TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 246, 17 October 1936, Page 3

TALKS ON HEALTH

J (By A FAMILY DUCTOB). j VALLE OF CALMNESS. Three girls go out for a motor drive, ana sudaenly an accident occurs. They are not struck or hurt, but there is a lot of shouting and screaming and fumes of petrol and excitement. The policeman takes the names and addresses, and everyone accused everyone else of being on the wrong side of the road, and tempers run high. Now mark the conduct of these three girls. Mary keeps calm, cool and collected; she speaks with restraint; she keeps the others in order; she remains placid on the journey home, and after a good night’s rest she goes back to work none the worse, and recounts the events to her friends as a great joke because no one was hurt. Good old Mary! She is one of the fine old British breed. 1 hope she will marry and have ten sons. Avoid Hysteria. Alice faints—perhaps she could not help it. She comes to and pulls herself together; calls herself a silly and says she feels all right, and so she goes home. She has a few days’ rest I before going back to work, and then she forgets all about the accident. The last one is Daphne. She adds to the noise and excitement by going off into hysterics. This is always a very helpful thing to do. It consists m lying on the back, kicking, struggling, wagging the head from side to side, pu fling, and blowing, scratching everybody except herself, and in general term making a proper exhibition 'of herself. She gives as much trouble as ten cartloads of monkeys; she is carried home and upsets the whole household. The next morning stays in bed and says she cannot move her toes, or that she is going blind, or that she has a funny feeling all down the spine of her back like spiders. Ensure a Healthy Progeny. I She starts blinking her eyes or I coughing, or trying to make herself sick. No marks, no bruises, no broken j bones, no sign of injury, and yet this , deplorable nervous breakdown. Poor j Daphne; probably heredity made her so silly. I hope she will never get married; it is not fair on the children. If we are pigeon-fanciers, or Dig-breeders, or daffodil-growers, we can pick out the best and ensure a healthy progeny. 1 know we cannot breed men and women like we do daffodils, but oh, if we only could’ If all the girls were like dear old Mary, if the feeble, hysterical Daphnes were unknown. We can do something; we can say to ourselves e\ery morning that if we meet with i a shock we will bear it bravely. We can at least show to our children an I example of complete nerve control, j A nervy mother does direct harm tc i the growing souls of her girls; *he i might just as well hit them over the i head with a hammer. Why will a 1 father lose his self-control in the i midst of his family and all because ■ the plates are cold. His little children ■ notice everything, and their brains are warped at a very early age Little pitchers have long ears. Wf must learn to keep our heads cool u an emergency. I want the next generation to be more stable than th : >