Judicious Recreation.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 478, 7 June 1890, Page 3

Judicious Recreation.

The father or the mother of a family may easily feel a little puzzled as to what special form of recreation the members thereof should choose, and they (the parents) Bhould encourage. For although pleasurable exercise and amusement are wonderfully successful in keeping the doctor’s chariot away from the door, they must be well timed and judiciously carried out. Tho old saying, “ All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” is exceedingly true. But, on the other hand, recreation must not be carried to excess either physically or morally. Physically, recreation can be overdone. Itmattersnothingwhatoutdoor game bechosen or commends itself toone—whether cricket, tennis, football, bowls, or golf ; or what kind of pleasurable exercise—whether boating, riding, walking, or cycling, but, while enjoying it, we must never approach too closely to the boundary line of exhaust ing fatigue. The same may be said for indoor games and exercises ; but even those that do not entail muscular exertion, but are better described as pastimes, should never be continued until they have become a weariness. It may not bo generally known that so apparently trivial an act as that of

Yawning Betrays a Tired Heart, and is an effort of Nature to stimulate that organ to the getting rid of venous blood by pumping it into the lungs. What is commonly known by the term “ stretching one’s self” (and this, by the way, is usually accompanied by yawning) is another sign of fatigue, and has for its object, like the yavTn, the stimulating of a tired heart. Those who lead sedentary lives, sitting long with head and back bent over the desk, and probably thinking hard all tho while, are subject to fits of stretching and yawping, Out they ought to go, into the fresh air, as Boon as nature vouchsafes these warnings. . . . These are really not trivial matters, for, whatever we do, we should not age the heart. It is not that heart disease in a valvular or organic shape is to be greatly feared, but something as bad in the long run, though the symptoms may never at any time be very urgent. What we mean is this: If we neglect recreation, if we work too hard and sit too long at desk work, The Heart Becomes Feeble,

and virtually old. If, on the other hand, we carry exercise to excess; if we row too hard, if we constantly “ spurt ” when cycling, if we are in the habit of lifting weights unsuited to our strength, then we are apt to stretch the right side of the heart; and the life of one who has either a feeble hpaft or enlarged right-heart is not to Ho envied. It is mostly a weariness, and one afflicted thus is generally nervous, and hardly ever knows what it is to bo otherwise than tired. . . . Rut one may

tie guilty qf excess in recreative exercises or amusements from even a moral _ point of vieiy. The converse of the old saying aboqt Jack and the play is equally true ; all play and little work entirely unfits Jack fqr the battle of life, and lie soons falls to the rear, and isheardof nevermore. --From“Cassell’s Jtook of the Household.”