Part 2 (2/2)
THE TEN HEALTH COMMANDMENTS.
”1. Thou shalt have no other food than at meal-time.
”2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any pies, or put into pastry the likeness of anything that is in the heavens above or in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not fall to eating it or trying to digest it. For the dyspepsia will be visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that eat pie; and long life and vigor upon those that live prudently and keep the laws of health.
”3. Remember thy bread to bake it well; for he will not be kept sound that eateth his bread as dough.
”4. Thou shalt not indulge sorrow or borrow anxiety in vain.
”5. Six days shalt thou wash and keep thyself clean, and the seventh thou shalt take a great bath; thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days man sweats and gathers filth and bacteria enough for disease; wherefore the Lord has blessed the bath-tub and hallowed it.
”6. Remember thy sitting-room and bed-chamber to keep them ventilated, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy G.o.d giveth thee.
”7. Thou shalt not eat hot biscuit.
”8. Thou shalt not eat thy meat fried.
”9. Thou shalt not swallow thy food unchewed, or highly spiced, or just before hard work, or just after it.
”10. Thou shalt not keep late hours in thy neighbor's house, nor with thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cards, nor his gla.s.s, nor with anything that is thy neighbor's.”--_New England Farmer._
With the use of the foregoing as a guide, and ordinary judgment in the affairs with your fellow-men, life will run smoothly, happiness will follow, and a long life be the result.
CHAPTER VI.
”Let the jewel of happiness poise in the setting of health.”
If you are a reader of this work to find out a cure for consumption, catarrh, bronchitis, constipation, hemorrhoids or piles, hernia or rupture, rheumatism, fever and ague, cataracts on the eyes, warts on the hands, corns on the feet, and how to abstain from drink and tobacco in all injurious forms, we will try and not disappoint you. Under the head of each disease above named, see index and second part. We offer you a remedy. All of these troubles I have had (and a score not mentioned), of the entire list of which _=I=_ am now _free completely_. In short, the whole number of diseases that beset the human family can be cured by care, cleanliness, regularity, fresh air, cold water used internally, and by compress, proper clothing, right food, regular exercise, an even disposition, a clear conscience, intelligent and agreeable a.s.sociates, and a reasonable amount of time.
It took me 30 years, 25 of which I spent ascertaining the way. If someone could have informed me, as this book does you, I would have enjoyed full health _twenty-five_ years earlier than I did. Anyone observing the rules I have recounted can restore a broken-down _const.i.tution_ in less than 5 years--yes, even if one foot is already in the grave! Soon you will begin to lift it out, and it will be a long period before you will take that step again. I do not exaggerate when I state that I had _both feet_ in the grave. Fortunately, however, my head was above-ground, and I began to reason how to get the rest of myself away. The secret was discovered, the causes set to work, and finally the end achieved. To use another figure, my coffin had many nails already driven in it when I secured a clincher, pulled them all out, and then split up the old wooden hulk to make fires with which to start the steam of my new energies.
All of my _time_ is _employed_. I do some sort of laborious work every day to start my blood coursing vigorously, and open the pores of my skin. By a proper adjustment of my under-clothing, I prevent a cold, and am always ready with a good appet.i.te when meal-time comes. I have never studied _Anatomy_, _Medicine_, or _Surgery_, know but little about the niceties of the English language, but I have studied the Materia Medica of myself, and am aware of just what is beneficial and what is injurious for me.
There is a duty each individual owes to his fellow-man, each munic.i.p.al corporation to its citizens, and each State and general government to those over whom they preside. Every individual should strive to see how much distress he can relieve during his short stay on this earth; how few thorns he has to place in the pathway of others, and how many drops of oil he can pour on the disturbed waters of the ocean of life.
_Accidents_ that are _preventable_, caused by carelessness, laziness, and ignorance, cost more money, suffering, and life than viciousness and incendiarism, in the ratio of 3 to 1. Every man who builds a mill, manufactory, or a business block, makes his own rate of insurance.
A slight variation in the construction of a building, the omission of certain details, the wrong location of hazardous machinery or materials, or the neglect of cleanliness and order, may very seriously affect the _fire hazard_, and consequently the _rate_ of insurance which must necessarily attach to the property.
The _Fire Losses_ in the United States amount to $125,000,000 per annum, and the great ma.s.s of this enormous loss is chargeable to bad construction of buildings, the lack of necessary apparatus for extinguis.h.i.+ng fires, and carelessness in the management of property. The _unavoidable_ losses are few in number; the _avoidable_, many. Insurance companies _restore no value_, _repair no loss_; they can only _distribute_ the loss throughout the community. Careless, ignorant, annihilative, is the term to be applied to 75% of the fire losses. The destruction of life by accidents, where immediate death follows, in the United States is large; but, in comparison with those that a.s.sist in shortening life, they are about in the ratio of 1 to 100. Only such persons as have undoubted _integrity_, coupled with order, cleanliness, and carefulness should be allowed to insure their property, and this should be restricted by law. A certain sect in our population that now have to be charged from 50 to 100% more for insurance than other people, should be stricken from the list of the insured, until they have by personal action abolished this difference in risk.
When the time comes that only such persons as attend to all the details of cleanliness and prevention of the loss of property and health can be insured, the cost will be reduced 50%. Until we are willing, or educated up to that point, to protect our neighbors' lives and property as if they were ours, we must expect to pay this 50% more for everything we have, use, drink, eat, and wear. Longevity will be restricted in the same proportion. Hundreds of accidents would be prevented by proper care. Throwing foolishly the match, cigar, cigarette, etc., any and everywhere, causes great loss of property, and often life; the unthinking eat oranges and _bananas_ in the _street_ and cast underfoot the rinds and skins to cause the next moment the _dislocation_ of a limb, or broken skull. Over 500 accidents have occurred in this city alone during the last 5 years, occasioned by some sort of vegetable or fruit refuse lying upon the pavements; fatal results, though not all immediate, happened to 15 persons, and a number were maimed for life.
Broken bottles and gla.s.s thrown into the street and on the sidewalks bring about at times frightful accidents to both man and beast; and if a correct report could be had from each livery-man and teamster in this regard, it would startle the most inhuman of our race.
The _tax-payer_ has a tendency to be selfish when he is really doing himself severe injury. It is a case of reflex action. In pa.s.sing along a thoroughfare he sees a banana skin lying on the sidewalk. He cannot possibly stop or trouble himself to push it into the gutter. Almost immediately another man comes along, steps on the skin, slips, breaks his leg, and is carried to the hospital. He remains there a month, supported by the city, that is, by money paid by the same tax-payer. In this manner, and other ways, can every man act, both selfishly or unselfishly. If selfish in pa.s.sing this by, it is sure to come back on him a hundred-fold to the original trouble required. His unselfishness will consist in saving his fellow-men from danger by removing the cause.
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