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Show THE ROBES OF SLUMBER, j HOW MEDICAL SCIENTISTS SAY ! THEY SHOULD BE ADJUSTED. j . ! Xhe Intimate Connection Between Panl- tary ltules 1 Lonirevlty Vet Vast Jiumber. Defy All "flcallh Laws" and ' Some Live to Almost Kabuloirs Ages. The inqniry iwently undertaken by medical scientists relutivo to llio proper methods of sleeping is ono that cannot fail to interest all. and may in the end produce results highly valuable from a sanitary point of view, and even more Valuable as a means of preventing die- j ty sanitary rules. The longest uvea j ' person known to have existed in North j America was an Indian of California ; who died some months ago, at an age ! approximating 150 years. Ho was called i Old Gabriel, and bis record has been i traced authentically .back to the timo , when the Catholic missions flourished on the Pacific coast in the middle of the Eighteenth century. Not until he was over a hundred years of age did Gabriel know what it was to sleep in a bed, and even then he did it but occasionally, and always under protest. Yao Tsue, whose demise occurred recently in one of the suburbs of the city of Yokohama, is said to have nearly reached the age of Gabriel; Ga-briel; yet, like the rest of his fellow countrymen, bis only pillow was a wooden wood-en neck rest, and all his life he followed the extremely unsanitary practice, universally uni-versally prevalent in Japan, of wearing the same garments day and night. Examples along the same line might be multiplied, but of course, as previ- ph. jgk&ia ? THE AMKHICAV COrcn OP TODAY. ease and prolonging life. No data have as yet been formulated on which to base absolute principles, but these general propositions are at present advanced by the gentlemen who have the subject under un-der consideration. Their first declaration of war is against the feather bed, and in behalf of the hard mattress which rests upon springs. They also look with disfavor npon double couches, declaring that health is best conserved by solitary repose. The sleeping room, it is further asserted, ought always to give free access to the air through an open window, or preferably pref-erably a ventilator. As for tho led-clothing, led-clothing, it should be neither too light nor too heavy. The hours for healthy rest are said to fluctuate, according to conditions and sex, from seven to ten in number, a student being thought to require re-quire more sleep than a person who labors la-bors with his hands, and a woman considerably con-siderably more than a man. Neither pillows nor the presence of a light in the bedchamber are regarded with approval. Uy following the rules above indicated, it is asserted that life may be considerably consider-ably prolonged in what we of the Caucasian Cau-casian race are pleased to tenn civilized countries: yet the fact remains that less I AN AKAUOAMAN WARRIOR AT IIK.RT. ! onslysaid, customs vary with conditions. , "The happy age of man," as Rousseau chose to call the era of savagery, has passed away, so far as we are concerned, and with our surroundings and education educa-tion we would undoubtedly be dissatisfied dissatis-fied even with the bed prepared in Eden for our first parents, "in close recess, with flowers, garlands and sweet smelling smell-ing herbs." Consequently it is well to accept with gratitude and intelligent discrimination any hints given for our guidance in the matter of repose by those who have made a careful study of the subject, In this age of racehorse living and intense competition no one can afford to misa the slightest opportunity for conserving his health. Rest is the great panacea for a vast multitude of human ills; under its benign influence mental strain disappears, disap-pears, and physical ailment ofttime? passes away. Behind the curtains of the couch care and turmoil do not follow, , and any one who can add by suggestion or investigation to the charms of the silent si-lent chamlier of the night is deserving universal gratitude, for sleep, as Sir Thilip Sidney says, is the certain knot of peace. The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe. The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release. The indifferent Judge between the high and low. Fred C. Dayton. THE JAPANESE STYLE OF REPOSE. than one-third of the world's population knowsanythingabout a "bed," according? to our common acceptation of the term, and the other fact also stares ns in the face that the duration of existence is 110 ' greater among white people than among the races we call barbarian. Indeed, environment, en-vironment, climate and opportunity liave as much to do with a man's xuoda of sleeping as with the food ho eats, the clothes he wears or the social relations into which he enters. The Esquimau of the arctic regions finds the bag of fikin into which he crawls full dressed a satisfactory couch, aud ample protection against the rigors of his climate. Tho natives of Japan, both male aud female, are satisfied to lie down on the inartiiig of their airy rooms, with wooden rests beneath their necks, and in weather of exceptional severity se-verity light blankets over their tonus. The Chinaman's low bedstead is provided provid-ed with mats or quilted coverlets and a piUow of bamlxio. Tho Eiist Indian stretches out upon a light portable mattress, mat-tress, which, when day comes, is rolled up and put away in a corner. He somo-times somo-times affects the hammock, but this is more particularly the resting place of the South American Indian, whoso habitat hab-itat is tho banks of the Amazon. Swinging Swing-ing his couch between two trees, light-1 light-1 1 1 1 WOOING SLUMBER I THE TROPICS. Ing thereunder a smudge fire to drive away the insects of the night, and divested di-vested of all but the scantiest clothing, he lies dow n to sweet dreams, possibly as happy and contented as if his resting place was the gorgeous chamber of an American millionaire. Farther to the south the nnconquered Araucanian of Chili despises even this Blight adventitious aid to repose. For his women and children he provides the shelter of a ropf, but seeks for himself the open plain or mountain hide, covers his form with his poncho, and in close communion with mother earth waits the sinking of the Southern Cross and the dawn of a new day. In a certain degree the Araucanian style of sleeping is the on most affectM and preferred by tha cowboy and frontir.sman of the United States. These pioneers of civilization , prefer the springing grasses of the prairie as a place of rust to the costly and unsatisfactory accommodations of . the infrequent log framed or sod built hostelry. As one of this clas3 explained to me some years ago, "When I sleep on the ground I hev enough air to breathe, and ain't got no call to be skeered about bedbugs." , Yet these denizens of the frozen north, of the sultry tropics, of the wide plains or of the Andean ranges make a fair showing as regards longevity in conipar-t conipar-t iaon with those who are hedged about |