Page:The Road to Wellville (1926).djvu/8





average person enjoys health, physical free-dom and full vigor, only from ages eighteen to thirty-one. This alarming fact is shown by the United States Life Tables for 1920. Earning power decreases rapidly after forty. That period commonly called “the prime of life” is actually an age of decay. This may sound sensational. But it is true, and the wise man or woman will give it serious thought.

But why be the average man or woman?

Nature never intended the normal body to give only thirteen years of maximum service. Wrong living is to blame. Too little exercise, lack of sleep, over-stimulated nerves, careless eating—these slow up the human machine long before slowing up is necessary.

Isn’t it wiser to take a few common-sense precautions to extend the thirteen years