Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1910 — THE REAL JOY OF LIVING. [ARTICLE]

THE REAL JOY OF LIVING.

Experienced n» Followers of Bavaria* Pariah Prleat’s Rule. Have you ever experienced the sensation of having the dewy grass tickle your toes and the soles of your feet on a beautiful spring morning? If you have you can understand partially with what joy the followers of the rules prescribed by Father Kneipp for the cure of human Illa hall the advent of spring. To them it means relief from the confinement of the bathtub and the real thing again. Only a real Kneipp enthusiast can quite comprehend just what that means. It is a good many years since tho obscure parish priest in Bavaria first popularized the cold water cure after curing himself of tuberculosis, according to his own assertion. Hls followers these days are generally those who have broken down nervously. In New Jersey and other places where the enthusiasts get together in the summer shoes are rarely if ever worn, sandals taking their place. Apparently there isn’t a happier set of human beings than these Kneipp .followers when they are following exactly the rules of the order. Watch them emerge on a bright morning just before breakfast barefooted and barelegged, both men and women, and make for the dewy grass, and you will see them all smiles. Trooping in afterward with their pink feet they are almost ecstatic. It has taken the place of the Englishman’s tub and the Frenchman’s coffee. There is no coffee for them, by If there is one thing the Kneipp follower looks upon with horror it’s coffee, for that is supposed to offset all the good effects of his barefoot stroll. But he is as great an enthusiast on the subject of his malt substitute as the Frenchman might be in respect to the real thing. That and his scorn for the towel might be said to distinguish him. Pulling clothes on over a wet skin is as familiar a struggle with him as it is to the boys at the swimming pool. At a Kneipp resort, where cold Water bathing is as much a part of the day as the” dew-walk, they are adepts at it. It is only when the reaactlon from the cold water begins to dry your underclothes that you get the real Joy of cold water.