LONG LIFE AND MERRY ONE.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 422, 26 May 1904, Page 8

LONG LIFE AND MERRY ONE.

Mmmwtmum Who Arc Nkbm* OertIfrW Iko iflMui WJns Aee ia*cae.t. «£• It seems that we are ell wrong about the hurtful and life-shortening. effect of American "hustle." Our na-j tional motto may be-said to have been: "A short life, but a strenuous! one." We are willing, as a people, to hare the span shortened a little | If only we could hare something worth while, something active and effective, going all the time. But it aeems, according to the latest bulletin of the census bureau, that the fast life is also the long one, says Harper'* Weekly. Our "median age" —that is, the age which 1s such that: half the population is under it and; half otst it—is more than sevsn years greater than it was a century ago, and increases from decade to decade. We are surpassing easy-go-, in i? foreign countries in this re* ■pact; we are surpassing erea the loose-jointed, indolent, beautifully re*' laxed, neTer-werrying African in aur midst; for whereas the median age of our American whites is 23.4 years, that of the devil-may-care colored person is but 18.3. Lately much confusion has arisen in the minds of many Americans over the statement ma*e by certain eminent neurolo* ***** that it is next to impossible for a man to "overwork," provided his bodily functions are kept in good order by temperate and wholesome living. Other physicians, to be sure, tell us that hurry and worry spell deeib. We have accepted the latter - ;client, with the qualifying rsleo tion that no matter whet science tells us, it always seems to have "another thing coming." This earn* sue bulletin which links the long IB* with the fast one appear* to he the other "think. , • , |