All Want What They Can't Get

1895

How a Certain Little Human Weakness Becomes a Factor In the Furniture Trade.

"John," said a furniture salesman the other day to the mover whom he had summoned, "this bedroom set is sold, but it is not to be delivered just yet. Move it out of the saleroom at once and store it somewhere till I want it."

"What's the use of moving it till you send it up to me," asked the purchaser idly. "Why don't you leave it where it is?"

The salesman uttered a queer little laugh and said:

"It is evident that you were never in the furniture business, or you would not ask that question. If I should mark that set 'sold' and leave it here in the salesroom in plain sight, it would probably lose us several good sales."

"How so?" asked the purchaser, with an unbelieving look.

"It illustrates a universal weakness of human nature," laughed the salesman. "Everybody wants what he can't get, and there is nothing quite so attractive to the average buyer as a piece of furniture that somebody else has bought before he came around. If I left that bedroom set out marked 'sold,' half a dozen persons would say before night that it was exactly the set they wanted, and when they heard there were no duplicates they would fuss around enviously, and nothing else in the establishment would satisfy them.

"Eventually they would go off discontentedly and buy elsewhere, though the chances are if there was no 'sold' tag on the set none of them would give it more than a passing glance, while a fair proportion of them would purchase other sets. It is a little human weakness, that's all.

"So arises one of the tricks of the trade. When a dealer sells a piece of furniture of which he has no duplicates, he hustles it out of the salesroom as quick as he can, lest it lose him other trade, but when he sells a piece of which he has duplicates he puts a big 'sold' tag on it and leaves it in open sight as long as possible for a bait for others." — New York Herald.

Lies and The Liars

1895

THE WORST OF ALL EVILS AND MOST DIFFICULT TO CONTROL.

Growth of the Habit Due In Great Measure to Self Deception — The Causes an Interesting Study — Liars Should Be Shut Up In Asylums as the Insane Are.

There is nothing in the power of the human being so bad as a lie. There is nothing that smirches character so bad as a lie. There is nothing that turns one so against himself as a lie. There is nothing that so destroys the confidence of our friends as a lie. There is no compensation possible for the evil of a lie. It eats back corrosively into yourself, and you cannot get back your soundness. It rarely ever even temporarily makes a profit, and I think in the end never.

The puzzle of puzzles is why some people lie so easily. They rarely undertake to be exact and yet do not recognize themselves as liars. It is their first impulse to avoid straightforwardness, and they plunge ahead in conversation, simply trying to get around point after point. It is a mistake and a misfortune to form such a habit. It grows on the victim, and it increases its power. In nine cases out of ten the simple facts would be easily told, and the telling more advantageous than either concealment or a falsehood, but the habit has been encouraged to misrepresent or conceal, and the whole mental nature exhausts its fertility in a purpose not to be open and honest. When this appears in a person of good ability, mild disposition and industry, it is lamentable.

The power of lying as a habit to grow is amazing. The reason probably is that the liar lies to himself as badly as he does to others — that is, he tries to believe he is truthful until he believes what he says is true, or at least is uncertain about it. I know one or two persons with whom you may say lying is a chronic disease. They talk on at entire random. Their whole life becomes a romance. They may occasionally touch bottom on a fact, but they do it by accident. They do not know it. It is simply because facts are so many as to get in their way. "What an unconscionable liar that creature is," said a friend. "She cannot tell the truth." I am not sure but we should have a new name for this sort of people. The fact is they have lost all sense of the true and the false, as they have of right and wrong. Louis Stevenson's novels are no more a piece of intellectual manufacture than are their everyday conversations. This is true not only of some of the lower class, but of an occasional person in the highest ranks of society. I know an eminent litterateur who is so snarled up among the creatures of his imagination that he cannot tell the real from the fictional. It is dangerous to be his friend, for he is liable to get you woven into a great web of his fancies, and then with all his might he believes you are guilty of absurdities or worse that were enacted only in his brain. he will swear to these "facts" with all sincerity. His life can never be restored to a basis of realities.

There should be hospitals for liars, or retreats, such as we provide for the insane when their cases become chronic and dangerous. They become dangerous to the community, quite as dangerous as forgers and shoplifters, and far worse for our own peace and happiness. If by accident you get one of these people into your household, you never will get the confusion rectified. East becomes west. Love is perverted into evil intent. Even facts fail to tell the truth. Everything is wrong end foremost. Half the suicides come from liars' tongues. The worst cases should be treated as insanity and mild cases sent to a hospital.

It would be an interesting study for an analytic mind to study the causes of lying and liars. It is in some cases no doubt a matter almost wholly of heredity. Mothers and fathers hand down moral traits more easily than they do intellectual. A mother should make it a law of her life to be sincere and undeviating. If not, she is sure to reap a sore punishment in and from her children. Practice a habit of living very open hearted. I do not mean prattling facts all the while, but with no chests locked against your beloved ones. An open heart is better than an open mouth.

I pity a really honest person who has tumbled herself hastily into a lie. The temptation came on suddenly, and before she was able to be quite self masterful she prevaricated. Now, to back out of a lie is like backing out of a slough of mud. You get out with mire on you. But is it any better to stay in the slough and wallow about? There is nothing gained, my friend, by sticking to a falsehood simply because you are ashamed to back out. Be as frank as your better nature suggests and get as quickly as possible on the line of absolute honor.

But there are other causes for the liar's character besides heredity. Society is not based on honor, but very largely on pretenses. The good half of social intercourse is offset by another half of deceit and insincerity. This, of course, is stamping itself on character. People cannot live lies and not be liars. The Quakers felt this social degradation and tried to correct it. Let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil. The Quakers, however, do sometimes lie, and all the worse because they have placed so much emphasis on the yea, yea, as better than yes, yes. But they do not make a mistake in insisting on the importance of words. Social flattery and much of social manners are a cover for lies. There is no truth in it. Are you a social liar? — Mary E. Spencer in St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Imagination Aids Surgery

1895

How a Woman Was Cured of Lameness Which Did Not Exist.

"Imagination is not to be sneezed at," said a prominent surgeon the other day as his eyes followed the brisk movements of a middle aged woman who was passing.

"Three years ago," said he, "that woman came to one of the hospitals of the city and engaged a private room. She drove to the institution in a carriage and was carried to her bed on a stretcher. she insisted that one of her ankles was helpless, and that she could not walk. The house surgeon made an examination and could not discover that she had the slightest ailment. The next day the head surgeon looked over her carefully and came to the same conclusion. What is more, being a somewhat brusque and outspoken person, he said as much to her. At this she was very indignant and insisted upon keeping her bed. No amount of persuasion could induce her to make any effort to walk, and she insisted that her ankle was helpless and so sensitive that the slightest touch of her foot to the ground caused her the most acute pain.

"Finding all efforts to persuade her to do anything for herself fruitless, the surgical staff held a consultation and determined to humor her. Consequently the following day the woman was told that she was suffering from a serious ailment, and preparations for an operation were made with a great parade of nurses, instruments and the like. The patient was then placed under the influence of an anesthetic, and a slight incision was made over the ankle joint. This was merely superficial, although it was several inches in length. It was immediately sewed up, carefully bandaged and the patient removed to her bed, where she found herself when she recovered consciousness. After this she was subjected to the same care that would be given to the most serious cases for two weeks. The wound was dressed daily, the patient was enjoined to remain in one position, and her diet was carefully prescribed. At the end of this time the bandages were removed, the stitches taken out, and a few days later the woman walked out of the hospital as well as you see her today. There had never been the slightest thing the matter with her, but she thought there was, and the pretended operation satisfied her." — Rochester Democrat.

Don't Begrudge Praise

1895

Why is it that, even with the nearest and dearest, praise is so begrudged, while blame is so freely bestowed? In nine cases out of ten the former does infinitely more good and incites to far greater exertion than the latter. Nevertheless, as a rule, the fondest parent, the kindest teacher, the most faithful friend, often hesitates to praise, while seldom failing to censure when the occasion calls for it.

There is ever the feeling latent that the recipient will be unduly elated by any approbation bestowed, and parents and teachers sometimes hesitate on that account to express unstinted commendation, while brothers and sisters and even friends often at heart really begrudge the satisfaction and perhaps self complacency they might evoke by giving expression to the admiration they may honestly feel.

While flattery is ever profuse and easy to obtain, honest praise is a rare commodity, seldom given even when most deserved and grudgingly withheld when most needed. How often a child feels "there is no use trying" simply because his feeble efforts for the right obtain no recognition, while his faults are constantly recapitulated. — Exchange.

Kiss Nothing But A Thrill

1916

Expert Says You Get the Same Sensation Stroking a Cat.

NEW YORK, Sept. 14.—Love is only a chemical reaction; you can get the same sensation by stroking a cat.

Dr. A. A. Lindsay, expert psycopathist, passes this tip out.

"There is nothing in this so-called love; that is, really nothing but the thrill of physical contact, as for instance, in kissing," Dr. Lindsay said.

"After you have kissed the same girl many times the thrill goes out."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.

A Strange Experience

1901

An Atlanta woman who is deeply interested in psychological research relates the following story about an experience her husband had in the realms of the occult:

"We were having a new home built and my husband went to it every day to see what progress was being made. One day as he stood in the front room upstairs his attention was attracted to the street. Looking out of the window, he saw a funeral procession passing from the door and out through the gate. The casket was small, white and covered with flowers. He recognized friends and neighbors in the crowd and through some indefinable impression he understood that the corpse was that of his son, though he had no son at that time. Surprised and startled at the thought, he saw the procession vanish, and he was entirely at a loss how to account for the experience. The hour was noon, and there was nothing in his mood or environment apparently that induced the subconscious.

"Within a few months a little son was born to us, and at the age of 3 years it was carried out of the gate in a flower covered, white casket and followed by the same friends my husband had seen that noontime long before. What explanation can be given of this circumstance and experiences like it that are constantly being related in societies of psychical culture?" — Atlanta Constitution.

A Solomon and Hypnotism

1900

A story is told in Collier's Weekly of a judge who lately had the hypnotic plea raised before him by a burglar. The prisoner claimed that he did not know that he was "burgling," that he did it automatically and unconsciously, under the direction of a hypnotist.

The judge said he would give him the full benefit of the law, and also of his hypnotic misfortune. He therefore sentenced the man to five years' penal servitude, but told him he could, if he chose, send for the hypnotist and have himself made unconscious for the entire term of his imprisonment.

"The same power," said the judge, "which enabled you to commit burglary and not know it ought also to enable you to suffer imprisonment with hard labor and not be aware of it. At any rate, this is the best I can do for you."

Knowledge of Self

1900

A Scientist's Observations of Certain Ways of Children

Dr. Sully remarks that children begin to acquire a knowledge of "self" when they are a few months old, and may be observed grasping, striking and biting their own hands or feet.

A boy, whose feet were stained with new stockings, cried to his mother, "These ain't the feet I had this morning." The trunk is first recognized as part of self; then the head is regarded as the seat of intelligence. A child will "make believe" that it is more than one self and personify its members.

When only a few months old a baby does not know its own face in a mirror until it finds out by experience. Children are often afraid of a shadow at first, but in time refer it to the sun. They attach every importance to their bodily appearance, can scarcely believe that an earlier photograph of them as babies is really meant for them and feel almost new beings when dressed for church on Sunday.

In time the conscious self which thinks, suffers and wills is dimly discerned. A girl of 3 years shut her eyes and believed her mother could see her body, but not her real self. One day she asked, "Mother, am I real, or only a pretend like my dolls?" The same child pitied the fallen leaves dying on the ground. A well known lady novelist when a child was amazed to think that she could feel and act by an internal self, and the consciousness of self came to George Sand one day as a sudden revelation.

Children want to know how their thoughts come to their tongue or limbs and imagine they travel down.

Metamorphosis of self is a common idea among children, who fancy they have been something different at one time. They also find it hard to believe they never existed at all and will ask where they were a hundred years ago. A little boy of 5 asserted that the world only began to go round when he was born. Another gravely said, when passing a street pump, "There are no pumps in heaven, where I came from." Children have a standard of time from adults, an hour seeming very long to them.

Few Women Laugh Heartily

1910

Whether Due to Lack of Humor or Childhood's Training Is Unknown, But Fact Remains

Women laugh too little. Whether this is due to their lack of humor or to childhood's training in gentle manners may be questioned. Certain it is that a hearty laugh in a woman's voice is rare music. An audience of women rustles with amusement, but seldom laughs. A group of girls giggle, but do not laugh. A woman reading the most brilliantly humorous story seldom gets beyond a smile.

When Sir Walter Besant, in his clever skit, "The Revolt of Man," pictured the time in the twentieth century when women should have usurped all power — political, ecclesiastical and social — he shrewdly noted that laughter had died out in England; and when men revolted against their feminine tyrants, they came back to their own with peals of laughter.

A Paris doctor has recently opened a place for the laughter cure. It is a private institution, and large fees are charged. The patients sit around a room, and at a given moment begin to smile at each other. The smile broadens to a grin, and at a signal to a peal of laughter. Two hours a day of this healthful exercise is said to cure the worst cases of dyspepsia. But whether the habit of laughing easily and naturally could be acquired by this process is doubtful. — Montreal Herald.

The Too Sensitive Woman

1910

Those Easily Offended Bring Upon Themselves Many Sorrows That Are Unnecessary

Many are the sorrows of the easily offended. Should she be invited nowhere, it is for spite; should she, on the other hand, be asked to social events, it is for policy, and everyone will avoid her when she gets there.

No one in the world cares anything for her; her friends are false and her enemies many, though all undeserved. Every remark made about her contains a hidden innuendo, and any persons talking whispers in her hearing are gossiping about her.

She believes no proofs of affections, but is haunted always by the thought that the most trusted are the least trustworthy. She takes nothing for granted, but asks permissions and favors that others would never dream of as subjects for question.

And her thoughts are very real ones. It is easy to sneer at the too sensitive woman, but her life is wretched, and there is no one to throw on her the spiritual cold water she needs.

Let her only learn that there are others in the world besides herself, that she for her part has many virtues which must necessarily endear her to her acquaintances, and that if she would have confidence she will gain fidelity, and there will be an end of her, now, and forever!

Hysterical Women

1918

By The Medical Editor

A woman writes that a nerve specialist has pronounced her hysterical and she wants to know the nature of the malady. Professionally this is a much discussed subject. Not that there is any great disagreement about its nature and manifestations but regarding the real cause of it. There are many features about the disease that cannot be discussed frankly in a lay paper, but there are some generalizations which are perfectly proper to propound.

Those suffering from hysteria which is closely allied to other mental disorders, seem unable to properly adjust themselves to their environment. They seem to be lacking in the ability to exercise good judgment in ordinary matters of everyday life. They are likely to concentrate their energy on some emotional subject and go far astray in their deductions.

Hysterical people are those in whom the elements that go to make up personality are loosely bound together.

In mental organization the victims of hysteria are children.

This mental defect leads its victims into strange pathways. They become converts of peculiar creeds and sects. They aspire to be reformers and defenders and what not and they are invariably on the wrong side by virtue of their warped judgment.

—The Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, CT, March 18, 1918, p. 12.

Child Is Wiser Than Man

1910

His Instinct Often Is More Reliable Than the Wisdom of His Parents

The imposition of any form of restraint on the appetite of a child is a relic of barbarism, a blunder on the part of the parents and a sign of ignorance of the laws of nature. Not only is it true that the child is father to the man, but in certain directions he is man's superior in wisdom. The prevailing parental notions on the rearing of children are crude, archaic and altogether unworthy of enlightened twentieth century civilization.

"Children have bottled-up intelligence inside of them," to quote the language of Dr. Woods Hutchinson, and this tells them what is best for them to eat. It is an admirable provision of nature. One cannot overfeed them despite all the old superstitions to the contrary. A child who wishes to eat between meals should be permitted to do so, for his system requires the food. If he displays a craving for sweets, the craving should be gratified, because his appetite is guided by an infallible instinct.

The wisdom exhibited by nature in this matter, as explained by Dr. Hutchinson, leads one to wonder what function parents are intended to perform. If the child's instinct is to be relied upon in everything, then parental guidance becomes superfluous, and parents are of much less importance than they have imagined. — Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Many Powers of Intuition in Life

1910

By Lyne S. Metcalfe

A surface motorman awakened a train of thought not long ago when he stopped his ear shortly at a crossing. There was apparently no one there waiting to get on; a woman was standing on the curb not even looking toward the moving car, yet when the car came to this corner the motorman brought it to a standstill and sure enough the women hurried out of the crowd and clambered aboard.

"How'd you know that woman wanted to get on?" he was asked as the controller was thrown on again and the car started with a jerk.

"Just felt it," he laughed, "didn't know it. A fellow's affected that way in this business. How many people nowadays signal the motorman when they want him to stop? It's some sort of power, I guess, that tells me. I can't explain just what it is."

The patient knight of the motor voiced one of the most bewildering psychological truths found in the entire downtown propaganda, where about every nip and tuck of the human habit, custom or peculiarity finds a shining place. Taking metropolitan humanity as a whole, there are few who do not use intuition in the course of the average workday.

A certain teller in a large Chicago bank recognizes intuition so a faithful and valuable ally, one that can be put to good uses, though one that is not infallible. A "J. Rufus Wallingford" may stroll into this man's bank, toss a thousand dollar check over the counter in a blasé manner and something may "tell" the teller that the check isn't any good.

"I just feel it," he explains this strange power at intuition.

And the check may be turned down or, on the other hand, something may "tell" the cashier that the man is good — he just feels it.

Scoffers are referred to the average policeman.

Does the city detective always know a crook when he plucks him out of a downtown crowd, when the man's back perhaps is turned to the officer of the law?

He feels that the shoulders and neck ahead of him — the head crowned with a battered derby — is wanted. Often he does not know the crook's name and could not tell why he arrests him until the man is hauled back to the station and his photo is found gracing the limelight in the rogues' gallery some months or years back, the intuition in a case of this sort being extremely strong, as records prove amply.

Training for Left-Handedness

1915

Positive Results Not Seen as Anticipated

Some time ago the development of left-handedness in children was warmly advocated by various persons, not only because in this way reliance could be placed on both upper extremities for mechanical work, which would undoubtedly be of advantage in case of serious disturbance of the functions of the right arm, but also because the hope was entertained that by training the left arm a second speech center might develop in the right hemisphere of the brain in the same way as the well-developed right arm corresponds with the speech center place in the left half of the brain.

The Berlin physician, M. Frankel, was especially active in the advocacy of this idea — in fact, experiments in this direction were undertaken in various localities. The practical results which have been so far reported do not correspond in any degree to the optimistic expectations of the advocates of the method, says the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Doctor Schafer, on the basis of permission granted by the school deputation, collected statistics with reference to the left-handedness among about 18,000 pupils of the Berlin public schools. These statistics show that 4.06 per cent of all the children are left-handed, 5.5 per cent of all the boys and 2.98 per cent of the girls. The percentage of children in whom both hands are equally developed is very small, being only .21 per cent. The overwhelming majority, 95.73 per cent of all the children, are distinctly right-handed. In several school districts, among 448 teachers, there were ten who were left-handed.

L. Katscher's work on "Training the Left Hand" was the theoretical basis for the exercises to train the left hand. They included exercises in writing, arithmetic manual training and gymnastics; especially in the last two systematic efforts were made. In general, the result showed that the possibility of employing the hitherto unused left hand at first excited great joy and marked interest, but the physical awkwardness generally was a great hindrance.

The outcome of the whole experiment shows that in no case could a preference for the left hand be developed. It may be trained to be a welcome assistant to the right hand, but never a substitute for it. In teaching writing the complaint is made of a deterioration in handwriting. The children refused to write with the left hand, became nervous and worried over it, and increased intellectual development was in no case observed. Almost all those who gave an opinion were unanimous that the advantages stood in no relation to the expenditure of time, pains and patience.

Why the Years Fly Swiftly for the Aged

1914

Every person of fifty or more is familiar with the fact that as one grows old time apparently passes much more rapidly. "It seems but yesterday" is a phrase often used with reference to duration sometimes of years, and the phrase expresses an actual fact. Of course time does not vary its course. The acceleration is only apparent. Recent psychological researches ascribe it almost entirely to a gradual failure in memory.

In earlier life each day stands out clearly by reason of association with the events that occur therein. These are retained in the memory and help to preserve the sequence of the passing years. But as soon as the mysterious biochemical changes which herald the approach of old age occur the memory begins to fail. Much that happens in intervals between important events is forgotten, with the result that those intervals seem shorter than they really are.

The time between falling into a dreamless slumber and awakening therefrom may be a matter of hours, but because the mind is blank during sleep it seems practically nothing. Dreaming lengthens the apparent interval because it gives the memory some data by which to reckon time. Therefore the more one dreams the longer does his period of sleep appear to him — that is to say, one's apprehension of time is largely dependent upon his memory. The more faulty the latter the more erroneous the former. The years fly by so swiftly for the aged because the aged forget so much of what occurs in them.

Singular New Disease — "Soul Blindness"

1906

Man Afflicted with "Soul Blindness" Cannot Bead or Recognize Pictures

Berlin. — The latest thing in the line of diseases is soul blindness, the name having been devised by Prof. Schuster, of Berlin. It appears that the professor lately had a patient under his care suffering from a lack of mental association. The man was educated and spoke coherently, but could not read; the printed characters conveyed no meaning to his mind. His senses all appeared normal, and there was no indication of physical disease.

He could recognize and name all the objects around him; but printed words, or sketches of the simplest objects, he was utterly unable to name; in fact, to quote the words of the professor, "He could not tell a boat from a tree or a house."

The theory advanced by Prof. Schuster to account for this peculiar condition is, that the connection between the eyes and that particular portion of the brain concerned in the association of ideas has been severed in some manner, and until that connection is restored, the condition will continue.

From what he has seen of the patient, he considers it extremely doubtful whether this important junction will ever be effected.

Character In the Eyebrows

1907

An arched eyebrow does not indicate the highest order of intelligence, but is expressive of great sensibility. Scant growth of the eyebrows denotes lack of vitality. On the contrary, heavy, thick eyebrows indicate a strong constitution and great physical endurance. They are not beautiful on a woman's face, however much they may signify either mental or bodily vigor, and when they are not only heavy, but droop and meet at the nose they are disagreeable and are said to accompany an insincere and prying nature. Long, drooping eyebrows, lying wide apart, indicate an amiable disposition. Where the eyebrows are lighter in color than the hair the indications are lack of vitality and great sensitiveness.

Faintly defined eyebrows placed high above the nose are signs of indolence and weakness. Very black eyebrows give the face an intense and searching expression. When natural, they accompany a passionate temperament.

Very light eyebrows rarely are seen on strongly intellectual faces, although the color of the eyebrows is not accepted simply as denoting lack of intelligence. The form gives the key to the faculties and their direction. Red eyebrows denote great fervor and ambition; brown, a medium between the red and black. — Exchange.

Are Animals Ever "Bored?"

1893

Surely mankind has sufficient faults and failings of its own to answer for without being called upon to assume the responsibility of animal failings as well. An American author has discovered that domestic animals, such as cats or dogs, are not only subject to ennui, but also display their feelings under that infliction after very much the same fashion as their human friends, a fact which no one who has kept tame animals will be tempted to deny.

But from this fact our contemporary, The News, leaps to a perfectly unwarrantable conclusion and boldly asserts that ours is the fault, that mankind has inoculated the beast creation with its own particular disease and that it is civilization "which produces ennui, not only in man, women and children, but even in cats and dogs." "We may well blush," it continues, "when we think how man has demoralized the dog. We have taught the dog to be bored. We have corrupted him by our society." And again, "Ennui is one of man's many inventions, but he has taught the unprofitable vice to the domestic or at least to the household animals — pupils only too apt in evil."

Was ever so monstrous a charge leveled against our innocence! The next thing we shall be told is that we are the cause that dogs do bark and bite and that whatever may have been the morality of Dr. Watts his natural history is no better than his poetry. The News, if it is so assured of the demoralizing influence it has exercised upon dogs, is welcome to blush for itself. We prefer to maintain that dogs sorrow under boredom for the same simple reason that they delight to bark and bite, "for 'tis their nature to." — London Spectator.

Noise — "You Gotta a Problem With It?"

1893

The Philosophy of Noise

Aversion to Disturbance is a Symptom of Neurotic Degeneration

A woman suffering from neuralgia stations her son to keep boys from making noise in front of the house. A boy comes by whistling — a performance in which we must recognize a natural, wholesome and boylike act, whereupon there ensues a short, sharp fight between the pair, in which one is accidentally cut. The upshot is not important; the origin of it is.

It has long been usual to accord special privileges to invalids in relieving them against noise. Formerly straw would be strewn in the street, and thousands of persons who were not sick would be inconvenienced to ease the pains of one who was. In part, this custom was one of ostentation. It could be practiced only by the influential who were exalted by making themselves a nuisance. When death ensued, a hatchment was set up in the same spirit of vainglory. All the windows in the house were closed for a term, the duration of which was fixed by custom, but which bore a relation to the estate of the deceased and the consequent degree of exaltation descending upon his heirs.

All healthy animals delight in noise. The description includes barbarous folk and children. Dogs bark (curs only sneak off), birds scream, boys shout, girls clap hands to their ears in sweet confusion, horses paw, all animate nature responds to the exhilaration of noise. The sick do not. In every form of sickness the nervous function is deranged. As we have seen above mankind has shown its appreciation of this fact by its customs. Excessive sensibility to noise is thus one symptom of neurotic degeneration. It is the mark of one broad distinction between the state of civilization and its opposite. It testifies to one part of the price which that state exacts from man on his physical side.

Within civilization itself indifference to noise is one of the distinctions of a system rudely healthful, both in body and mind. The converse of this proposition is equally true. Whenever a person displays peculiar sensitiveness to noise we may know that the case is one of an unwholesome mind in an unwholesome body. From the fact that the disturbance is essentially a neurotic one it follows that it is controllable to a great extent by the will. Much of the disturbance that is experienced from noise can be put completely aside by exercise of the will. A barking dog may keep one person awake while his healthier or wiser neighbor sleeps the sleep of the just. Under the pinging of the cable car bells a valetudinarian subsides into frenzy while his younger clerk is lapped in dreams of the equally unconscious typewriter on the next floor. The contrast here need not be one of relative strength of mind merely; one of the two minds is sick.

In such a case the willpower is impaired. It would probably be found that the complaining person is also irritable, passionate, perhaps consumed by self contemplation. In many cases of this order relief could no doubt be gained through treatment by suggestion. But in vastly the greater number the patient is competent to minister to himself. He is still capable of exerting the will, and in this exercise lies complete and permanent cure. Furthermore, the cure does not apply alone to the particular noise that may have called for it. It will be found to have influenced the mind permanently. The injurious effects attributed to noise do not proceed from without, but from within. They do not inhere in the aerial vibrations, but in the mental response made to them.

Finally it ought to be observed that the disease is one that increases by being yielded to. The noise that is first noticed as an annoyance in some moment of irritation, anxiety or other nervous disturbance can be nursed into an object of horror. Time was when folks thought sensitiveness to noise to be evidence of high strung character. They were rather proud of it and trotted it forth in public. The world knows better now. It erects hospitals for the Mrs. Wittitterlys, whom it rather admired in Nicholas Nickleby's time. It no longer holds poor Tom of Bedlam for inspired, and since it has learned how much sickness is either a fruit or a phase of ignorance it is getting a little sick of those sick folks, at least of whom it has a right to look for something better. — New York Evening Sun.

Working and Worrying — Men and Women

1916

In spite of the floods of warning from doctors and others thousands of persons keep on working and worrying themselves into early graves, or what is worse for their companions, nervous prostration that makes them unfit companions for themselves or others.

The world is full of trouble, but we are not at all backward about saying that a considerable proportion of the fusses that occur in families and between families has its origin in petulant phrases and complaints that are no sooner uttered than they are regretted. Forced from lips by a peevishness that comes from over taut and overworked nerves, they rip and tear, and we are prevented by the same physical condition from making the instant reparation that we would under other circumstances.

Men as a class have better control of their nerves than have women. This is physiological as well as psychological. They stew and fret less and their work is better fitted to preserve their nerves. If women would understand that they are under as deep an obligation to their husbands to conserve and preserve their physical health as their husbands are to them to keep up for work and thus furnish support things might be better.

—Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, NE, Aug. 5, 1916, p. 4.