Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1891 — Supersensitiveness. [ARTICLE]

Supersensitiveness.

A person who has not done anything to distinguish himself is generally not allowed queer habits. Eccentricity is not for common people. But for Washington Alston, one of America’s most noted_ painters, a’l things were right. His excessive sensitiveness was shown in many ways. When Indig. rubber overshoes began to be worn he was induced to purchase a pair for his health’s sake, but he could never put them on or remove them except with a pair of tongs. But that same delicate sensitiveness showed itself in another way. His scrupulous consJience was Illustrated by an incident occurr.ng in 1816, when he was in urgent need of money. He had just found a purchaser for one of his pictures, but thinking the matter over alone in the evening he concluded that the subject of the painting was such that at some time it might have an immoral effect on some perverted imagination. He Immediately went to his pat-on’s house, paid back the money, took the picture home and burnt it This was sensitiveness worth having. There is no more hurtful plan for any young man than to buy a thing on the installment plan, especially things of which he has no pressing need, such as watches and jewelry. When you have the money to spend and are not in a mood to invest it so that it will increase your wordly possessions, we can certainly not object to your spending it as you like. But to run into debt for things you can easily get along without is simply suicidal. The Arkansas girl who was without shoes and stockings, and comfortable clothing for the winter, felt that she could get along without those presumed necessities of life, but feelingly remarked she “was suffering for a bosom pin.” Too many young men seem to be suffering for gold watches. Buy what you can pay for and defer some luxuries till you can afford to pay for them.

The Empress of Austria is said “to smoke Turkish cigarettes,"sometimes destroying as many as forty a day. This article of cigarette is by no means the vile component bought by boys for five cents a fistful, and is no argument in favor of cigarette smoking. The brand of the article used by the Empress might not shorten life more than twenty years, while those used by the pallid young idiots on our streets shorten life by onehalf. Let the process of removal go on. I would rather dwell in the dim fog of superstition than in an air rarefied to nothing by the air-pump of unbelief, in which the panting breast expires, vainly and convulsively gasping for breath.—Richter. The birth of her child brought presents of a dozen cradles to the Duchess of Fyfe, a pointed encouragement of an “infant industry.” Thebe is nothing which this age, from whatever standpoint we survey it, needs more physically, intelectually, and morally than thorough ventilation.— Ruskin- ___ Almond meal sprinkled in the bath makes the skin soft and white.