SEPTEMBER 1. 1916 



just touch the lever and go the ten feet. 

 It just now occurs to me that I omitted 

 one other trick, and it is something that will 

 apply to gasoline machines as well. When 

 you have learned by practice how far the 

 machine will go by its own momentum after 

 you have cut ot¥ the current or gasoline you 

 will make quite a saving by making it stop 

 of itself at about the right point, without 

 using the brake. The same thing applies 

 to turning corners. When you come to a 

 place where you are about to turn, cut off 

 the current or the gasoline, and the machine 

 will turn the corner by its own momentum. 

 The diiTerential machinery that is needed 

 in all classes of vehicles to enable us to 

 turn corners is an expensive apparatus. 

 When it gets out of repair it is hard to get 

 at, and an expensive job to make good. But 

 if you stop the current or the gasoline so 

 the power that is pushing is cut off when 

 you turn corners this complicated machin- 

 ery is relieved — there is no wear and tear 

 on it. If you consult the daily papers you 

 will find again and again where machines 

 " turn turtle " and kill one or more of the 

 occupants, besides maiming for life several 

 others, all just because the driver turned a 

 corner at too high a speed. Had he cut off 

 the driving power before he reached the 

 corner this could not have happened. 



Perhaps you begin to wonder by this time 

 what our text has to do with running auto- 

 mobiles. Well. I am just getting ready, 

 friends, to talk about something besides 

 automobiles. I have already mentioned, 

 page 558, July 1, what the insurance doctor 

 told me about so living that I shall be not 

 only alive, but in good repair, as long as 

 possible. The experience I had a few weeks 

 ago suggested to me that I was, in a good 

 many respects, very much like that little 

 second-hand electric Stanhope with its stor- 

 age battery and ingenious machinery to 

 store up power with which to run. I suc- 

 ceeded in making the storage battery accom- 

 plish almost twice what it would do without 

 that careful management and study. The 

 machine and the batteries made not only 30 

 miles but clear up to 40 miles. My body 

 and brain have passed the three-score-and- 

 ten landmark, and the question begins to 

 arise, " How much more is it going to 

 make?" You know I have written several 

 times about my forgetf ulness — forgetting to 

 take my mail to the postoffice down in my 

 Florida home, etc. Well, I told the good 

 doctor about my forgetting. He laughed 

 as lie said sornetliing like this : 



" Mr. Root, you should consider that your 

 memory is a part of the machine, and it is 

 icearing out, You must rest it. You must 



not drive it too hard, and you must not 

 expect too much of it. Fi'om what you say, 

 I think it is a wonder that you do remember 

 things in your past busy life as well as you 

 do." 



Just a word riglit here in regard to help- 

 ing the memory. Like everybody else (or 

 at least I suppose so) I have places for my 

 separate tools — hammer, wrench, screwdri- 

 ver, eoldchisels, etc. Now, I have lately 

 decided that 1 had better not leave my 

 things in different places. For instance, 

 just this morning I wanted my little culti- 

 vator wrench. T had used it only an hour 

 before, but it was not in its accustomed 

 place, and I spent quite a little time looking 

 for it. Finally I sat down and said, " Why, 

 what could. I have done with that wrench 

 that I used just a little time ago?" 



After a little brown study I said : 



" Oh, yes ! I decided that the best place 

 for it would be to hang it on a nail where 

 it would be in plain sight where I was culti- 

 vating." 



Then I looked up at the nail, and there it 

 was, sure enough. I had decided hanging it 

 on a nail would be a better place than the 

 one where I had been accustomed to keep it; 

 but the fact of making that decision and of 

 hanging up the wrench had entirely gone 

 from me, and so I concluded that for the 

 rest of my life I had better be careful about 

 putting things in a new place. I told you I 

 had discovered the tired-out batteries would 

 work again with considerable vim if they 

 were " rested " for an hour or two. Well, it 

 is just so with this old body of mine. After 

 I feel that I cannot go any further here in 

 the office, read the letters, or go out into the 

 garden to run the cultivator, a little sleep 

 will fix me all right again. The younger 

 friends all around me take their sleep just 

 once in 24 hours. I do not know at what 

 time they go to bed ; but a good many times 

 I do find them asleep after the factory whis- 

 tle has blown in the morning. (I don't 

 know what time they went to bed). Babies, 

 you know, take short naps, and I begin to 

 think that old people could as well do the 

 same thing probably. I like to be about 

 early, say shortly after daybreak. I delight 

 in seeing the sun rise. Before it is up very 

 far I want my breakfast. This good doctor 

 said my heart would not hold out for long 

 sieges just as it did when I was younger; 

 and he said the heart, in order to do this 

 work, needs a good supply of oxygen. A 

 dusty atmosphere or a confined atmosphere, 

 he said, is a clog on the heart. He asked 

 me if T ever panted for breath. I (old him 

 T often did when cranking my automobile. 

 He s^id the exercise was all right, and just 



