The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-01-09
HOW MANY LITTLE ENEMIES
HAVE YOU?

The biggest enemies OF mankind arc |
microscopic Big beasts are no. !
dangerous their very size advertises
their menace.
The mastodon. the saber-tooth tige- I
the mammoth, are all dim and distant
memories We can always handle any |
thing huge-human brain has never
yet failed TO defeat animal brain.
/ The monsters Of the paleolithic age
could not even survive against the
crude weapons and the rude strate-
i gems of our half sensate savage
i forbears. The elephant, the rhinoceros
the hippopotamuS, are too evident ano
! clumsy 10 escape the hunter. Their
! numbering hulks offer many opportu-
mites for deadly thrusts, bOne-smash
ing shots and the hidden stake. Ten
years of organized effort on the part
of a single well-trained army corps
would easily rid the earth OF every
dog-sized beast on any continent.
. AdH SAFETY anu HTlldIN oAN itNECA
imperled By pachyderm drove OF
caribou herd, but his existence from
the first dawn has been threatened by
the hidden hosts lurking in the leaves
srulking in the grasses, sneaking
through the morass, ambushed in the
dirt, Sccreted in the water and float
ing in the very sunlighted air.
Worm and beetle and locust and
; million crawling blights contest
with him every hour for the fruisage
of his fields.
Scale and maggots ceaselessly re
duce his orchard yield.
Microbe and bacillus, descendants
of a million generations of implac-
able forbears. nurtured upon the vi
tails and blood of all the people since
the loss Of Paradise still take their
annual toll OF death despite the
measures of medicine and the cum
ming of science.
Man dies OF little things. The
span of existence would average
twice its present length if our sight
could magnify the vile and venom
Gus hereditary foes of humanity.
Slowly and awkwardly, but steadily
and surely, we are learning to attack
the invisible brotherhood: but health
and security cannot be assured by
the mere determination of foulness
and putrifaction of rivers. Chloride
of lime and carbolic acid and the use
OF competent antisepticS are only
halfway measures. We drain polluted
ponds and oil the stagnant scum of
dead pools 10 eradicate the breeding
grounds of mosquitoes and kindred
winged pests.
We regulate our dairies and our
abattoirs and lower the tide OF NOR
tality from unclean feeding. but our
greatest battle is within ourselves.
Perniciods, little habits gnaw upon
human will, weaken the engines of
vitality and bore their tunnels
through the reservoirs of force and
character. SeH-reSpecL ana re-
strant of passions are as essential to
longevity as defense of food supply
and physical prophylaxis. The mind
must be kept wholesome. Dangerous
desires must be controlled by shack
les of will.
Every time We act. every time we
think, the mind makes a record. Each
repetition of a performance or thought
deepens the groove and tends to rem
der the next similar impulse more au-
tomato, until in time the brain be-
comes like a, photograph disc. and
without apparent consciousness We
find ourselves guilty of crimes against
morality.
Then habit becomes master and the
man the slave. The fight for self
control is easy at the outset. 1t
grows more arduous and heart break
ing as the years progress.
On guard! Clean thought as well
as clean air and clean food and clean
water. Physical cleanliness is a mat
ter of mind as we'll as body-Herbert
Kaufman, in Knoxville Sentinel