The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-03-01
The Sick Man.

lnere are, OF course, lnnumer6Dle
points at which the views and the GUS
toms of men and women diverge more or
less widely, but there is probably nothing
In which the difference Is more strongly
marked than in their respective methods
of bearing small illnesses and indisposi-
tions. Small ones, be it said advisedly; a
grave malady has ordinarily SO prostrat-
ing an effect that it is undergone with an
almost apathetic patience born of its very
severity. But with smaller ailments the
case is different; and it is in their manner
of bearing them that men so often raise a
plying smile on the countenances of
their less robust but more long-suffering
womankind. 1t never seems to occur to
an ordinary lord of creation that it is
within the bounds of possibility that one
of the minor ills to which flesh is heir
should touch him, and he is as astnnished
and as aggrieved when he finds himself
suffering from headache or fit of infiu-
enza as if the malady were perfectly alb
normal occurrence. This is the more re-
markable as, almost invariably, he SCOTS
at and laughs to scOrn any precautionary
measures-declines to change wet SHOOT
ing boots, as "being of no consequence, I"
and persistently sits in draught when
he is overheated. But when the heavy
cold comes he is all amazement, cannot
conceive how he caught it. and regards
himself as victim grievously ill .treated
by fate, and deserving Of all possible SYM
patby and compassion. As a rule, a
woman is abundantly pitiful and sympa-
thetic; but it must require immense COM
mand over her risible muscles ia repress
smile when her lord gravely assures her
that no one was ever so ill before, and
that she cannot have the faintest concep-
ton of what he is enduring. She thinks
Of the many colds from which she has
suffered, and for which he has always
condemned her for " coddling," assuring
her that cold was " a mere trifie, moth
ing to make fuss about" And vet,
what was her fussing to hiss Beside
feeling ill, she is always willing to try
such remedies as experience has taught
her are most efficacious, while he can he
persuaded to try nothing, though he COM
plains sorely that no one does anything
for him or appears to compassionate his
evil case.
It is hardly happy time for those
brought much in contact with him. If
he suffers from headache the whole
AAA0NhAhVAy VI OllC nOuSC uuot NC StODUcu :
not door must creak, nor q football be
heard, though he is the last person in the
world to respect the headaches of others,
and always processes his belief that they
are only another name for caprice or in
convenience. At the small arrangement
of his usual robust health, from whatever
cause it may arise, he at once believes
himself to be extremely, if not danger
'ously, ill ]; and yet, with strange per
versity, absolutely refuses to see doctor.
His feminine belongings, if they are wise,
commiserate and make much Of him, but
are never in the slightest degree alarmed
SO long as he grumbles and bewails him.
self. when he becomes silent as to his
sufferings they at once conclude that
something serious is really the matter.
Perhaps the most doleful spectacle that
can be presented to the imagination is
that of a man afflicted with to0thache. 1t
certainly il, . most wearing and distress
ing pain; still, it has been endured at
different times by almost everyone. 1t is
edifying to note that, though when any,
one else has been attacked with the same
torment, he has recommended instant re.
course to dentist and he has dcrided any
backwardness in following his advice as
cowardice, he is, when his own time
comes, no more eager to plant himself in
the chair of doom than were his despisefI
friends, and is fertile in inventing expedi-
ents for putting of the evil day, probably.
II the pain abates, TO remote date. A
woman must be very near indeed akin to
an angel who, after her husband or some
other near male relative has for yeary
laughed to ScOrn her complaints If a4onix.