Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-01-22
SLEEPS LATE
Hard 10 Get a Breakfast IN Res
taurant I'm the English Metrop-
oils Before Eight O'clock.
Paris and Berlin are
Early at Business
THE SLOMEST TO AWAKE OF ALL THE
EUROPEAN CAPITALS

against the English people that they
ate too much, drank too much and
slept too much. Today we have vastly
improved in the matter of drinking
and there are not wanting signs that
we are, as a race, becoming more mod
crate in our indulgence in the pleas
ures of the table. Chancellors of the
e%xchequer have to face a decreasing
drink bill, and a popular dramatist has
given new * Expression to ian English
mans god" in satirizing the worship
of "Little Mary
But We still cling to the old fashioned
notion of eight hours sleep as the
minimum for the recuperation of u
physical and mental powers.
Do healthy people really require
eight hours sleep? l answer unhesi-
tatingly mo" Six hours should be-
sufficient for every ordinary person.
and there are many so constituted that
five would be quite sufficient.
London lies, perhaps, the latest abed
of all European capitals. The working
man, it is true, is up and about In the
early hours of the morning. He is
compelled to rise early in certain
trades and occupations for which day
light is essential. But he gets his eight
hours sleep by going to bed at 10.
That he wants to go to bed very early
in order to have a liberal allowance of
sleep is proved by the 1.-TWO hours q
night system adopted by those who
cater for his evening amusement. The
managers ofthose entertainment houses
will tell you that the Z 10 8 'show" is
arranged specially for the working
classes who wan to be home and in
bed soon after 10, because they have to
be at work at 6 in the morning.
So n may take it that eight hours
is the measure of all classes, the work
ers and the ldlers, the poor and the
rich, the frugal and the luxurious. But
it is with the class hat does not do
manual labor that | ann principally
concerned. l believe that we are al a.
great disadvantage commercially with
Jul lOlCtkA llNdl5 OWinH W LII i0tCF
hour at which we m the BUSH
ness of the day.
A friend of mine has recently re-
turned from Germany, where he went
to carry out a big financial undertake
ing. He had letters of introduction to
two German bankers He forwarded
them, and in one instance he was re-
quested to come and see the head of
the banking firm at 7 in the morning.
and in the other TO call and see the
principal at Z in the evening. Wecan-
not imagine a banker or a business
man of any position making either OF
these appointments in London.
The habit of lying late in bed leaves
many parts of the metropolis almost
deserted till s a. m. | have for years
found that | can do with six hours
sleep, and if l have an extra quantity
of work to do / can limit myself to
four hours without any evil conse
quences. And so it happens that, CO.
ing to bed between ] and 2, | am fire.
quently up and out in the streets by s.
o'clock in the morning.
Woe betide me if in certain parts of
London | want an early breakfast. In
my own neighborhood | pass through
whole streets of houses, where at 8
O'Clock the servants are only just OPEN
ing the front doors and shaking the
mats.
The other day | went TO a great rail-
way terminus at 1870, thinking that at
least | could get breakfast there. The
doors of the refreshment room were
shut and locked. 1t was not until the
clock struck s that a waiter, who was
putting on his coat, opened the door of
the dining room for passengers whcs
wanted breakfast.
The Parisians are a late people.
Most of their cafes are open till l a. m,
and many in the more fashionable
quarters until q. But Parisians are up
and about long before Londoners. You
will find the business houses of Paris
in foil swing at s a. M, with moi only
the staff present, but the principals.
Enter any of the Paris rail way stations
on a fine Sunday morning at 6 O'Clock,
and you will find them thronged with
a gay crowd of working class folks in
their Sunday best, setting GU for a
days excursion into the country.
l am convinced that one OF the first
petition of our continental trade rivals
is to begin the work of the day earlier,
to waste fewer of the precious hours of
daylight in sleep that ceases to be-
healthy If is prolonged.
"Wheny you wake, getup, us a German
saying. The second sleep-the morn
ing doze after the first waking-instead