Habits of German Authors.
By J. H. Waggoner
MANY have wondered at the great amount of labor performed by German authors. The number of books produced by some of them is truly marvelous. A correspondent of the N. Y. Independent says it is all owing to their habits. The following is, in part, his description of the habits of the German literary man in regard to labor and diet:— "The German author, moreover, owes a large degree of his productiveness to his simple diet and regular hours for sleep and rising. He rises early, and never touches any work until he has taken a cup of coffee and a biscuit. He never puts his brain and eyes into harness and under spur and whip without a little food to start with. At 10 he takes a light lunch, such as a sandwich of bread and cheese; and goes to work again, and sticks to it until about 1 o'clock. Then it is all over for that day. He has performed an immense amount of literary work. Six solid hours, and not a minute lost in painful digestion of ham and eggs, beefsteak, hot rolls, and blankety buckwheat cakes. As for hot bread, he never saw any, in all probability; for all the bread comes from the bakers, and is served cold twice a day. If by an oversight he should eat a couple of steaming soda-biscuits, it would cost him a whole day's work; for he never could bring himself to the belief that he has the capacity to digest hot bread. He would moan and smoke, and declare, in spite of the papers that the French are marching straight for Berlin. The dinner is plain but plentiful; the supper is light, with black bread as the staple. With the fiber and strength from one day's food he does the work for the next; hence digestion gives him no trouble or thought. He no more thinks of his stomach than of Barbarossa's falcons. Of course, he smokes a good deal; but even this, I have noticed, he pushes off largely into the play-hours of the afternoon." Although this might be somewhat improved upon, it is surely a great improvement upon the habits of the average author of the United States. Here the work, instead of being done in the early day, is done largely by lamp light. And as authors in this country are notably erratic, they generally care for little, in regard to diet, except the gratification of appetite. We can say, at the least, that warm soda-biscuits, and other indigestible food, are taken as a general diet. Of all classes, authors and other men of sedentary habits of life need a plain and nourishing diet. Those who spend much of their time in the open air and in manual exercise will have stronger powers of digestion, and could therefore much better afford to live on "fashionable" food. If ministers lived on "farmers' fare," and took sufficient exercise of a proper kind and at proper seasons, they would need no "vacations," and would have minds capable of more clearly apprehending the truths of revelation and life's responsibilities.—J. H. WAGGONER, in Health Reformer.