Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-04-04
THE GENERAL HEALTH.

AS am frequently asked Questions
by strangers in regard to the health of
Barber county, will present some
facts to tell why think it one of the
most healthful places in Kansas.
Twill take up general conditions first,
and will begin with the climate. Dur
ing the spring and fall more pleasant
place than Southern Kansas to live in,
is hard to find. 1 have been to the
much Wanted Southern California, and
unless you are on the coast, to get the
benefit Of the sea breezes, It is not COM
parable to our lovely days. The air
here is dry and pure, and We have very
few sudden changes of temperature as
compared to the Mississippi valley.
During the summer months, although
the thermometer often registers 1909,
our nights are always cool and pleasant.
have lived here for several years and
have never experience one of those hot,
sultry, ''suffer-fOr-want
nights that all people in Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois are so familiar with. Our
winters are more open and are about
the same as found in Kentucky and
Tennessee. The air we breathe is pure
and fresh. 1t comes to us over no
swamps or TOW lands, ladened with all
the fumes and miasm of decaying veg
citation. 1t is dry and full of ozone,
making it fresh aud bracing.
In regard to the water, it depends on
where it is found. The surface water
is as the surface water in most coun-
tries-impregnated with what it falls
on, and not having passed far through
natures great filter is not compared to
that found in the deeper stratum. We
have many springs of pure, soft water
and some of mineral water. In all our
wells i'm which the surface water is ex-
cluded we find pure, wholesome water
that will not injure man or beast. Our
county is rolling and the best supplied
with water of any in the state. Our
drainage is nearly perfect. We have
no swamps or flat, low lands, with the
water standing on them or within a foot
of the surface-thOse great beds of ma
LARA, yellow fever, cholera, dysentary
and the like-but immense undulating
fields and Drairies, full of strong, vigor-
Gus life-whether it be in the animal or
vegetable kingdom. Another reason
why we haYe good drainage is that our
soil is light and porous, which allows
the water to soak away quickly and is
not stagnant or foul-smelling for days
and weeks, as 1t is in pools and ponds
in the states east Of here, especially in
hot weather. After the hardest rains
our roads ale freely passable in a few
hours and deep mud is almost unknown.
To take up a few diseases that l can
speak of from practical experience,
will begin with throat and lung dis
eases, taking consumption first. / have
never seen but one case that has devel-
oped here; but tins have seen: Out
of great number i'm the first and sec
ond stages of development of the dis
ease l have yet to find one that has not
been benefited by change from the
middle states to western Kansas, and
have known several to be entirely cured.
Here you get plenty of natures oxygen,
pure and fresh, and don't have to go to
some doctors Office for it. Take asth-
ma. Being about 1000 feet above the
| Mississippi, estimates are benefited
very marked, and we have several liv-
ing in our town that have not had at
lacks since they came here, but they
dare not go back to the east, for it will
surely return on them. Catarrhs and
bronchitis are always brought here.
Any cases of drippring or wet catarrh
get well of their own accord after a
short residence here. Hay fever, rose
fever and July and August colds are
unknown, and aggravated cases that
are so frequently seen in the east are
entirely exempt from that disease here.
Pneumonia is not frequent disease
and is always caused by exposure. So
far, every case of typhoid fever that has
been in the county were people from
the older settlements that had moved
here inside of three months. All cases
of rheumatism, Bright's disease and in
namation of the bladder are benefited
by our alkaline springs.
Well, suppose you will say. what
do they have out in Kansas / will
tell you that also. We have every
thing have enumerated above, but you
bring 1t with you. You come here to
get well; to get free from your catarrh,
asthma and lung diseases by breathing
and living in our pure, fresh and dry
air; to get away from your malaria,
with its innumerable attendants, by
coming to country where it is not de-
veloped; to rejuvinate yourself from
rheumatism and Bright's disease by
having pure soft water, with just
enough mineral in it to cure you. 1t is
good for the women, too. Go where
you will, you will find a great number
of healthy and robust babies. 1t is all
laid TO the water.
l.. B. GILLETTE, NJ. ID.
Medicine Lodge. Kans.