with
less fatigue and better mental condition if the stomach be not on duty
at the same time. In this I speak with the authority that comes from the
study of the experiences of trainmen during many years: with one accord
they speak of their trips as taken with clearer heads and stronger
muscles than when large meals were thought a necessity while on duty.

With an empty stomach it takes a very long time to get into such
torpor--drowsiness--as compels the after-dinner sleep. That engineer who
once told me of such sleepiness as made him nod while on duty was not
suffering from either lack of sleep or overwork of his body: it was
simply a case of the torpor of indigestion, and this was when there was
no block system to lessen the danger of such services.

There is a great deal of imperfection in what man does for man that
comes from the indifference arising from the torpor of untimely food,
and far more than there is any conception in what man does against man
from the destruction of power in this way.

There is now one of the Erie conductors who five years ago was losing
at least half of his time from asthma; there is another who was equally
disabled from sudden head symptoms that would immediately disable. These
men have lost no trips since they began to run their stomachs with the
same care as their trains. And there is an engineer whose trips to the
physician and to the drug-store for many years were as frequent as those
to his engine. There has since been a half dozen years of wiser care of
his stomach, and his wife says that the change for the better in his
disposition is beyond description. These men have rendered far more
service, and who cannot see that these services have been of far higher
character for the company, and that they have been infinitely better
husbands, fathers, and citizens?

The following case will interest trainmen: D. S., a brakeman, reached
the burden of two hundred and forty-six pounds, with resulting
breathlessness and other ailings that taxed all his resources to perform
his duties. He was induced to cut down his daily food as the only means
for relief, and to add to his strength. It took him a long time to
master the fact that his strength was not kept up by food, but the
gradual loss of weight with the general improvement made this more and
more evident. He finally reached a time when he was able to make his
round trip of one hundred and ninety-six miles without a morsel of food
the