we now reach the most important details concerning the keeping of the brain in activity and vigor. having brought you to an understanding of the body, how to take care of it, of all that belongs at the start to make up a successful man, we must put ourselves in a position to know how to live and act so that throughout adult life and up to the age of many years, but not old age, we can get out of us all that is possible.
i speak of living many years, but not getting old. i mean exactly what i say. there is no reason why a man should be old at sixty, no, not at seventy. i do not imply that a man should be able to do the same amount of physical work at seventy that he can at thirty, but i do mean to say that all his mental forces should be under his control at seventy years of age, although he will naturally have to use them with care. a man who has not injured his brain forces should retain them up to the last moment of his life, but as he has not the repairing[139] powers of the younger man, he should be careful of the strain put upon them.
in this latter fact lies the only difference.
having started well in your vocation, trade or profession, with your fine brain-tools edged to their best, you may now proceed to success or gradual failure. for, of course, just having the training and education does not mean that everything else comes along your way. not a bit of it. in fact, you will find at first that the care of the working instruments you now have will take a good lot of self-control and the formation of certain necessary habits.
it all depends upon how you keep your brain-tools what your future will be. whether you neglect them once in a while so that they have to be sharpened again, whether you leave them to rust and finally become useless, whether you lay them aside in good condition and take them up again in perfect order, all these matters go for success or failure. if it is only occasionally you neglect the brain-tools, you must remember that each new act of resharpening them leaves a less keen edge. resting your brain, taking time to recuperate tired cells and enjoying some kind of sport or pleasure that is a benefit instead of an injury to your thoughts, is necessary for every man.
these brain-tools i have been speaking of are your powers of thinking correctly, creating,[140] doing, and the absolute integrity which must be retained between the impulses of the mind and the hands which respond to these impulses. the engineer, the auto driver, the mechanic, the draughtsman, the airman, the man who works in perilous heights while constructing tall buildings or bridges, must have perfect harmony throughout all his body—brain, muscles, eyes, ears. let any one of these senses become unconsciously dull through neglect of right living, and the awful moment comes when an engineer sends a train to wreck with its innocent passengers, a tender pulls a lever a tenth of a second too soon and lets down the derrick’s load upon his fellow workers, or a chauffeur misses the turn by a few inches and sends the auto crashing over a precipice.
it is because these little matters of keeping the brain in its best condition by attending to details of living have not been thoroughly understood, that we have so many unaccountable accidents occurring every day. the knowledge of man’s forces and how they are controlled has not kept pace with his wonderful mechanical and electrical discoveries, so we have gone along with brain, instincts and training well enough for handling the plow and side-wheel steamboat, but not for the safe control of the delicate and powerful machines of to-day.
for example: a young man who runs an auto[141] goes one night to a dance where he breathes foul air, smokes and drinks a little beer. he returns late to his bed and rises early in the morning to take out the auto for a speedy spin. he knew the day before that he was to go with a party of children and women for an early drive. but what he did not know was that the foul air, tobacco and beer would surely make for less correct connection between his brain impulses and the response from his muscles, hands and arms.
now all this little night’s pleasure, while harmless enough perhaps in its way and certainly harmless for a man who was to drive a hack the next morning, was injurious for one who needed every tenth of action between brain and hand under absolute control. there is coming a time when all these matters will be taught as well as the combustion parts of an engine.
in these details i am not referring to dissipation as it is generally considered. we accept without argument the injury such habits do—the certain ruin which follows drink and all that goes with that state. we take this auto driver whom we are using for an example, as a temperate man. and justly considered he is one, but nevertheless he has by this apparently harmless pleasure of one night, gone to work the next day with the fine edge off his brain-tools.[142] when the time comes for the most accurate judgment and an immediate response of hands to avoid the danger the brain sees, there is a part of a second in delay, and then the awful accident happens.
how did it happen? those left alive cannot understand. the right thing was done at the right moment, so all think. the driver was a careful young man, of good habits, temperate, “never known to have been under the influence of drink, and always trustworthy.”
to-day is the day of the brain worker, and the man who lets the edge of his brain become dulled is a danger to himself and whatever he controls. and it is these little things which dull the brain; matters of such little importance in a man’s outward life that no one would suspect the direful results.
you can no longer do as your fathers used to do; we are living in a distinctly different age; we are daily dealing with powerful forces undreamed of in the past generation, and we must make ourselves ever ready to handle these forces.
there has been such a tremendous move in mechanical devices the last twenty years that this necessity of adapting our methods of living so as to safely accomplish the things our brains are called upon to do, has not been fully appreciated. take the case of an engineer who has[143] been on duty for twenty-four hours. the old idea was that he simply became tired, that if he could keep his eyes open, everything would go all right. now i have told you that fatigue produces a poison in the body; so here we see that when an engineer meets with an accident it was not due to merely being tired, but because his brain was being saturated with poisons, and when the moment came to act there could not be the ready response of hands or arms to avoid the accident.
but one class of men and women have known the absolute necessity of keeping the brain clear of poison. this class belongs to the professional circus people—trapeze performers, animal trainers, riders. these individuals live an ideally moral life. not that they are any better than the rest of us, but because they know they have so to live in order to do their work. it is a very old profession, perhaps the oldest in the world, and experience, tradition, training and marrying into their own class—a very important factor—has brought about their unconscious acceptance of the physically pure life.
undoubtedly after a generation or two in the use of our wonderful mechanical and electrical aids for easier living, we shall all be brought to the same method of grading our habits. those who have not the mental vision to see this necessity will cease to enjoy the[144] world’s improvements. they will all become victims of their own stupidity or foolishness.
not only does all this danger in dulling our brain-tools apply to the engineer, electrician, airman, auto driver and the hundreds of other active callings, but it applies also to the writer, painter, musician.
in these latter professions the danger is to the individual, but the result is the same—ruin in the end. the writer loses his force, his biting words; the painter shows a lack of his former color-tone, the musician finds that his latest work is severely criticised.
all these conditions may occur and yet the creator of brain output still remain an average man, not noticeably dissipated. in fact, he may live a strictly moral life, yet show in his prime a deterioration which neither he nor his friends can explain.
this fact brings us to the point of explaining the little and big factors which produce these causes of failure.
it is some little break in the connection between brain-cells that brings about the inability to think and act without effort. when a task is difficult to perform that is usually accomplished without difficulty, you may know that there is a temporary interruption somewhere in the tiny fibers and cells of the brain. something has disturbed their normal action. it is[145] either fatigue poison, the poisons from overfeeding or underfeeding, effects of alcohol, tobacco, or the foul air you have taken into your system. look into the matter and see what is the cause. it is the state brought about by some of these poisons which is at the bottom of all these lapses of full control of self and powers. the most frequent cause for this condition is due to two factors—external surroundings and mental absorption of injurious suggestions and sights.
the external surroundings are most frequently those of which the individual is not fully cognizant. that is, they are constantly at work doing their little injury day by day until they have finally made an impression upon the activity of the brain—dulled its keenness.
first of all these is the breathing of unfresh air. not the noticeably bad air found in tenements, many shops and factories, but the air into which are thrown the emanations of thousands of all kinds and conditions of human bodies. no matter how well ventilated, theoretically, a big department store may be, the air one breathes in it is certain to contain poisons from well and diseased bodies. in most department and other large stores much attention is paid to ventilation, the best possible methods are used. but these stores cannot[146] regulate the personal hygiene of those thousands who enter.
the man who is in the habit of daily and nightly taking into his system nothing but fresh air cannot remain a half hour amid the surroundings of a crowded store without having a headache and a general feeling of sluggishness. always having his brain free of poisonous substances, he rapidly becomes affected with the smallest amount. living amid such atmospheric surroundings keeps the man and woman from doing their best. it is the same with the thousands of men who work in shops among hundreds of their kind; with the traveler who has to sleep in our microbe canisters, the sleeping cars; the theaters where continuous performances go on, and worse than all the commuter who twice a day takes in the poisons swarming in the smoking cars.
it is not necessary for me to enumerate all these unhealthful conditions we have to face every day of our lives. they are here and many of them cannot be changed as long as man and woman herd like sheep, one after the other, to the cities. of course it would be an ideal state if before entering these large department stores, factories, etc., every man, woman and child was compelled to strip and have a hot bath and vigorous rub down. and this idea is not such an impossible one as you[147] might at first think. these very same conditions existed in rome. there every man and woman took a hot bath before and after being in a crowd, whether it was shopping, in the forum, or the amphitheater. there were baths for the poor, for the children and nurses, for the laborer as well as those magnificent ones for the rich and noble. but you see they were all romans. i don’t think we should have much success in getting all of our citizens to bathe. in the hospitals, we doctors sometimes have to use a hose to get any effect upon a certain class of patients. i have seen thousands of men and women who wanted the doctor to give them “something to make them feel well” when plenty of soap and water was all they needed. and they were not the poor, the tramps and outcast, by any means.
i would go farther than the bathing before entering a crowded place. i would have them, after the shopping or factory work is over, pass through a system of breathing exercises in the open air—skin exposed—then allowed to go their way.
but practically, what can be done? get out in the fresh air three or four times a day and take breathing exercises. no matter what the weather is, do this simple thing. at noontime there is always opportunity for ten or fifteen minutes of new life. get it. no matter what[148] the weather is, always have your bedroom window open. better let the snow and rain come in and spoil your carpet than allow the poisonous air expelled from your or other lungs to re-enter your system and dull your working capacity. do not forget what i have already told you when speaking of athletic prowess—that the skin is, next to the lungs, our greatest breathing organ. whenever possible, take an air bath—in your room when the sun shines, when you go bathing in the sea or swimming “in the ole swimmin’ hole.”
never take “headache powders.” the habit of taking any kind of “nerve tonic,” digestive tablets, “harmless bracers,” will in the end put your brain-tools in poor shape. you have now the knowledge of what health means and how to keep it; if you will apply that knowledge with judgment you will be taking the best and only medicine man needs unless a destructive disease attacks you. and here is an important item; the ordinary diseases man is afflicted with will not get a hold upon the well youth.
i thoroughly appreciate the fact that all boys must have some kind of recreation. the working-boy needs it more than the schoolboy. you cease to be a healthy youth when you do not care for recreation, and fun, play and release at certain intervals from all kinds of work[149] is your birthright. but this recreation should be taken in fresh air and with proper companions. while speaking of fresh air i am reminded of several letters from boys sent to me after our last chat. they asked about the same question: “if my father or mother died from consumption, is there any use of my fitting myself for a trade if i am to have consumption?”
we can settle this question in a very few decided words. no matter if your whole family died from consumption, it does not mean you will have consumption. consumption is not a disease you can inherit. now don’t forget this truth. but if you are born of consumptive parents it generally means that your parents did not know the curative value of fresh air. if you were kept in the same rooms where the germs of tuberculosis lived and thrived you ran big risks. but if you got away from these conditions as soon as you knew the danger, then, even if you have slight symptoms of the disease, you can be assured of a complete cure.
fresh air day and night, with nourishing food and plenty of it, will keep you free from consumption. these conditions will cure you in the first stages.
it is very important, however, that the boy whose parents died from consumption should[150] not follow any trade or vocation which keeps him indoors during the growing period of his life. he never should take up any employment which means living in a dusty atmosphere, where metal filings are floating in the air. keep out of button factories. the dust from the old bones used to make buttons and similar articles is apt to irritate the lungs, and when this condition is brought about the germs of consumption find a ready soil to breed in, and they do so.
you need have no fear of consumption if you follow the rule of keeping your lungs clean; fresh air is the broom for this kind of cleaning.
the curse of the public dance halls is not known to you all. i do not speak of the immoral conditions surrounding many of these places, but of the physical conditions. you cannot frequent these poorly-ventilated halls without having poisons circulated in your brains. if you are studying to perfect yourself in some vocation which calls for a perfect adjustment between the brain and hands; if your work calls for the keenest eyesight or acutest form of hearing; the edge will be taken off these tools should you spend your nights where the air is foul, where the skins of careless and ignorant persons are giving off their poisons, where the dust brought in by skirts is[151] swirled in the atmosphere by the dancing crowd.
there is no doubt in my mind that many a boy is started on a career of “laziness,” incapacity and unhealth from the constant intake of poisonous matter always to be found up in the gods’ gallery. foul and hot air exhaled from the lungs always rises upward, so a boy sitting in the gallery really has his lungs over a vast pit which sends up rank poisons for him to take into his system. indirectly this leads to drink, for with a headache, a feeling of weakness and sometimes a dizziness he, at first, takes a little beer. from this to ale and then liquor is the easy path. what can we expect from the brain of such a youth? nothing—that is, nothing good. so at the start of a useless boy and ofttimes criminal, we see it was not vicious tendencies nor criminal instincts, but vicious air which brought about a poisoned brain and this results in a wrong view of things, so the youth takes to anything but real work.
what the hookworm is to the unfortunate troubled by this parasite, the air in the top of the cheap theaters is to the boy and youth. it is worse than the hookworm, for along with the foul air he takes into his system go the fouler suggestions of the stage.
every evil suggestion, spoken or acted, works great harm to your brain-tools. i do not intend[152] to say anything to you about the moral side of evil—that is the sunday school side—and i want you to get this fact well in your minds. i am trying to tell you what are the many causes for not getting along, as well as about those conditions of brain that will put you toward success. to do so i have to warn you about evil suggestions and companions. the moral side of your life will be taken care of if you avoid all those conditions which go to make a weak brain and body.
if the girls who frequent the public dance halls were your equals, if they were fit to be your future wives, i should have no objections to your going there—provided the ventilation was of the best. but you all know in your hearts that you would not want your sister to go to these public dance halls, and that a mother who brought up her daughters in the right way would not allow them to frequent such places and associate with strange men and youths. there are a large number of girls who frequent these places unknown to their mothers, others lie to their mothers about these matters. now, you can put this down as a fact, a girl who will lie to her mother and disobey her will do the same to you if she becomes your wife.
you know all this, i dare say, but i want it deeply stamped upon your mind by one who has[153] had a large experience with these kinds of girls and women. they are not wholly to blame, but we will not go into this subject here.
now if this is the solid truth, do you not see that in these associations you are bound to see and hear things which fill your mind with thoughts and ideas which do not help your mental growth; more, they injure it. it is the same fact over again—the brain is a sensitive photographic film.
when you go to dances see that the hall you go to is well ventilated, that no smoking or drinking is allowed and that those you dance with are girls you can introduce to your mother and sisters. for dances and fun you should have, but see that they are of the sort that the next morning when you take up your work nothing evil enters your mind, that remorse and shame do not crowd out the teaching of yesterday and that you feel more ambitious to work to-day than the day before. if this state of mind is held day by day, you are certain to achieve success. if the contrary state of mind takes hold of you there is a going backwards, and kept up, this state means failure.
then there are those nasty holes, the public “poolrooms.” there is no objection to playing pool, billiards or any games, but there is objection to hanging around in the foul air—you see i am at your health again—the dead[154] cigarette smoke, and listening to the animal language and ideas of the useless youths who make these places their “hang-outs.”
don’t hang around with “the gang” unless you want later to hang with the gang.
the country boy needs this advice as much, if not more, than the city boy. he more frequently becomes fascinated by the evil attractions which reach him than the boy who is surrounded by good gymnasiums, teachers of manual labor and open-air playgrounds. but at heart he is a good boy.
there was a time when the boy who lived on a farm was free from evil suggestions, associations and shows. it is not so now. in fact i believe the country boy has more temptations thrust in his way than the city boy. he has not been brought up to see the outside world as has the city boy; hence, when these evils reach his neighborhood, all is new and fascinating to him. the trolley has penetrated his district and established “white cities,” dance halls have been erected, moving picture shows and other dubious attractions follow the trolleys and are not always under the control of these railways. i have seen picture shows at these places which would not be allowed in the cities. the country fairs have many side shows that cannot but injure every youth who witnesses them, but to explain where the injury comes in[155] is never the duty of school-teachers or parents—at least they will tell you so.
but we must not blame the country boys for flocking to these shows. it is very tempting bait held out for their dimes and nickels. the boy’s life on the farm is devoid of many of the harmless pleasures given to the city boy. there are no places where he and his companions may gather—no boys’ clubs, no gymnasiums. but worse than all his parents seem to lack knowledge of what such a lad needs in the way of real instruction concerning life, of the dangers of associating with the girls brought from the cities to fleece and disease them, and to the dangers around the “white cities” and other public places, which the most innocent lad is liable to fall into.
these boys are to be pitied and not blamed for their sad ends, for it is a fact that in the country towns, especially in new england, there are more useless youths than can be found anywhere else in the land. the harvest of the quacks is gathered from the country boys and girls.
for the boy who is to stay on the land there is but one thing to do. farming being his vocation, he must fit himself to get the best out of his farm. this he can do by attending an agricultural school. no matter if your parents do scoff at scientific farming; you must[156] get out of the old rut and show them their error. the boy must when he returns to the farm during his vacation, realize that he is being given brain-tools,—his education,—and not to dull these delicate instruments he will have to avoid all evil companions and shows. he can demonstrate by this attitude that his mental powers are developing and that he is above those chaps who loaf around the store telling the latest stories and of what they saw at “the pavilion.”
it is your duty, as a growing man, to set this example. from a sense of duty it will become a pleasure. it is only by such examples we can save the thousands of country boys, for many of them, perhaps most of them, will see a new light and a future; something that has not yet come into their vision. you will find that taking a leading part in your community will be far beyond any sport you formerly found at the shows and dances, that you are growing in mind, spirit and power. the boys who refuse to follow your example will be those whom you hire, when they are sober, to cut your wood or pitch your hay. and all of them will have had your opportunities.
to the boy who has wealth or knows he will have it, there is little to say. if such a youth does not use his wealth to develop his powers to their highest degree and also assist in every[157] possible way the progress of the world, there is nothing but universal condemnation. the world to-day has no place for the mere spendthrift and idler. a man of wealth has the right to live as luxuriously and well as he likes, but he has no right to allow his brain to sink to nothingness or by example lower the thinking powers of his fellow men. it does not make much difference what kind of work a man of wealth does, so long as what he does aids instead of hinders his fellow men.
thousands of boys have been made into men through the training they have received in the navy. most of these youths went from homes where never a word of what should have been told them was uttered. especially so is this true of the country boys. their fathers took a colt as soon as it was old enough and commenced to train it, give it good manners and see that it was kept from running wild and with the mares. he took pride in daily making it step lively and surely. he saw that its food was of the best, and proudly drove it around the neighborhood.
but his son was allowed his own way, never taught to keep in the right road, never controlled, never confidentially considered. if such a boy went into the navy, he received the training needed, but which his parents would have neglected. those who have received[158] the fatherly instruction of the navy have been turned out well-mannered, given the best of health and the knowledge of how to keep it. and do not make the mistake too often made that the navy takes unruly boys, those sent away from home or the riff-raff from the cities. the navy will not accept such useless stuff.
if for no other reason i am a believer in a bigger navy, for it seems to me the only way we can control and bring to full and decent manhood the thousands of neglected youths throughout the land. trained, having a vocation, worldly-wise, but not evil or sneaking, these youths are exerting a good example wherever they locate after leaving the service. they bring their brain-tools ashore with them and use them, take care of them and know the fearful results of an immoral life.
so i say to you boys who cannot decide upon just what you want to do, yet know that you must do something, try the navy. there you will find several vocations from which to pick and be trained in. you will obtain a knowledge of the world, broaden your intellect and secure perfect health. when you come out you will be fitted to do something. if you remain home hanging around, you will probably end in being a helpless man—in more ways than one.
yes, helpless in mind and perhaps limbs.[159] why? because the boy who goes through the public schools and then out into the world runs imminent danger of being ruined for life through one fact—he has never been told the whole truth about life.
i have hinted in these chats that there is one factor that does more to injure man’s brain and body than all the ordinary diseases in the world. it is such a big factor in making or unmaking man that i shall only point out here the importance of knowing all about this disease and other troubles following the disease.
this disease is sexual in its origin. of course you all know that venereal diseases exist. you have heard about syphilis and gonorrhea. i have classed them under one disease only because they arise from one cause. besides these two there are many complications arising from both.
now what is the truth about these diseases? why should a boy, girl, everyone, know about these fearful things if they intend keeping away from the women who spread these vile troubles?
just because the danger does not lie altogether in those of evil habits and professions. if the diseases were only caught by those who lived immoral lives, and stayed with these people, it would not be necessary to go into full details. but these diseases do their great injury to the[160] innocent and ignorant—those ignorant of these important matters.
the germs of these diseases are now everywhere—in the schools, public drinking cups, on hotel towels, on the lips of girls who freely allow you to kiss them. they can be left by the cook on the tasting spoon, are found upon the seats of public toilets, on soiled linen, anywhere man and woman goes and works to-day. you may have your eyesight completely destroyed by getting a few germs in your eyes by rubbing your face on some apparently clean towel. in fact, the ways you can contract these diseases are too numerous to mention; you must know them all.
the greatest fact for you to know is how both syphilis and gonorrhea can ruin your brain; gradually, but surely. if you have had some of the germs of syphilis enter your system through the lips by drinking from the shop cup, or perhaps from kissing a good girl who has a syphilitic sore on her lips from a similar cause, deep into your system goes the poison unknown to you until too late. then, if you don’t know the whole truth about these matters, nothing can help you. remember it is ignorance of these subjects that does the harm. if you know what a sore in the throat means; if a pimple on the lips look suspicious to you, then a full sense of what it might[161] be sends you to the reputable doctor and your disease may be stopped from going further.
these are the diseases the quacks thrive upon. these are the “blood diseases,” “kidney troubles,” sores on the scalp and body they advertise to cure. they know you are ignorant of the real truths concerning these awful diseases and they play up to that ignorance and bleed you for all you are worth. and when they get through with you there is a general ruin of both your brain and body.
not one of us can avoid the danger of contracting these diseases; the germs are all around us to-day. you must know all about them to make you safe, your sister safe, your mother from running the risk of giving it to the little baby.
what, for pure, moral persons? yes; these are just the people who should be armored against the plague. knowledge will protect them; ignorance will not.
then there is a lot you should know about the women who directly spread the plague. you must know all these things if you are to start in a career amidst life as it is to-day.
so important is all this subject and everything relating to it that i could not, in these chats, go into the details. but i have written them all down in plain language and have not omitted a single fact about which you should[162] know. the little book is entitled, “plain facts on sex hygiene.”
i cannot thank you, boys, too much for your interest in listening to me. i have, i know, often repeated facts to you, and frequently rambled and been somewhat discursive. but remember these are chats, not studied speeches whose every word has been picked for its nicety. my heart has been always in what i have said to you, and you know sometimes when a fellow feels that way, he lets literary style go hang.
in closing i want to repeat to you the oath of the knights of old. i want you to take to your hearts:
“whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things,—and do them, and for them live and die.”
sex knowledge
judiciously imparted is the greatest insurance toward the development of sterling manhood and womanhood. it is the duty of every man and woman to be informed upon the subject of sex and the care of the body. it is a subject vitally important to every individual.
dr. howard presents facts as they are, and speaks from a knowledge gained through years of study and experience in the great hospitals of the world. he shuns no details and presents a clear cut analysis of the wages of sin and ignorance.
