The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-01-08
From the louisville courier-Journal.

From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
~ EFT US sit sorrowfully by the bier
~ of Tom Curtis, of Kansas, and
- muse upon the life of the early
riser and the Observation-Disclosures OF its
hardships to it emoluments.
Young Curtis, yet in the twenties, deep
chested, ruddy complexioned bright of
eye, 1.-THE of limb, cast in the mold of
longevity. deliberately chose the bare
bodkin and ills he knew not of to fly
from those with which he was familiar.
Forced to get up at o'clock in the morn
ing, he decided to hunt rest beyond the
bourne-"to sleep, perchance to dream
eternally in the shadowy unknown where
no alarm clocks alarm, and no COWS are
MIXED.
Persons who have never had to get up
at 8 o'clock, who have never been COM
PEELED to wrench themselves from the Sc
ductive embraces of Morpheus and pair
of warm shets and stumble out into the
Stygian blackness of a frozen winter
morning, steering toward the COW barn
by dead reckoning. will not sympathize
with Tom Curtis. What do they know of
a joyless life? Those who have to, or
have had to get up in the middle of
the night to begin the labors of the day
will understand his yearning for the
windowless palace of rest To para
phrase the late Colonel Ingersoll, If ev-
eryone who knows just how he felt about
it should place a blossom upon his grave
he would sleep beneath wilderness of
flowers.
To the young early rising is punish
ment To the old 1t is often disease.
Nature is brutal, and it is not altogether
the fault of the old or of the young that
age and youth disagree upon many vital
questions. A potent cause of the exo-
dus of young men from the farms Is en-
forced early rising. With the theory of
farmers that more work can be done in
"the cool of the morning." in summer
than in the rest of the day 1t Is difficult
to quarrel. Possibly there is even
good reason for getting up before day
light In winter and waking the cattle to
give them fodder breakfast. But there
is hardly an excuse for buIlyragging
healthy young man about his laziness
because he does not enjoy rising at .
o'clock 1t is futile to answer his pro-
test by quoting that well-worn and gen
orally disproven proverb about the wealth
and health and wisdom that will result
from going to bed when you are not
sleepy. And even if a young man could
be cozened into believing it he would
have to be more avaricious than healthy
II he did not say, What doth 1t profit
a man If he gain the whole ranch and
lose the best part of his sleep?' In
stead of berating him for sluggard
treat him kindly. Tell him that getting
up before day is a condemned nuisance
but necessary evil. Appeal to his better
nature and get him interested in consider
ing the nobility of self-sacrifice.
An error of those whose diseased nerves
prevent them from sleeping late-an err
ror far-reaching in it's evil effects-is
that of Dragging about their early ris-
ing as If there were virtue in the habit
regardless of practical reasons for being
out Of bed at certain hour. why,
bless your SOUL" say the diseased, with
quite an air of pride, I'VE can't sleep
after 4 o'clock as IL anyone deserves
credit for getting up when he cannot
Sleep To one who hasn't the waking
| disease the argument does not appeal as
being anything more than the vaporing
of an idiot. Who can blaze young man
whose destinies are presided over by a
confirmed and bumptious early riser for
having mutinous thoughts? Who can
+, condemn him for committing mutinous
acts, such as, for the sake of illustra-
tion leaving the farm and entering into
| another and apparently milder form of
slavery, as a retail clerk In the city, or
| trying suicide upon the principle that he
| hasn't much to lose and can afford to
| take long chances.
Age and habit make for painless early