Early Rising a Delusion.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 265, 27 October 1874, Page 7

Early Rising a Delusion.

We commit the great error of plunging into ice water every morning, then Scrub all the skin off with a horsehair brush or a coarse board towel - ; sit down■ to breakfast of oatmeal sawdust ? dine off a tablespoonful of wheat and- two.berries, and a Slipper on .catnip tea, then be put through a Russian bath of fire hundred : degrees ; ; sleep under an.ftpejft windmv when - the thermometer is at zero ; wear long hair'; dress the women in pantaloons;' make all our property over to them, ( tben sit down ,in the kitchen .corner and nurse the baby, and when it is asleep, wash up the tea things, and go to bed at 9 o'clock to-be: out of the way. What will become of us men ? Surely we have fallen on evil times. ' A better and truer mode of life is, to have; plenty.of nourishment and strength, and as much of it as you want. The idea of getting up from the table hungry is unnatural, absurd; and hurtful—quite as much so as. getting up in the morning before you sleep it out, on the mischievous principle that "early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Early rising, in civilised society, alwavs tends to shorten life. Many a farmer's bov has been made an invalid for life by being made to get up at daylight, before his sleep was out. Many a young girl has been stunted in body and mind and constitution by being made to get up before the system has .had its full rest. All who are growing, all .who work hard, and all weakly persons should not get up until they feel as if they, woiild be more comfortable to get up than to remain in bed ; that is the only true measure of sufficiency of rest and sleep.. Any one who gets up in the morning feeling as if he "would give anything in the world" to remain in bed a while longer, does 1 violence to hi? own nature, and will always suffer from it—not immediately, it may be, but certainly in later years, by the cumulative ill effects of the most unwise practice. In any given case, .the person who gets up in the morning before he is fully rested will lack just as much of the energy requisite for the day's pursuit. As a people we do not get enough sleep, we do not get enough rest, we will not take time for these things ; hence ont nervousness, our instability, our hasty temper, and the premature giving out of the stamina of life. Half of us are old at threescore, the very time when a man might be in his mental, moral, and physical prime. Half of our wives, especially in the farming districts, die long before their time, because they do not get rest and sleep proportioned to their labour. Nine times out of ten, it would be better for all parties if the farmer should get up and .light the fire and prepare the breakfast for his wife, she coming directly from the toilet to the breakfast table, because it almost always happens that she has to remain up to set things right long after the husband has gone to bed. This is a. monstrously cruel imposition on wives and mothers.— HalVs Journal of Health.