stimulation
The inebriate has a better chance for
the recovery of health and the reha.
| bilitation of self-respect than has the
! victim of morphine poisoning The
! latter directly saps both energy and
morality and undermines not only the
will but the sense of delicacy and the
ordinary regard for truth. 1t strikes
a blow at ethics and paralyses integ-
rity.
Victims of morphia in a more or
! less hopeless condition of exhausted
nerves are found in every rest cure,
and although they are occasionally
rescued. a large percentage finally
drift into imbecility or violent insan
ity.
Patients tortured by neuralgia or
racked by extreme pain are soothed
by a physicians prescription that for
the time may afford relief and do no
permanent harm. But when next pain
has them in it's tormenting grasp
they do not send for the doctor, but
take the drug at their own volition.
Little by little they increase the dose.
The hypodermic syringe, so swift and
magical in its potency, has been a
fatal instrument in the hands alike of
men and women who have discovered
how speedily it conquers physical an
guish and gives blessed and blissful
relief
It would be better to set the teeth
and endure the torment than to accept
ease from the little puncture that in
the end may mean something worse
than pain.
Insomnia, Itself a result of the ex-
citement and urgency of our present
mode of life, is another fruitful and
familiar occasion of nervous disease.
To lie awake hour after hour, and
night after night, to hear the clock
strike while the mind ranges over
everything past present and future,
that can promote wakefulness, to find
every device futile and to stay stub.
bornly alert when drowsiness flies the
pillow, all this is to say good-by to
healthful and equal poise of nerves.
Whatever may produce insomnia
once it is established it is a difficult
foe to rout.
Those who reside in cities are con.
fronted with yet another obstacle to
tranquil nerves. The incessant, never,
intermittent roar of the town, resem.
bling the growl of the wind when a
hurricane is rising, the rumble of cars
the thunder of elevated trains, the
loud changing of bells, the whirr OF
machinery, and the never-ending
tramp of feet on the pavement, com
bine to make of the city a pandemo
mum.
We may grow accustomed to the
multiplied and mingling noises Of the
town, but they wear on our sub-con
sciousness and tend to induce disease
and shorten life. Some hundreds OF
years from now there may be invented
appliances that shall hush the noises
of machinery and bring to the city the
sweet stiffness OF a summer field in
the morning. In that day nervous
maladies may perhaps be unknown.
Copyright. 1906, by Joseph b. Bowles)
N~oS-asNN~ss--~1f-Ss--~0 N~Ss