EARLY RISING A DELUSION.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VIII, Issue 438, 27 February 1875, Page 3

EARLY RISING A DELUSION.

We extract the following from " Hall's ! Journal of Health" : — 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 i towel ; sit down to breakfast off oatmeal sawdust ; dine off a tablespoonful of wheat and two berries, and make a supper on catnip tea, then be put through a Russian bath of five hundred degrees ; sleep under an open window when the thermometer is at zero ; wear long hair ; dress the women in pantaloons ; make all our property over to them, then sit dowi 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 1 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 incrning 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, always tends to shorten life. Many a farmer's boy 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 would be more comfortable to get up than to remain in bed ; that is the only true measure of sufficiency of rest and sleep. Anyone who gets up in the morning feeling as if he 'i would give anything in the world " to remain in bed a while longer, does violence to his 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 a given case, the persoti who gets up in the morning before he is fully rested will lack jusfc 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 our nervousness, our instability, our hasty temper, and the premature giving out of the stamina of life. Half of us are old at three-score, 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 in proportion 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 the 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.

There is more in the births, marriages, and deaths column than is dreamt of in the philosophy of people who sneeringly assert that it is " only fit for women." A perusal of the list of deaths must always have a salutary effect in directing our attention to our latter end ; aud if. we regard it in the same light as the subeditor of the "Times," who looks out for octogenarians, may leave the pleasing impression that that end is a long way off. Then, again, the marriages— what a field of speculation is opened up by a comparison of the list with the list of causes in the Divorce Court ; and how much insight into the tendencies of society may be gained by counting the happy couples who have "no cards." Lastly, if you study the birth, you may have the unmitigated satisfaction of coming on some such announcement aa the following :—: —

Partington. -17th, at 2, St Mary's Road. Harlesden, the wife of Johu Partington of anofcl cr daughter. We do not remember to have ever seen the agony of a life brought wichin so narrow a compass. That one word "another" seems to embody the very quintessence of the feeling of repulsion against what the Yankee called the •■" natural cussedness of things." Poor Mr. Partington ! another daughter ! and his quiver, perhaps, full of them already. As Hamlet puts it, " There's something too much of this." We can only remind Mr. Partington that it is a long lane that has no turning ; he may be more fortunate next time. — London "Sportsman."

There is a saying that one half the world does not know how the other half lives, which, fortunately for the world, is very true. It might be said with almost equal force, remarks the "Sportsman," that one half the world is ignorant of the manner in which the other half dies. There are means for man to "shuffle off this mortal coil " which are not well known to the public. Thursday's news from Portsmouth dockyards supplies us with a piece uf intelligence of an interesting kind in respect of those exceptional occurrences. It seems that red lead and similar compounds are largely used in ship building, and cases are constantly occurring in which men are dragged in a fainting condition from the compartments of the double bottoms of iron ships. These cases are in many instances serious, if not fatal. For the " highly dangerous services " of this kind the men receive three shillings per week extra, a sum which, in the eyes of an ordinary mortal, would not form a very tempting inducement to undertake such suicidal employment, but possibly in the case of Government dockyard labourers their poverty but not their will consents. Wohey wished that in his life he had served his God with as much zeal as he had his King. The dockyard labourers who are conducted to Haslar Hospital will no doubt think it would have been better if, in spite of the handsome »vages offered them, they had considered themselves first and their country afterwards.

An Edinburgh paper, of a recent date, contains the following extraordinary shooting : — Mr. Edward Ross and Captain Fenton shot recently to decide a tie for the National Rifle Association Cup. The match took place at Wiston Park, Leicestershire, the residence of Sir Henry Holford. The agreement was to firo 100 shots— so at 200, and 50 at 600 yards. The following is the remarkable score of the second day :—: —

200 Yards. E. Ross 4141111114141411141144344 Captain Fenton 1111111113344444344444433

600 Yards. E. Ross ... 44143444444044444434444444 Cap, Fenton 3343343444444434444444334 At the 600 yards Mr. Ross fired once without a bullet, which will account for the cypher in the score, and for the extra shot. The match resulted in a victory for Robs.