Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-05-24
THE COST OF LAZINESS
BY H. Arlington Bruce
AIINESS is a luxury in which many
Nnt is Of The

AzINESS is a luxury in which many indulge
| Yet is one of the most expensive of luxu-
IL ries. 1t is so expensive that not even
millionaire really afford it,
To be sure, it's cost is not easily figured in
dollars and cents. But it is easily figured in
something infinitely precious than dollars
and cents-human life.
The lazy mantle too lazy to exert
either his body his mind in useful Efforts,
in fact, precisely in the position of an unused
piece of machinery.
Any machine, neglected and left standing idle,
gathers rust. AS the rust accumuates it
exercises a corrosive action. 1t eats into part
after part of the machine which presently is good
for nothing.
Had it been regularly used that piece of ma
chinery would have lasted much longer. Idleness
has been its destruction. So is it with the human
machine.
like a machine man is built for activity He
has a complicated internal mechanism of mus
cles, glands, and nerves which must be used to
remain in good condition
If unused rust attacks this mechanism in the
form of a curious poisoning. its stsrung POM
is the muscles, for reasons admirably stated by
recent writer:
''Muscle is not only the furnace ceaselessly
turning food and air into warmth and power ana
reserve strength but 1t is the bodys incinerator,
burning into harmless ash the nerve-nagging tox-
ms which quickly form through indulgence
and inactivity.
Much that would be noxious to brain, nerves
and other delicate tissues of the body is oxd1zed
into harmessness within the cells of healthy
muscle tissue.
From the standpoint of general health, of
resistance to infection, of that chronic sense
of strength and well-being, of the development
of in increasing reserve of power, muscles prop
erly fed and energetically used constitute the
vitality giving tissues of the body.
Muscular activity, that is to say, is essential
to health and length of days. The idler, muscu-
larly inert is actually defying fundamental law
of Nature He need not hope to defy it with
impunity.
Moreover mental laziness is equally potent
as a shortener of his life.
His mind not theoretically occupied, easily
becomes the prey of feelings of dissatisfaction,
discontent and worry. Persistent discomfort and
irritability are indeed common characteristics OF
idlers. ~ -. -
But these unpleasant mental states react Sc
rously on the mechanism of the body In partlc-
ular they upset the digestion.
BY so doing they a vertable food Of
poison to sweep through the whole organism.
Then feelings of physical discomfort follow, to
increase the idler's nervous irrtability and make
him more prone to worry and anxiety.
Real health becomes impossible to him and
remains impossible until he appreciates the or
ganc necessity for mental and bodily activity. If
he never appreciates this he drifts from bad to
He may not die young. But he is almost GER
tain to die before he should and long before he
dies to suffer in some degree from chronic nervous
invaldism.
That is why have called laziness of the
most expensive of luxuries. l might we'll have
called it form of slow suicide.
Copyright 1918, by The Associated Newspapers