Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-08-18
cATcHEs roR oBsERyER COLUMN
Fact. Sentimen, and Statistics That are
Pertine {

Our expectations are not always
realized. Our fondest hopes are often
cruelty disappointed. What then? Are
we to become discouraged, and give up
in despair, to think there is no use in
trying, expecting and hoping for any
thing really elegant in this world? Are
we to have DO gloriously beautiful ideal
to be reached in the future, because we
have made mistakes in the past? And
the higher, the holier our ideal the more
unattainable it seems to be? No, no,
giving up in that way would be weak
indeed. The divine promise is, Fin due
time We shall reap if ye faint not.
No thought of giving up our hope. our
earnest expectation"
How times have changed. When we
were young, people had colds, soaked
their feet in hot water and got well.
Now they have grip, take quinine and
are sick all summer. Then they had
pork in an old sock, tied it around their
neck at night and went to work the
next morning; now they have tonsilitis,
a surgical operation and two weeks in
the house. Then they had bellyaehes,
have appendicitis and a week in the
hospital. They worked then; now they
labor In those days they wore under
clothes; now they wear lingeris. They
went to restaurant for dinner; now
they 90 to a cafe. Then they broke a
leg; now they fracture limb. They
went crazy then; now they have brain
storms Ministers preached hell fire
straight from the shoulder then; now
they read an essay on the flowers that
bloom on Mohammed's grave.
Longevity is common in Sweden and
Norway. Thus IN the former country,
mortality, which in 1880 averaged II
per l, 900 inhabitants, in 1906 had fallen
to IA. Infant mortality shraps from
liz to 81 per 1000. In Norway the
rate showed reduction from is to IL
per l, 600, and that Of infants from 95
to SO.
For these two Scandinavian rates the
hygentic habits of the population are
responsible; public baths, the admirable
organization of hospitals, which receive
the rich as well as the poor, the clean
liness of habitation and the widespread
precautions that obtain among al
classes.
Again, there is the public attitude
toward inevitable sickness. Swede ano
Norwegian both have faith in recent
scientific and medical discoveries. Com
sequently, each contagious case becomes
a public matter, and Individual liberty
is never placed in opposition to the gen
eral welfare.
There is a quiet about the life of a
farmer and hope of serene old age,
that no other business or profession ear
promise. A professional man is doomed
sometimes to feel that his powers are
waning. He is doomed to see younger
and stronger men pass him in the race
Of life He looks forward to an old
age of intellectual mediocrity. We will
be last where once he was the first.
But the farmer goes, as it were, into
partnership with nature he lives with
trees and flowers he breathes the
sweet air of the fields. There is nc
eonstraint and frightful strain upon his
mind. His nights are filled with sleep
and rest. He watches his flocks and
herds as they feed upon the green and
hilly slopes. Hears the pleasant rain
fall upon the waving corn, and the
trees he planted in yquth rustic above
/ him as he plants others for the child
rem yet to be.
I