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1I
Copyright 1918. bv th*» Stnr Company
Gr*at Ur It a In Rights Reserved.
Why BASE
BALL Is
The CURSE
OF AMERICA
B> .* 1, K HIRSH BERG
W HBN I make the statement Dial baseball is the
curse of America I am fully aware that hun
dreds of thousands of baseball fans through
out the country are going to experience sudden emo
tions, from a violent opinion of me loudly and profanely
expressed to a shrug of the shoulders and a mild Poor
Doc. He’s ripe for a sanitarium "
Yet the fact remains that this is true, and 1 believe I
even convinced my friend, Hughey Jennings, that 1
had, at least, very good grounds for my argument, from
a doctor s point of view. To put the w hole of my argu
ment in a nutshell, let me say that at one big game in
York there are thirty thousand men who should
be exercising, but Instead are sitting still and letting
eighteen men do their exercising for them.
The average American man, especially the man who
is able to take an afternoon off now and then or still
more frequently, and witnes a hall game, is sorely in
need of exercise. Every possible device should/he used
to get him to exercise. He is living rapidly, always un
der a strain, It is true, but he is not taking the exercise
Nature demands of every man that he may keep his
blood in circulation, his lungs well developed and his
body from being locked up behind or inside of "bars’’
of unhealthy fat.
Taking luto consideration the number of games
How 30,000 Men Who Ou^ht to Be Exercising Let 18 Ball-Players Exercise lor Them
played by the big and minor leagues throughout this
country every year, to say nothing of the smaller games
with big local interest, and computing the number oi
men who every day .it still from three to four hours
watching them, the total is appalling.
This habit, of course, has grown to this extent only
during l he present generation, but it promises to con
Untie to grow. At the same time it will mean coming
generations of people whose lioa'ih will not he a« goo 1
as that of their parents.
The Englishmen scorn to have quite the proper idea
of sports find their true
value. They laugh about
our baseball craze and de
clare it. is not true sport to
let a handful of men do all
the playing for you. They
sa\ that real sport consists
of getting into the game
yourself. That Is why
Iheir cricket fields are
sometimes crowded, with a
dozen games going on at
the same time. And at foot
ball, their rather milder
form of the game is played
by almost every one able to
get out and play. They do
not find it sport to sit and
watch cricket and football
and tennis—their idea is
that the spoti is in being
active.
Now it happens that ihis is just what man needs,
exercise, if he can get it en-joyably, so much the better
ior bint. The English exercise l ocalise they like to do
so, not because they feel they should, which is the ideal
form of exercise, hut exercise because it' is needed, is
far better than no activity at all.
Take the business man the average sort who loves
to attend t*he gall games He will probably boll his
breakfast and get into town and sit at his desk until 1:3<r
or so. Then he will go out, eat a rather hearty lunch and
ride to the bail grounds. Then he
will sit there until the game is over,
or, many times called by darkness.
He may have transacted a lot of
business during those early hours
of the day, but his body tissues have
been taking on fat, his circulation
has been getting sluggish, and if he
is a real baseball fan the only good
tiling can be said about it, physical
ly. is that he is apt to exercise his
the part of hundreds of thousands of American men. the
habit of allowing eighteen men to take onr exercise for
us while we sit idly still or squirm about under the hot
sun This is just where the curse of baseball conies in
This age of "press-the-button-and-something-does
it-for-us" means a coming generation of weaker men,
nor are they going to get stronger until they actually
learn the real value o.’ exercise. When a man gets into
business he seems to think he exercised all that was
necessary during his school and college days, but he
needs the exercise as much, even more, in middle age.
It is all this that makes
THESE 30.000 MEH ARE ALLOWI* THEBE lftMEN tTODO ALLTHErE
EX&ECISING THEM
lung; shouting during the intense
moments of the game.
Our present day habits—those,
who are successful—of overeating,
together with the limousine, the trol
ley car, steam heat, electricity, ele
vators and scores kxf other things
that do our work, hut more espe
cially exercise for us, are all unwise
and bad for us. But add to this, on
the business man die at
fifty. It is true one active
American business man may
have had more experience
at fifty titan six Russian
peasants who live to be 100,
but experience is one thing,
life another, and why waste
half a life to gain a little
experience, when long
years, brought about by
right living, mean more
happiness and comfort than
any ten business men could
crowd into their fifty years?
If every baseball fan
would walk two miles to the
game and two miles away
from the game, the national
sport of baseball would
prove a blessing to mankind
and to the country, but Americans will not do that; they
will ride in a stuffy subway or surface car or limousine
and ride just as close to the seat they are going to
occupy in the grandstand or bleachers as they can pos
sibly get.
All these fans, who are really good felows, enjoying
the cleanest, most entertaining and harmless of all
siports in the world, should always remember this
infallible law of the physical world, and that is that the
neglect or disuse of any living tissue or organ of the
vital cosmos, is followed by the emaciation, decay n<j|
final shrinkage of such tissue. The consequences, there!
fore, of diminished muscular exercise, reduced mental
application overlndttlgence of stimulants, overfeeding
are all plainly evident All this may seem to be a rapid
flight through a very pleasurable life, but It Is actually
quite to the contrary. The intensity of efforts ex
pended in wealth -getting, theatregeting, restaurant-din
Ing, turkey-trotting and BA8EBALL PANNING ;> actu
ally destructive to the most vital organs qf the body,
namely, the muscles; the stomach, the kidneys and the
intellect.
"Baseball is a great sport, dot tor." my friend Hughey
Jennings once said to me.
"It certainly is for you and Gobi) and Chance and all! 1
the other active players, but it is not good for the hun
dreds of thousands of American citizens who view it
for two or "three or more hours every beautiful after
noon."
Of course, Jennings first thought I was joking, then,
for a time, at least, i am sure be thought I had become
mentally unbalanced but when I explained that while/
lie and all the other ball players were gaining firm
muscles, quick judgment, good health and all that there
were hundreds of thousands who were allowing their
muscles to becotnd fiabhdier and flabbier and their
health to become sldwly poorer and poorer because they
sat still and watched.
"Which would you rather do all Summer, sit in idle
ness and watch the games, or take an active part in
them?"
"If you get me cornered like that, Doc,” said Jen
nings. “T must admit I'd probably pine away and pass
on if I had to sit still all the season. But It’s a great
game!” >
it IS a great game, and deserves its patronage, but
it will remain a curie to America until such time comes
when every American will know enough to walk, run.
row. play tennis and golf and take other exercises
daily that will give him a clearer brain and a healthier
body.
If the baseball fan can afford no spare time except
what he takes during the game, he had far better watch
four and a half innings and then walk or run around
the ball grounds during the other four and a haif in
nlngs.
The Need ot Mixing COMMON SENSE with TOBACCO I Trees and INSECTS THAT
By Dr. ANDREW WILSON
I N the rush of modern life, where the tendency is tv
develop the neurotic constitution, tobacco may be
regarded, In my opinion, as a kind of saving clause
in the history of modern man. But there is always
just this much about the use of tobacco—common
sense must be well mixed with it. in other words,
the man who finds he is smoking to excess and
doesn't stop, lacks common sense. The boy who be
gins smoking is really old enough to know that it
hurts him and will hurt him until be lias reached
maturity, consequently he lacks common sense if he
continues to smoke during the days of his body and
mind building.
There can be no doubt. I think, that ou the whole
tobacco represents a harmless form of enjpyment to
those who use it in moderation and with whom it
agrees. Tobacco is injurious to the young, and I
should not hesitate (o affirm that the prevalent prac
tise of cigarette smoking by boys may tie at the root
of a considerable deal of ill health, dependent on the
fact that tobacco acts in youth by cheaking the due
nutrition of the frame.
The adult, on the other hand, may smoke through
a long life-time, and not merely enjoy his pipe, but
experience benefit therefrom. Where tobacco acts in
juriously on the nervous system we Hud either a ape
cial predisposition on the part of the subject, which
unfits him to consume tobacco, or we discover him
to be using it In excess, in the first case, the man
should lie the judge of his own requirements in the
way of tobacco consumption. If the weed interferes
with his health or comfort, he will be acting only a
common-sense part by renouncing its use altogether.
There is in this case no middle course. While for
the vast majority of men smoking presents itself as
a habit which has for its outcome, the production of a
soothing and calming Influence, there are individuals
upon whom it acts either with poisonous effect, or at
least may be productive of injury.
The effects of tobacco, when taken in excess, on
tlie nervous system are manifested in different ways.
There is first disturbance of digestion, then eye symp
toms may be prevalent, ending in temporary loss of
sight or tobacco amaurosis, as It is professionally
termed The further action of tobacco is seen in ir
regularity of the action of the heart, producing what
medical men call "smoker's heart." The pulse is ir
regular and tlie heart’s action enfeebled, with the
result that the general nutrition of the body becomes
in due time affected Irritability of the nervous sys
tem due to the depression Induced by the excess will
also appear, and the otherwise beneficial effect of to
bacco is thus converted into a positive evil. The
remedy for t lx is state of matters is, of course. obvious.
The doctor will Aviso complete renunciation of to
bacco, he will probably order tonics, end if the itidi
vidual is completely run down, change of air will also
be proscribed
1 may here refer to one phase of the tobacco ques
tion, which of late years has come prominently into
view 1 allude to the habit of cigarette smoking tit
large, and to the indulgence by women of this form
of enjoyment. The cigarette is no doubt a convenient
and handy method of enjoying a whiff, but it is an
insidious form of tobacco smoking, seeing that the
consumption of cigarettes by the ordinary smoker pet-
day tends, as regards the amount of tobacco and the
effects thereby induced, to exceed both phases as wit
nessed in the average man who smokes pipe or cigar.
There are many men who appear to smoke cigarettes
from morning to night, and even the dinner table is
not sacred front tobacco fumes. In addition to the
danger of excess thus induced, we have to take into
consideration the facts of inhaling the fumes of the
paper and the results of this feature of cigarette smok
ing on the throat. My contention is that there is
greater danger of injurious excess in the matter of the
cigarette habit than where tobacco is consumed in
pipe or cigars.
On women one may well be convinced that the
effects of tobacco are much more easily produced
than in men. The woman’s nervous system is, speak
ing generally, of a more highly strung character than
that of the matt. She is more active in thought, more
intuitive, more keen in her perceptions, than her lord
and master, and, physiologically speaking, her nerv
ous system is therefore more liable to develop the un
stable state. Cigarette smoking by women may physio
logically not be condemned, whatever society manners
or the canons of good taste may have to say to the
practise, but medical men know of irritable hearts and
like symptoms being tlie inevitable results of even
moderate indulgence in tobacco by many women.
Argument here seems to lie in the direction of id-
/ising wombn to be more than careful of the tobacoo
habit. It is a feature of their nervous constitution
that the effects engendered in ihem are of a much
more decided character than in the opposite sex.
FORECAST the WEATHER
M
ANY woodsmen claim they can tell
whether a Winter will be severe or
mild by means of the growth of bark
on tree trunks of saplings, the growth being
much thicker some years than others and
an unusually cold Winter invariably follow
ing when the bark has grown thick. They
also declare the moss or lichens that grow
on the north side of many evergreen trees
will be heavier during the season preceeding
a cold Winter.
Gardeners look at the caterpillars as a
means of foretelling the sort of Winter that
is coming. Of course these observations have
to be made in the Summer and Autumn. Last
Fall there was printed in these pages an
article from John T. Timmins, of Birdlawn
Conservatory, who declared the Winter
would be unusually mild. He based this
forecast on the fact that the caterpillars
had no dark stripes down their backs. The
writer averred that when the dark stripes
ran full length and were quite black it
meant a cold Winter, when the stripes ran
but half way down the backs of the cater
pillars, it meant a medium Winter and when
there were very light stripes, scarcely no
ticeable, it meant a mild Winter. He said
the caterpillars of last Summer and Autumn
Keeping Waste
Pipes Clean
A LTHOUGH the waste pipes 111 your
kitchen, washstands and bathroom
may never become clogged up, yet j
unless they are cleaned there is a great
amount of dirt that lodges in the trap which
In time becomes dangerous Water may
back up in the drain pipes and force this .
dirt, which becomes a black slinte. into the
sink, causing all sorts of dangers.
It is a very simple matter to keep these
pipes cleaned, and there is no danger, either
from the filth or front gases that may result
front the accumulating and decaying matter
there. Make a quantity of strong lye, the
liquid potash variety. Any druggist will
tell you what quantity to mix to make it '
what is known as 36 degrees strength.
For a kitchen sink it will take a pint to
fill the trap. For the bath tub and wash-
stands it will take a quart for each trap.
Just before retiring pour this down the sink
and make sure no water is allowed to run
down that sink.
In the morning the first current of fresh
water through the w aste pipes will clean out
the trap and leave it like new. This is be
cause the strong solution of liquid lye ac
tually converted the thick deposit of dirt and
slime in the trap and sides of the pipe into
soft soap, and so with the fresh water it all
dissolved, loosened up and was washed away.
If this is done say every six months the
pipe*-, will always be clean enough to give
assurance of no danger from poisonous
gases or even germs from these traps should
their contents suddenly back up and part
o' them dry about the edges of the sink.
It is a cheap and effective way to do away
! th ail dangers of dirty drain pipe traps.
Eggs Should Be BOILED Either TWO MINUTES or TWENTY
M
ANY people have curious ideas about cooking
eggs, and many people who eat eggs because
they are so healthful really lose all the benefit of
the eggs and injure their digestion because they do not
know how to cook them.
Raw eggs are probably the healthiest form of the egg.
and, to those who cannot take them raw. they may be.
well shaken in milk, but the great majority of people
spoil the good effects by adding sugar. Just a pinch of
salt instead of the sugar will make the egg more
beneficial.
Eggs boiled three to five minutes are eaten by thou
sands. and to many take the place of meat, but they are
not as health-giving as most persons imagine. The eggs
thus prepared are more difficult to digest titan eggs that
are more thoroughly cooked.
Physicians declare an egg that is boiled should not
boil more than two minutes, or they are hard on the
digestive organs unless they be boiled for from twenty
to thirty minutes. Most persons seem to think an egg
boiled so long would lay like so much lead in the stom
ach, but this is a mistake, for it has been found that
eggs boiled for a long time are very easily digested,
and the nutrition seems to be more easily taken up by
the tissues of the body.
Hospitals use the long boiling process, and it is de
clared patients are greatly benefited by the new way
ol preparing eggs.
It patients in tlie hands of expert physicians and
mirsef are benefited by the proper cooking of eggs, it
stands to reason the people who are well may be kept
in better health by the use of properly prepared food
in the form of fresh eggs. The greatest difficulty, some
will say. is in the time required to have eggs served.
This is a mistaken idea. Hotels and restaurants can
very easily prepare for cooking the eggs, and they can
be served as rapidly as those cooked a much shorter
time, as they can be cooking prior to the serving hour,
and it is not difficult to keep the cooked product in fine
shape for an hour or more.
In Paris the long boiled eggs are served extensively,
and physicians say they can see a difference in the
health of the people.
Such a diet would improve the health and strength
of our city folk who have for years simply bolted much
of their food improperly prepared, and are suffering
greatly for so doing.
The Real REASON FOR ROCKING Our BABIES to Sleep
1 WONDER how many mothers when they rock
their babies and sing "Rock-a-by-Baby in the
Tree-Top," know they are only saying about
what our ape ancestors crooned to their children.
These hairy babies were literally rocked to sleep
in the leafy cradles among the trees. To us lias
come down without much change, except the de
scent from tree branches to the nursery cradle, the
rocking habit of putting baby to sleep.
it is a primitive form of hypnotism- the steady,
monotonous rhythm of voice tones and cradle move
ment. As the child grows old enough to walk the
same rythmic habits are kept up. Hop-skip-and-
iump, ”ring-around-the-roses," rope skipping, all
children's games, show how the inborn traits of our
happy, hairy ancestors are still with us and still
active.
This swaying, leaping Trait is a demonstration of
our former existence for hundreds of thousands of
years among the trees. Man’s upright position and
extraordinary brain development are too recent a
state to have caused a muscular and nervous edu
cation, which was necessary for the protection of
life, to be entirely eliminated. And in many cases
this is a fortunate condition. It saved many lives
A.—The Ape Mothers of Our Ancestors Rocked Their
Babie? to Sleep in the Swaving Tree-Tops. B.—The
Mothers of To-day Have Imherited the Habit of Rock
ing or Swaying to Lull Their Babies to Sleep.
in those disastrous floods which devastated the
Middle West a few weeks ago. The men who slung
their babies upon their backs and walked wire ropes
to safety: the women who clung to harrow ledges
and window sills; the children who moved over
slender beams and made their way to safety by go
ing down swinging ropes and cables, owe their
lives to the fact that arboreal instincts were in
them and subconsciously utilized.
And the imitative powers of a past are stronger
yet. How* quickly we all fell under the influence
of rag time, turkey trotting and all the other
rhymic, swinging traits of a race still bearing dis
tinct evidences of a free and unfettered forest life.
The patting, the regular shuffling of feet, can be
seen to-day in a gathering of apes or in the play
of chimpanzees as they make rhythmic sounds by
"beating the tree trunks and bark.
The love of climbing so active in healthy boys;
the delight in swinging, see-saxving and flying rings
which every girl shows, are only the' inherent in
stincts and pleasures of anthropoidal life. We see
evidence of this past life in the new born babe,
for it is covered all over with a very fine hair. Its
clothing, baths and environment kill the growth,
but not the proofs of a descent from hairy babies.
had scarcely any visible stripes at all, and
his forecast seems to have been as accurate!
as possible.
It is not necessary to be a student of nat au
to learn much concerning the weather, if ;
claims are true. It is said crickets w
chirp slowly if it is going to be colder au;
ing the next day or so, and again chirp v :
greater rapidity if a warm spell is coming .;
Other animals and insects seem to act as
barometers, the ordinary frogs, although
called green, have a great, deal of yellow
about them. While this remains a clear or
bright yellow, fair w*eather may be expected
to continue, but it is said that when the
yellows begin to fade and become rather dull
and of a brownish color, bad weather is ap
proaching. Nearly everyone knows about
the spider that makes his web on the grass.
Throughout the Summer one may see thou
sands of closely spun cobwebs spread out on
the grass, under rose bushes and such places,
with • always a little hole In these webs
where the spider goes to hide.
If your lawn is well dotted with these
"’ebs in the morning, regardless of how
cloudy it may be, you are safe in assuming
'5 JJ 1 ” be a fair day, at least for more
than half the day. As far as known these
spiders will not spin their webs if it is going
to ram that day,
Bho Invented
Real Paper?
T HE question of who invented real paper
das apparently been settled by means
of a catalogue of manuscripts in the
Royal-Library of France, made by a Greek
scholar at the command of King Henry II.
of France. In this cataloguer’s own hand
are found notes to the effect that "real
paper” originated in Damascus.
I o make a difference between the sort of
paper that was in use in China hundreds of
years ago, arid the beginning of the sort of
paper we use to-day, our paper is called
real paper." This is because the Chines;
used silk for their paper, which was after
all more of a sort of pulpy silk than re?’
paper.
And while silk was common enougn ip
China back in the seventh century, it was
not plentiful elsewhere and so the Chinese
so-called paper was extremely rare and ex
pensive in other countries. Of course writ
ing was done on cavern walls, on tablets ol
clay, on slabs of gold and tanned skins and
then papyrus, but in about the seventh cen
tury some Arabs discovered that paper
could be made from cotton.
So our first real paper, as Tar as can be
learned to-day, was made in Arabia, where
there was actually a paper factory in f dera
tion in the seventh century using cottoi
which was plentiful. To the Arabs, then, we
seem to owe our present paper a swell as
our numerals It was not until the four
teenth century that paper was made from
flax, linen, hemp and such -things, and, of
(ourse. still later that the cheaper sorts of
paper were made from wood pulp. Both
lta!> and Germany claim the honor of first
making linen paper.