Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1917 — Our Failing Physique-Something to Worry About When Other Subjects Fail [ARTICLE]

Our Failing PhysiqueSomething to Worry About When Other Subjects Fail

When all other subjects for’ fall we can always fall back on the deterioration of the national physique. An insurance man makes the latest contribution to this fascinating discussion. We learn that out of 1,300,000 applications for life insurance each year 100.000 are rejected. A pen picture of the average American protrays him as hustling too much for the good of his health. “His hair has aged and he is getting bald. His digestive organs have been given so many new nnd arduous duties to which they _a.re not accustomed that they are showing signs of rebellion. He is seriously overstraining his heart, arteries, kidneys, nerves and digestion. Under exertion he is short-winded. His 400 muscles are virtually all soft from lack of use. He-never walks when he can ride. The arches of Ms feet are gradually falling because his .. luscles provided to hold them up have weakened by long disuse.” It seems that the average American has about every disease except housemaid’s knee. Is the picture a true one? Are there not many exceptions to this gloomy appraisal ? How about the hosts of baseball and football players among the younger and the golf enthusiasts among the older men? Bowling and basketball are popular sports just now. Should not their thousands of devotees help to raise the physical average? The business men’s classes in our gymnasiums ought to afford a little gleam of encouragement.. Even the billiard players get a certain amount of wholesome exercise. The patrons of the skating rinks do not present exactly an emaciated appearance. May it not be that health and mortality statistics are kept a little moreZstrtctly and accurately nowadays “than formerly? There are tests, too, for life insurance, such as that for blood pressure, for instance, that were unknown a few years ago, and these tend to reduce the number of successful _ applicants, But, of course, if 1 one really .wants to worry over the degeneration of the American physique, these considerations can be ignored.—Pittsburgh Chronicle.