East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-05-10
(By Martin Arends.)


working that way" says mans
friends IL It happens that his task
require longer and more tense appli'
cation than the conventional eight
hour stint Of law and proverb. Ant
once in a while such a man happens
10 die And then his friends shake
their heads and say:
"He worked himself to DEATH"
Ambitious young men, noting, take
warning and say:
"Oh, I'm not going to kill myself
What's the use of getting anywhere Il
you're going to work yourself to deatf
doing it,"
And so the working ones self Il
death" notion becomes real bugaboo
an obstacle on which many mans
opportunities for preference are t'mid
ly and unnecessarily wrecked. For few
people work themselves to death
Work does not kill. Work is natural
Hard work is good for man; and the
sooner is exploited the fallacy tha
the hard worker "kills himself, the
better It will be for every one who
does things.
Burns Makes Good Example.
Burns is the head of mail ordel
section in big wholesale house. Hi!
house doesn't do a straight mail or
der business, so Burns section WASH
by any means rushed in way to com
pare with lots of places where the ex
cess of holiday business falls with full
force. The work of this department
was increased, probably by so PEI
cent above normal, but normal!
neither he nor the rest of his forc'
worked nearly to the full limit o
their powers.
Burns went to the head and asked
for more help. The head pulled
statement from pigeon hole, lie
Burns read It, and Burns went bacl
to work, glad that his regular fore
hadn't suffered from the firms ex
tended campaign of economy. But h
was agitated, He saw the work loom
ing up before him mountains high
He knew that from that date unit
after January l he would have t
work at top speed, put in overtim
and otherwise exceed his customar
pace, and when he sat down to tackl
that first days extra mail Burns ha'
worked himself half sick, ANTICIPATING
/ cts ha n hnut m
dergo.
Wen have a chance to kill our
selves for three weeks now" he toll
his wife that night
I Self-Hypnosis Did Its Work.
At the end of the first week he wa
| taking something to make him sleeT
Another week he had hypnotized him
| self into that stage of tragic resolutio
where a man resolves to ego throug
with It and then drop" As a matte
of fact, the work really fell far belo'
the expected increase but Burns, wit
/ his mind fully made up that he wa
killing himself, fretted and fumed an
rushed and raved like one driven be
! yond all possible human endurance
Never for an instant did he let up; h
was "killing himself whether h
worked, ate, rode on the cars, or SLEPT
The conviction was upon him; even tn
morning papers didn't serve momen
tarily to break the spell.
Three days from the end of the rus
and Burns was a pitiful spectacle. H
had lost 10 pounds; he had develope
six nice, weary lines about his face
and he was jumping sideways whe
anybody addressed him from behind
He didn't fail to tell everybody abou
it, either, so his case of self-hypnosi
was helped along daily by kind friend
who inquired how he was standing
| today"
Finally the rush was over and Burn
went home, let go of himself-an
went to bed The doctor came an
Burns said:
"K,lled myself working. that's all,
The doctor. who was of the ne,
school, which understands all abou
such things, smiled and said.
Doctor Shows Up Fallacy.
ooh. no, you haven't You've simpl
managed to convince yourself tina
you are due for collapse. You ge
up and go back to work, or the FRS
thing you know you will be maxim
yourself really sick"
But Burns, to save his face, mana
ged to keep himself in bed for thre
days before the doctors ridicule prov
ed too strong and drove him back {
his desk. Then, to his great surpris,
he found that he was able to wor
harder and feel it less than ever be
fore The strain of the rush seaso
and the doctors assurance that it ha
done him no harm had tapped in hir
a fresh and unsuspected supply c
energy He had developed his work
ing power by "killing himself"
Every normal man, every man VIII
is not stunted by early work and poo
feeding in childhood. is blessed wit
this reserve energy. Usually he neve
uses it, never knows that it exists.
he happens to face and conquer a sc
we're crisis he may wonder where til