Evening Round Up.

by William Crosbie Hunter.

FOREWORD

Each evening, just before retiring, we will have a little Round-Up of the day's doings, of the problems in our business and home life, of our hopes and ambitions.

We'll try to solve perplexities, dissolve worries, absolve ourselves from pull-backs, and resolve to better our lives.

We'll plan and prepare that we may have more poise--efficiency--peace; that's Pep.

We'll learn how to establish helpful thought habit that our lives may be full of gladsome notes instead of gruesome gloom.

We'll aim at

LIFE--LOVE--LAUGHTER

These, then, are the purposes of this book.

WM. C. HUNTER, Kansas City, Mo.

July 18, 1915.

WORRY

The Nerve Racking Pace That Causes "Americanitis"

Nervous breakdowns are increasing as a result of the American worry phobia.

This high tension Americanitis presumes too much upon nature, by persistently forcing the nerves to carry loads far beyond their capacity.

So many people are pleasure mad, they become so deadened by excess of enjoyment and indulgence that ordinary pleasure is uninteresting. They seek unnatural excitement, original methods and unusual activities to appease the appet.i.te. Then they become blase and const.i.tutional pessimists.

It's a maddening, nerve racking pace they go. To keep up the gait there is an incessant battle for wealth, and the struggle wears and weakens the nervous systems.

Both men and women go the terrific gait. Men and women having this health-destroying worry, mate and marry and they lay foundations for deficient progeny that suffers from the sins of the parents.

The phobia is almost universal; it has permeated all cla.s.ses of society from highest to lowest.

Excitement, that's the keynote; for the rich there is society and polo and useless functions and conventions.

Society is a game of cards, not only playing cards for money, but the card convention of paying calls by leaving pasteboards in lieu of the old-fashioned visit.

Society is the builder of fourflushers, the generator of insincerity--falsehood and rottenness.

For the poor, the aping of the rich, in dress the wearers can ill afford, the picture shows, the cheap theatres, the automobile, bought with a mortgage on the home.

It's rush, push, excitement at any cost. The great cost which they don't seem to consider is the cost of the nerves.

We all enter the world with an abundance of nerve energy, and by conserving that energy we can adapt and adjust our nerve equipment to keep pace with the progress and evolution of our times.

The way to preserve and conserve nerve equilibrium and power is to rest and relax the nerves each day.

You may rest them by a change of the thought habit each day, by relaxation, by sleep, and by suggestions made in this book.

There are few advance danger signals shown by the nervous systems, and in this there is a marked difference between the nerves and the organic system.

If you abuse your stomach, head, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys or eyes, you have distress and pain.

The nervous energy is like a barrel of water; you can draw water from the faucet at the bottom until you have almost exhausted the contents.

Nature mends ordinary nerve waste each day, like the rains replenish the cistern.

A reasonable use of your nerve force, like a reasonable use of the rainwater, means you can maintain a permanent supply.

But you must be reasonable; you must give the cistern a chance to refill and replace that which you have drawn out.

You, who have shattered and tattered your nerves, are not hopeless. You can come back, but it must be done by complete change of the acts that brought on the condition.

Get more sleep. Eliminate the useless, harmful fads, fancies and functions, which disturbed and prevented you from living a sane, rational life.

Avoid extremes, cultivate rhythm and regularity in your business and your home life. Keep away from excitement. Read really good books. Walk more, talk less.

Eat less heat-making foods and more apples. Follow the diet, exercise and thought rules suggested in "Pep."

Maybe these lines are being read by a discouraged one who is "all nerves," which means lost nerve force. To you I say there is hope and cheer and strength and courage if right here, now, you resolve to cut the action, habits and stunts that knocked you out and follow our suggestions.

I know, my friend, for I've trotted the heat, danced the measure, and been through the mill.

Now I am fearless, calm and prepared. I can stand any calamity, meet any issue, endure any sorrow.

I can do prodigious work in an emergency, go without rest or eating when required, because I have Pep, which means poise, efficiency--peace.

I realize nothing bad is as bad as it is painted. Nothing is as good as its boosters claim.

I go in the middle of the road, avoiding extremes. I have confidence in my heart, courage, hope, happiness, and content.

I've buried envy in a deep pit and covered it with quick lime.

I am keeping worry out by keeping faith, hope and cheer thoughts in my brain room, and these are antiseptics against the worry microbe.

I have my petty troubles and little make-believe worries, just enough of them to make me realize I have them licked, and to remind me I must not let up on my mastery of them.

Worry growls once in a while just to make me grab tighter the handle of my whip.