Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-09-14
The Invalid President.

tnlS county is nob ueau OF even sleeping.
The Invalid President.
Alterations of hope and fear have been
the renewed experience of the nation during
the week. The presidents case, it is hardly
extravagant to say, is the unceasing source
of intense individual solicitude to every
man, woman and child in the nation, and
indeed, wherever the English tongue is
spoken In his sickness he has become the
father, brother, husband of myriads of peo-
pie in their feryent hopes and prayers for
his recovery. In his helpless, wounded con-
dition, lowering between life and death,
every turn of his varying symptoms and
every word of intelligence from his bedside
is awaited with an anxiety and scanned
with an interest that are the attributes of
the highest reverence, the tenderest love,
and the warmest affection. "The great
heart of the nation" is no creation of
rhetoric, and that heart magnetized with a
generous sympathy momentarily turns to
the presidents bedside as Loyalty as the
needle to the pole The great heart and the
great brain of the nation were put into the
grateful task of removing him from malarial
Washington to the healing breezes of ocean,
and the success of the grand endeavor and
its thrilling incidents will become the favor
lite theme of song and story. The transfer
to the ocean successfully accomplished, to
the infinite delight and satisfaction of the
sufferer himself, the "heart of the nation"
grew lighter as the bulletins day by day
indicated an improving quality in all the pa
TENTS symptoms, and in his capacity to take
and assimilate nourishment. In the fact
that members of his official household
had been admitted to short interviews with
him was seen an indication that the presi.
had touched solid ground at last. Fridays
news from Elberon was very encouraging.
Unofficial reports, physicians official bulle-
tins, and even Mr.. Blaines dispatch to
Minister Lowell, were in uniformly hopeful
vein. There was nearer average approach
to normal temperature pulse, and respira-
tion than tho official reoordo had ahown for
long time, and some of the more bouyant
reports expressed the assurance that the
interesting period of convaescence had at
length been reached.
The Invaluable test of time as to the sub
stantial or permanent character of this i'm
provement was anxiously awaited, but un-
happily this decisive proof of better con-
dition signally failed the instant the nation
10 10 - Ill. e al
all great dangers were passed and the presi-
dents recovery was attended with no greater
risk than that of any invalid who had
weathered serious sickness and had
entered the early stages of convalescence.
On Friday night the fever returned and
Sunday night the condition as shown by
MIR. Blaine's dispatch to Minister Lowell
was as follows: "The president had an
increase OF fever Saturday night and was
very restless until five O'Clock AM. During
the day he has been somewhat better, but
his pulse, temperature and respiration
have been higher for the entire twenty.
four hours than on any preceding day
since he reached Long Branch. His
other symptoms are not reassuring, and
his general condition gives rise to anxiety"
The newspaper reports of the presidents con-
dition on Saturday and Sunday, even if meas
urably correct, would Danish hope from the
heart of the nation. These reports persist
emily maintain that an abscess has formed on
the presidents lungs, that others may be ex-
pected, that he expectorates pus in large
quantities, and that these things conclusvely
show pyemic poisoning of the blood. The
feverish condition of the president Friday
night, and the high state of the pulse, symp-
toms which have invariably preceded the
presence Of new complications, are cited as
evidence of the grave condition of the pres
ident, and the reports of some of his imme-
diate attendants, notably DIR. Boynton, that
there are serious lung troubles in the case,
are regarded as confirming the newspaper
theory that the president is suffering from
acute blood poisoning. Opposed to these
representations of the papers, and entirely
inconsistent with them, are the official bull
letins OF the surgeons. II is admitted that
the parotid gland has sloughed off the core,
is healing satisfactorily and has disappeared
as complication in the case. While the
bulletins plainly indicate that on Saturday
and Sunday the condition of the president
was less favorable than on Friday, which
was an exceptionally good day. they have
made no mention whatever of any lung
troubles nor expressed any apprehension in
regard to their patients symptoms; they
now represent him, on the contrary, as rest
ing well, sleeping with unusual soundness,
and taking an ample quantity of food with
out discomfort, and unofiicially deny the
presence of blood poisoning.
Undoubtedly there may be irritation of
the lungs, but if it had developed in a ser-
GUS form, or was the cause of serious ap
prehension, the official bulletins could have
no greater reason for suppressing the fact
than for concealing the existence of the
parotid swelling. There is certainly wide
discrepancy between the correspondent and
the doctors bulletins; but from the fact that
members of the cabinet have gone to the
White Mountains for few days recreation,
and before going called on the president and
exchanged pleasantries with him and talked
briefly of matters of state, and from the ia
vorable tenor of the late official dispatches,
we feel inclined to tie to the doctors and
trust that the president is still doing fully
as well as could be reasonably expected.
JOHN W. GARRETT, president of the Bal
timore and Ohio railroad, has rendered his
private car Maryland" for the use of Pres.