Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1886-11-13
THE CAISSON CURE.
A n Alleged Rem mapkabIe Relief
for the Asthma
a 5 ck Man Cats Well by Working at the
Bottom of the Missouri.

Bottom of the Missouri.
Were you ever troubled with asthma"
gasped benevolent hooking old gentle
nen. as he took q seat beside Times
reporter and mopped the parsplration
from his brow in Fairmouat Park yester-
day. "No7 Well, you're fortunate I've
had it for thirty years. l might have
cured myself several years ago, but had |
not tie .rit to take the caisson cure"
''N hat is tha.l' was asked "Well, I'll |
rel ltc a little incident which once came |
Hndcr nv personal observation, said he, |
(which viii explain what mean. When
the big railroad bridg re of the Hanniba! |
sud St. Joe railroad was being con-
structcd over the Missouri river, owing
to the muddy bottom the cais ,ons used
in the construction Of the pitrs aad to be
sunk from seventy to one l.un ired and
twenty-five feet below the lei Of the
river to reach rock bottom. The gas
which accumulated in the caisSons was
Of the fouIcst character and it was al
most impossible to get men to go down in
them.
-Four dollars an hour was offered for
the work, with few takers. 1t was al
most impossible to live in one Of them
longer than Al hour, and a dead man was
brou9h up nearly every day. Well, one
day, rs the chief engineer was sadly con-
templating the siowness of the work and
wandering if it would ever be completed,
a mi cradle, ha4g;rd being, more dead
than a i've, approached him and asked for
: a job. See here, my man, said the en-
gineer, this isn't a morgue. You've
struck the wrong funeral. Amt you
Offering four dollars an hour here for cais-
son mcnH sud the shadow. Yes, I'm
Offering four dollars an hour for men, but
not for wa king stiff, said the engineer.
"WcJ, I'm starving, and I'm booked for
the other world anyhow, and might
just as we'll die trying 10 live as to starve
to death Give me job and I'll take
my chances on it.
''Well, the engineer gave him Job,
badc him goodbye and expected to see
him brought up a corpse. The skeleton
STAYED down that caisson three straight
hours, and when he came up he walked
up to the engineer asked Tor some money
to buy something to drink and said he
hadn't felt 50 good for three months.
The next day he worked six hours and
said lie felt bully; the next day eight
hours, and kicked like a steer because
the boss wanttd d to chase him up quar-
ter Of an hour before his time was up.
"WeIl, he worked in the caissons cigh
hours a dav until the bridge was finished
When he went down in the caisson the
first lay he weighed eighty pounds and
hadn't a cent. When he got through
with the job he weighed one hundred anC
seventy-tive pounds, had n full beard
was the strongest man in the gang an
had saved up over thousand dollars
You see, he had the asthma. The bracln!
atmosphere OF Missouri was too mucn 10
/ him The conhning atmosphere Of th
cai~sons was just what he needed an
really saved his life. He invested hi
savings in a farm near Kansas City, spec
ulated successfully and IS now the owne
of one Of the largest cattle ranches i
= Texas
Il 1T was certainly a remarkable cure
d but have Away, regretted that di
It not possess sufficient courage TO take
e myself, as in my capacity OF temperanc
d lecturer and local preacher I am ofte
} seriously inconvenienced by my lac
n of breath"
g Then the Cd gentleman slowly gathere
r himself together, borrowed chew {
tobacco and mournfuily nsade 4 bee-hn
e. for the pump Philadelphia Press.