Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1919-03-27

Sumner Shaw Tells Of His Defeat
oflnsomnia.
Possibly There Are Others Who Would
Sleep More Peacefully u They
Squared Up With Conscience,
40 He Did.

The scl,o0lmaster, who with others
vas Willing away an hour in Squire
Narr's Office. complained that he had
oct been sleeping well lately. He dig
ltaed his trouble by calling it insom.
nia. AS might have been expected,
the squire had specific.
'sThe thing to DO" he said, sis to
make your mind as near a blank as
possible. When I find that my mind
Is disposed to work overtime. resort
10 the old nursery Jingle: The House
That Jack Built repeat it rather
slowly from beginning to end, and go
over it again and again. To me the
rhythm is very soothing. and the pic
lures that the words call up are con-
stantly changing, just as in dreams.
Presently begin to get a little tam
gled up, SO that perhaps it will be
he priest all shaven and shorn that
milks the COW with the crumpled horn.
1t is not long after that before drop
INTO real slumber that lasts until I am
awakened, may be, by the cock that
crows in the MORN"
did you ever try reckoning interest
as a means of inducing sleep?" asked
Sumner Shaw, the carriage maker.
"As a rule, I'm not much subject to
insomnia" he went on. But ] got an
nkling of what 1T is like when was
staying overnight at my nephew's in
the city, four years ago. or so. They
make long evenings, and 1t must have
been close on to ten before I got OF
to bed.
Remember that you don't have to
get up at some unseemly hour, Uncle
Summer says Susie. We don't have
breakfast until eight
"Well, dropped. right off to sleep,
same as usual; but when woke up
and turned on the electric light at
the head Of the bed, ] found it was
only three o'clock.
"'Now, them says to myself, T'll
have to get another nap
"But that was easier said than done.
The harder tried the wider awake /
was. / guess it was insomnia, fast
enough. Finally got to thinking over
my past life. Well, probably I'd done
worse things in my life, but what /
seemed to fasten on was little bust
ness transaction with the Widow Wig:
gin. I sold her sleigh at my own
price; and the very next day sold one
Just like it to Cap'n Gray, and he beat
me down five dollars, and made some.
thinrr of In I,n ntr ,Snv,x
felt as If it would be no more than
fair to go to Mrs Wiggin and make
her the same discount. But you are
apt to let such things go, and pretty
soon she took sick and died. She had
no immediate family, and the property
went to distant connections out of the
state. So kind of let the thing slide
AS being of no great consequence, any.
way.
But 1T doomed up big there in the
dark, and at last had to promise my.
self that if lived to get home I'd get
clear Of that five dollars somehow. Al
that time n Belgian relief fund was be.
ing raised, and I concluded that Il
would please her as much as anything
II she could know it, to put down q
subscription in memory of Mrs. Maria
Wiggin.
Having settled that, felt easter
but not real sleepy, as it still seemed
a long ways ahead to breakfast time
| Then it occurred to me that about
eighteen years interest ought to e
with that five dollars, and fell tt
considering how much that would be
am pretty good at figuring in my
head, and could have worked out the
simple interest easily; but compound
interest is another matter. However
began casting 1t up, and I got al
far as the fifth year. Then the mex
thing | knew Susie was singing out
Breakfast, Uncle Sumner!'
$50 you see, reckoning interest go
the better of insomnia that time
Mebbe, though, purging my conscienc,
had something to do with it. You ar,
welcome to both of these remedies
Mr.. Jenkins" he added with friendly
wink, Sin case the squire's doesn't
work. Youths Companion.