LIVING FAST.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1912, 18 February 1875, Page 3

LIVING FAST.

Living fast is an expression in common use, and it is grimly true. A man can lire through a life .which would, with care, have served him half as long again, and die worn out at sixiy; when he might have lived to ninety. But his physiological capital is spent long ere its time — has been/ anticipated;-in-fact^ and he ceases to exist —his account is closed. The accelerated pace at which we now live: ds telling>;xipon^ws all; and, though the average duration of life is increasing, the difference lies chiefly in the increasing length of life afforded now to delicate children, who a generation ago would have perished in infancy, but who now can be reared to puberty, and even beyond it. Wo all, at least all who are actively engaged, are living too fast/and we cannot live both fast and long. The reader will, perhaps, exclaim that all this is very well, but now is the condition of matters to be remedied?. Certainly not by the prevalent fashion of taking a second day of amusement to the first day of work,; not by having an appetiser or two of gin and bitters after business hours, until the cravings of hunger are produced or stimulated ; and then a tasty dinner with more stimulants, and a final cup of coffee to maintain the action of the alcohol in its .first stage and ward off the second, until the individual feels that he can go to the theatre and enjoy himself; or, in simple truth, until he has borrowed enough from himself to give him the sensation of buoyancy and relieve the sense of weariness. That- plan will not affect the desired end; neither is it to be accomplished by spending the evening at billiards and drinking whisky and, seltzer water, and smoking unlimited cigars, until nobody knows when, or how far into the small hours. In either ease there is a large consumption of stimulants, comparatively large that is, for each, individual ; for though one man may drink only half as much as another, he may be taking quite as much out of himself; what may be a small quantity for one may be excess for another. la eack case there is a late retirement to rest, an insufficient sleep, for sleep, and plenty of it, is the grand restorative; and then the next day the individual does not feel up to the mark, arid a stimulant is necessary to commence the day's work with; then " the steam must be kept up" during the day, and after that there is the evening again. The, only play by which the loan contracted by haying-recourse to a stimulant can be comfortably repaid, is by a simple meal after business hours, a quiet evening, if necessary a light supper and an early adjournment to rest, with, a long sleep. Then,' and then only, can the loan be properly repaid, and the necessity for a stimulant next day be avoided. The quiet evening, which is so intolerable, is; the only effectual measure. But perhaps, after the.perusal of the above, the quiet evening may not: an>iin*mitf* gated nuisance.^—The Sanitary Eecord.