Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-01-12
The Sick Male.
NEIY TRUTHFUL PICTURE or HIN WHEN
UNDER THE WEATHER"

A VERY TRUTHFUL PICTURE or HIN WHEN
UNDER THE WEATHER"
There are of course innumerable points at
which the views and the customs Of men
and women diyerge more or less widely. but
there is probably nothing in which the differ
ence is more strongly marked than in their
respective methods of bearing small illness
and indispositions. Small ones. be it is "a id
advisedy; grave malady has ordinarily
so p-ostrating IN effect that it is undergone
with an almost apathetic patience born of
its very severity. But with smaller all
ments the case is different; and it is in
their manner of bearing them that men so
often raise plying smile on the counte-
nances of their less robust but more long
suffering womankind. 1t never seems to
occur 10 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 astonished and as
aggrieyed when he finds himself suffering
from u headache or tit OF influenza as if the
malady were a perfectly abnormal occur
renee. This Is the more remarkable as, al
most invariably, he SCOTS and laugh to scorn
any precautionary measures declines to
change wet shooting boots as being "of no
consequence" and persistently sits in
draught because he is overheatec. But
when the heavy cold comes he is all amaze
ment, cannot conceive how he caught it, and
regards himself as victim grieyously i'll
treated by fate and deserving ofall possible
sympathy and compassion. As a rule Il
woman is abundantly pitiful and sympa-
theiic but it must require immense COM
mand over her risble muscles to repress a
smile when her lord graveiy assures her that
no one was ever 80 Ill before, and that she
cannot have the iaintest conception 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 trihe, nothing to make fuss about"
And yet what was her iussing to his? Be
sides, feeling i'll, she is always willing to
try such remedies ~ experience has taught
her are most efhcacious, while he can be
persuaded 10 try nothing. though he com
plains sorely that no one does anything for
him or appears to compassionate his evil
case.
1t is hardly happy time Tor those
brought much in contact with him. If he
suffers from headache, the whole ma
chinery Of the house must be stopped, not
u door must not cresk nor football DO heard,
though he is the last person in the world to
respect the headache of others, and always
processes his belief that they are only
another name for caprice or convenience.
At the smallest arrangement Of his usual
robust health, from whatever cause it pay
arise, he at once believes himself 10 be ex-
tremely, if not dangerously i'll and yet,
with u strange perversity, 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
himself; when he becomes silent a. to his
suferings they at once conclude that some
thing serious is really the matter.
Perhaps the most doleiul spectacle that
can be presented to the Imagination is that
Of manintiicted with tuothache. 1t GER
tairly is most wearing distressing pain
still 1t has been endured ut different times 10y
almost every one. 1t is edifying to note
that though, when any one else has been
attacked with the same torment, he has
recommended instant recourse to Il dentist,
and has derided aay backwnrdness in follow
ing his advice a. cJwardice, he is, when his
own time comes, no more eager to plant
himself in the chair of doom than were his
despised friends, and is fertile in inyenting
expcdients for putting Uf the evil day,
probably, II the pain abates, to remote
date. woman must be very neur, in
deed, akin, to an angel who, after her hus-
band or some other near male relative has
for years laughed to scOrn her complaints of
agonizing neuralgia telling her that 1t ''s
all fancy, 'only nerves" (could it be any
thing worse? y that she would never have it if
she did not think about it, or il she took
more exercise, or if she did something or
other totally out Of her power 10 do-does
not, sorry as She may be that he should sui-
fer, feel a certain satisfaction when the
enemy seizes upon him and he is made to
ieei what ste has endured.
The absurdity Of men utteranccs never
seems to strike them even when they grave
ly aihrm that no one can possibly gauge
their sulerings from an ordinary cold in
the head. There is no offence 80 great as to
try To persuade IA man that. disagreeable as
it may be, 1t IL but temporary incOnyen-
renee, which IN very short space Oi time
will pass away, leaving not II truce behind ,
he regards this simple exposition of fact as
raost unieeling, and bemoans himself plant-
lyely that no one cares whether he is i'll or
not. lie believes firmly that he is model
of patience under suffering. The women
about him will be wise If they abstain from
irritating him by any reiutatlon OF this pre-
po1terous iallacy. 1t may be admitted that
1T is difficult Tor them to hold their peace
when they see him deliberately making him
sell i'll by eating or drinking what he knows
from experience will disagree with him. 1t
il not easy to bo compassionate to the fit Of
gout willfully brought ON by drinking sweet
champagne. OF to manifest deep sympathy
with headache produced by over indu-
gence in picked salmon or lobster salad.
But the victim will never allow that impru.
derce has anything to do with the matter,
and persists IN regarding himself as the
martyr OF cruel iats.-London World.