HEALTH AND USEFULNESS.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 97, 16 December 1902, Page 7

HEALTH AND USEFULNESS.

We have beard mach lately about t\ c increasing competitiveness of life, not only in the more or less barren countries of Europe but also in our own fertile country. The question has a number of phases, one of which we shall consider here. If you look at the bporting pages to-day you will ccc reports of a multitude of athletic eveats. The schoolboy is enjoying himself in the baseball field and on the river ; hie brother may be a member of some college nine or a candidate for a crew; his bister is perhaps a member of a basket ball team; his father, in odd hours, goes out on the golf links or practices with the sturdy medieiae-ball in the gymnasium, and it is not at all improbable that this same boy's mamma can swing a golf stick as vigorously and accurately as she once could swing the Blipper that pursues disobedience. So. if the struggle in this vale of tears is growing keener, it seems to us that a good macy people are in constant active training for the struggle. There are exceptions to erery rale, of course, but the chances of winning this ancient fight for a decent earthly exist* nee are better with the man who takes care of his body thatt with the man who doeen't. Give us our health, and let the richest man in the Union keep his hundreds of millions and his chronic indigestion, Good health is haif the battle. It quickens the body and eweetenß the mind ; it promotes ambition ; it lightens trouble, and it lengthens the years. Of all worldly possessions it is the chief est, for the loss of it is what all men, tho rich and the poor alike, most regret. It is good, therefore, to become habituated to healthinees at an early age; and, barring accident, good health certrainly ia a matter cf aabits, Nar is there any reason why tk* plarfulness of these habits should not be ifelished in manhood as well aa in boyhood.