The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-01-01

steps moving about the house, and
with rare courage for woman, sur
prised her daughter with open, but I'M
seeing eyes, wandering from room to
room, trying one door after another
with silent hand. These nocturnal
wanderings were succeeded by morn
ings of nervous hebetude. In this con-
dition, with others Of the company, she
set out on her dramatic tour, from
which she anticipated great results, in
the latter part of June, and was soon
gathering abundant plaudits and press
notices and, what is better, a fair
harvest of cash-in the cities of the
Southwest. She arrived in New Or
leans, languid and tagged out. While
performing in one of the large
towns in that vicinity she was
suddenly Frustrated with the
ephemeral fever, high tense, with
snatches of delirium, and the familiar
rose-colored eruption which has been
SO often described by such experts as
Prof. Sturgis, DR.. Tifford, DR.. O'Don-
nell, and others, who have witnessed
the most of the malady, ushered in by
severe and prolonged rigor. The
local practitioner diagnosed the case
as one of climatic fever, in the severer
forms of which eruptive phenomena
resembling searlatina are not unusual.
For ten consecutive days this internal
consuming flame burned without inter-
mission; but on the tenth day, to the
wonder of the local practitioner, sud
denly subsidized, the yapors of delirium
clearing away from the excited brain
and leaving the patient feeble as an in
FAINT, but free, apparently, from all
malarial symptoms. Meanwhile strand
ed by the illness of one of its leading
members, the company had fingered,
impatient to be at work, grumbling and
disconnected. But, though GONZALES
cent according to the rules of the medi-
cine, neither stimulants nor tonics,
decoctions of beef or of brandy and
quinine awaited to restore the wasted
and still wasting constitutional ener-
gies. A substitute had to be engaged,
and by slow stages, sick, disappointed,
disheartened the young actress re-
turned to her home. 1t befell, by one
those curious condolences that render
human life such riddle to the unbe-
ieVing, that the case came under the
purview of an adept in leprosy, whose
training in one of the great centers of
the disease had educated his eye to the
detection of all its subtle signs. "The
story of the blotch under the eve, the
bloated features, and the significantly
Whitish pallor of the skin: the sudden
and terrible fever, with red spots, fol-
lowed by sudden, but only apparent,
convalescenee; the subsequent debility,
malaria, and general failure; the elon-
gated, hard, red tubercles on the Shout
ders, which the patient showed me,
wondering how they came; the numb
ness of the hands-all these" said the
young man to the Mercury reporter,
who, having heard of the case from an
acquaintance of the victim, was referred
to her physician for information. ''were
things rs familiar to me as the Roman
alphabet. i shall call other physicians
before finally announcing the verdict so
terrible to hear and bear, but, between
you and me, there is no more question
about the nature of the disorder than
about case of scarlatina or the
measles. The poor thing is in the be-
ginning of the third, or tubercle, stage
of leprosy Practitioners call this the
second stage. How did she contract
the terrible faint that is gnawing away
her beauty and lifeP | have questioned
her cautiously. She denies having Wis
tied any opium-smoking haunt just be-
fore the blotch came or at any previous
period. There was a lodger in the
house, her mother says, in May and
June last, who had just such reddish
tubercles on his shoulders and neck as
are now appearing in the case of her
daughter If the mother is correct in
her description, the young man was
leper, and must have been aware of it,
and that his presence in the house was
source of imminent danger. I am
satisfied that the disease is leprosy, and
that my patient ought to be isolated
Immediately for the protection of the
family and her friends"
The young actress has cancelled her
engagements for the fall season, and
proposes to make voyage to Europe
as soon as arrangements can be effected
for her mother to accompany her.-M
Z. Mercury.