GENERAL BOOTH'S VITALITY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1076, 15 March 1911, Page 4

GENERAL BOOTH'S VITALITY.

' General Booth, notwithstanding his great age, was able to lecture on tho Salvation Army recently for an hour and a half. Of course, the motive power was his vast self-devotion and keen spiritual insight. But, outside these, tho habits of the General count for very much.

For years ho has lived as frugally as Tolstoy did in his later life. He goes to bed every night at 10.30 o'clock, and, if his sleep is.brokon, as it often is, he gives his waking hours to devotion or to tho work of the Army. Ho rises- between seven and eight o'clock, and breakfasts on weak tea and dry toast, with the addition sometimes of fruit, which is an important clement in his dietary. When other men take a stimulant or food to meet some passing weakness, he betakes himself to fruit.

His idea is as far as possible to let nature take her own course, without tho embarrassment of unnecessary help. He is a strict vegetarian. His mid-day meal consists almost entirely of potatoes, generally fried, some green vegetables, and a milk pudding. Tho work of the evening is carried out on bread and fruit. Stimulants of all kinds arc avoided, and so is tobacco, the General holding that what you have to do to ■ secure perfect health is not to drug or dull the body, but to live simply, to havo a wide interest in life, and keep always at some form of work.