physical welfare that they began to rob themselves of their proper rest.
Others found it convenient to follow occupations which obliged them to
work all night and get what sleep they could in the day-time. Night was
considered about the only time that could be utilized, also, for the
activities of social life.

"This condition lasted a long time, with the tendency continually toward
the practice of encroaching more and more upon the hours of rest appointed
by nature. It was then the period of making many laws, and large and
influential legislative bodies began to set a bad example to the rest of
the world by holding their sessions mainly in the night. Newspapers
thought it necessary to appear full-fledged at the break of day, and the
railroads made but little distinction between darkness and daylight in the
matter of carrying people hither and thither. The change was slow, but it
was in the wrong direction. Darkness was driven out by more improved
methods of lighting, and houses and streets were brilliant the whole night
long; and it finally became the fashion in both society and business
circles literally to turn night into day. For a time that remained the
universal custom, strange as it seems to us now, but the practice of
sleeping in the day-time never became natural. This means that the whole
world was living on from year to year without the amount of rest required
to keep the race alive. There could be but one result. A brood of nervous
troubles fell upon us; life began to shorten, and we became aware that a
serious crisis was before us. As soon as we were convinced that we were
bringing all this evil upon ourselves by our disregard of the laws of
nature, there was a change; and it is well for us that there was still
virility enough left in the race to make a change possible. A gradual
reform was instituted which, overcoming many difficulties and delays but
with no serious set-backs, brought us, after long years, to our present
happy way. Of course, our improvement in every other direction, moral as