The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1916-02-25
Physical Preparedness.
re YOU prepared for war?

y
Military preparedness-being or
getting ready to- fight and being in
such a state of readiness that every
other nation will be polite to US, will
hesitate to step on our toes purposely
and very quick to apologize if it's
done by accident--it is the question
of the hour.
But there's more personal, init
mate application of the question. For
most of US, from the cradle to the
time when we have to give up the
flight, life is a struggle for existence.
The dangers of baby-hood take one
quarter of us before we are five years
old; one third are gone by. the TWEEN
tieth birthday, and truly for the rest
it is the survival of the fittest. It's
a never ending fight against death,
which always wins in the end. 1t
takes a lot of care and conversation
of physical energy to reach the al
lotted three score and ten, even for
those who live normal lives and who
don't squander the capital stock Of in
herited or acquired energy.
The average man is at his physi-
cal prime between 25 and 95. He may
not reach his mental maximum until
his sixties. The professional athlete,
who trains for intensive exhibition, Is
old at 30 and his slide down-hill be-
gins early.
But for the normal man-the man
who does mot misuse his physical
powers by excessive expenditure O.
by dissipation, it is safe to carry
the peaks" load, as the engineers
call it, up to the first half of his
fifth decade, allowing that necessary
and prudential repairs are made to
the human machine in the way Of
proper rest and recreation. But
from the forth-fifth year-speaking
according to averages-the waste Is
more rapid the demand for repair
is more insistent and the inspection
must, or should be more frequent and
searching.
Engineers calculate the annual de,
probation of machinery by normal
use all the way up to fifteen or
twenty per cent of the original cost.
AS time goes by they watch it more
closely and nurse it by more fire.
quent repair and replacing of unbrok-
en- but worn parts, until the faithful
old hulk, although still performing
efficient work, is condemned to the
scrap heap.
The human machine is more com
pick, more durable than any ever de-
vised by man. More is demanded of
it and less scientific care is given it
than to any fabricated from iron and
steel or brass. 1t is a motor that
creates its own steam, makes it own
repairs without stopping and keeps
on moving until it stops for the first,
and the last, time.
When the mantle human engine
has reached his ultimate capacity
for carrying the sustained maximum
load, it is time to stop, look. listen.
1t is the time to begin to conserve
more cautiously the physical energies.
But the trouble with most of us is
that we measure our lives by years
and not by physical condition, and we
don't realize when it is time to slow
down. At As we who have sur
vived earlier dangers, are more am
bilious than ever before. We boast
of our ability to accomplish more,
but it's the danger time, just the
same, and its proved by the very fact
that we boast.
1t is the time when the strain of
emergency, even of ordinary exertion,
may break the machine at its weakest
part and all is over in a minute with