Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-12

absence OF fevers in the presence OF the
turpentine stills, which at that time were
only occasionally in operation with US.
he smeIt at his cup at once, and two or
three times that day repeated it, while l
resorted TO mine ten times or more to his
one. 1t was not long after this that be-
came believer in the great value of char
coal, turpentine and table salt as prophy-
Tactics of the first rank. ssHow little do
we know that which we are still less what
we may bel the eternal surge, etc. - but
if ever my hypothesis of the cause and
cure of disease should place me high on
the roll of medical discoveries, by side of
Jenner, steam doctors and the inventors
OF the gasoline stove, it will doubtless be
owing to that almighty big scare" about
the camphor bottlel But, joking aside,
the results seem to have been most val
liable, as 1 shall now proceed to show.
MY MIND HAD NOT BEEN ENTIRELY
MADE UP
as to my remaining or going away, but
recollecting the Irishman's remark that
''the best way of running away from
danger was to meet it face to face" the
sight of the ferocity of the canaille had
brought curiosity to see what it would
end in when in full play under the influ-
ence of a pestilence, in support of the in
clinatIon to stay, and l determined to do
so as soon as l found that Prof. Morse
had no thought Of retreating before his
picture, then only half completed, should
be quite so. / was living on the
high grounds and my room windows
looked into the Place de POdeon, and into
the Luxembourg Gardens, while his were
in the Rue Surenne, in the lOwlands near
the Madelaine. Besides, his apartments
were within three feet of the grounds and
opened on the court and the narrow and
damp street, while there were two nice
rooms to let on the first floor overlooking
the garden and the forests of the Champ
dElysee. He could not speak a sentence
of French, and, besides, the family of Mr..
James Fen Cooper had no ac-
quaintance in Paris. Suggesting
that if either of US became i'll the other
might nurse him, l offered to change my
lodging on one condition, viz, that he
should sleep in the room over the garden,
and | would take the salon opening into
it by folding doors, while his rooms below
would serve as our studios. After some
hesitation as to the inequality of expense
and comfort on his part, he yielded con-
sent, and | moved at once my sole art1-
cles of furniture, trunks, easel and ana
tOmical books to No. 20 Rue de Surenne,
occupied i'll part by two elderly ladies,
Mesdames les COmptesses de Frenzy, and
an English family with a remarkably
beautiful Irish nurse of some %
years of age. This last cir
L u6uGlOu DGCdu5c I6u
years afterwards l saw a strong though
coarser likeness of her in the mountains
of Georgia in a woman of the same sur
name, who served as housekeeper in my
tather-in-laW's family. When she first |
saw me she started, but though l met |
her frequently for years, and after the |
war saw her in my own house, she al |
ways avoided all reference made to Paris, |
while she would not deny that she had |
hooV fboro (jraTmG fanQnG GREATLY IN |
the credit of this lady, for such her con-
duct entitled her to be considered both in
Paris and in America, if she was the |
Paris servant girl, entitle me to say that
l have in my life seen and known of things
that would be treasure to the writer Of
fiction if unfolded to him or her, and
many of which are more romantic than
anything | could invent.
But s'reUepOuS q nos nlOutOpS," not as
the Frenchman translated it, ''to our
Sleeps" but to our Morse, though not the
animal of that name known to the zoolo-
gist as the walrus, but to him Of
the same name, President of the
American Academy of Design, and six
months afterward inventor of the mag
netic telegraph. He accepted my propO-
sition, and for the next five months we
were never whole day and night out of
sight of each other. We had not been
together more than week when the
cholera became fearful all around us, and |
one of the cases appeared in the person of
our gatekeeper. The plan that we had
adopted to keep off the disease was this,
viz:
WE ATE NOTHING BUT FRESH MEAT
in its simpler forms, with rice, bakers
bread, and potatoes al natural, with an /
occasional change from the luXuries of the
French cuisine and sound wine de macon
to the humber roast beef and brown stout |
of cook shop frequented by the lackeys |
of the English residents of the quarter, |
but on rising in the morning we invari- |
ably cleaned our teeth and throat, took a |
teaspoOnful of finely pulverized charcoal |
and generally a couple of drops of turpen- |
tine on the tongue before going to break |
fast. Any appearance OF general inter- |
nal arrangement was regulated by dose |
of table salt, more or less strong, and fever |
ish or chilly feelings by shower bath or |
immersion in tub Of warm water or a |
seat over steaming hot water. Bulac had |
not got further in our experiences than |
the salt water remedy when the gate |
keeper, who had not adhered closely tn |
the prescription, collapsed. Luckily, in |
his fright he became converted. resOrted |
to the salt water in cOpiOus and strong |
doses, and rather oVer-did the turpentine. |
He very soon got well, communicated his |
experience to his neighbors, and they to |
their employers, so that whether acciden- |
tai or not, no cases occurred in the half |
dozen houses around us, while huge fur |
niture wagons of orange box looking |
coffins, piled up with the dead, passed our |
gate, and all day long we could hear the |
monotonous cry 'FBring out your deadP' /
i. e., it's French equivalent therefor.
1t is but honest to say that the street was |
very generally deserted by the richer por- |
ton of its inhabitants, but l have since |
adODtpd these ramndl leg SupnaGafIllIV in the l
presence Of yellow fever, swamp fever,
fever and ague, typhoid fever and pneu- |
monia, and have never suffered in person,
save when from necessity or for the sake |
of experiment, l have neglected to use |
them. r. w. 81.