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Show . HEALTH ITRST. It ls a bad commentary or the physique phy-sique of our young men that of 199 can-. can-. didates who parsed the mental exami-; exami-; nation at the Naval academy this year, 114 were rejected because they did not come up to the physical standard. It appears to be easier to produce" good book students than students who are good specimens physically. Athletes are not necessarily healthy subjects; in- fact, most of them overdo and develop weaknesses. weak-nesses. What we need ls more rational attention to the common senee laws of health. No amount of book learning is worth much without the foundation of good health, and at the pace most of us are living these days good health ls bound to be the exception Instead of the rule. You can find half a dozen scholars to one penxm who gives any thought to the preservation of his health. The average j person goes on the principle of abusing his health and relying on medicine to fix him up, instead of living in a way to toiestall sicknesa I have just heard of a doctor who told one of his patients who was suffering from stomach trouble due to the ice water habit, to eat .everything he pleased, and that he would give Winsome Win-some medicine to digest it. -This ls typical typi-cal of the prevailing notion namely, that we can sin against nature unrestrained unre-strained and then get absolution by swallowing a few pills. Is it any wonder that so many of t are physical-wrecks, or that we feel as lost without our bottle of medicine as Mrs. Gamp would have been without her convenient bottle of bitters? Of course, much of this trouble ls a result of our Insanely fast way of living. No one thinks of letting the matter of health interfere with his "work" until he sees the grave staring him In the face. The grind of our boasted mode of existence requires us to be at a certain point every day at; a certain time, re- j gardless of how we may feel. And it ls ! not likely that a day's work done when we are physically "under the weather" , takes many days off the end of our life? Work is natural and wholesome, and under right conditions is a pleasure to any normal person, but there are times when it Is a sin. Of course, we all have the idea that the world would stop turn-! turn-! ing If we stopped and it is this responsibility respon-sibility that weighs us down. I suppose we muft all ' obey our fate and continue taking life thus seriously. I myself constantly con-stantly preach against working so hard, but am one, of the worst possible offenders. offen-ders. Like the boatman,above Niagara. ,1 continually promise myself that I will be able to stop a little later. Meantime, however, while we are tearing down the rapids toward our quietus. It does pay to keep our wits about us and to riot away as little of our strength as possible. We can live very pleasant and useful lives without with-out knowing all about the differential and integral calculus, provided we bus-band bus-band our store of health; but squander that divine recourse and there ls little left to interest us. Beacon. |