The National tribune., 1889-06-27
CHAPTER XXI.
COIrNTRY LITE.

COUNTRY LITE.
A few years ago o Tennessee hunter guided
party of vacation tourists to the lookout
cliff Of q steep mountain range. He probably
took us for land spectators. and repeatedly
called attention to the large number Of farm
steads that could be bought for a mere song, as
their former occupants had left for the West
to settle in one of the new towns along the
line of a wel-advertised railroad.
Look here" burst out one of MY compan-
ions, after gloatiug in silence over the magnif-
cent scenery at our feet" see here, l don't
believe Adam and Eve were chased out of
paradise after all. / shouldn't BIO the least bit
surprised If they didn't jump the fence and
run oil to settle in some new railroad town OF
the Dead Sea Desert"
In comparing our crowded city slums with
the solitude of many a Southern highland
Eden, conclusion of that sort might, indeed,
not seem quite objectionable Strangest Of all
is, perhaps the fact that hundreds of families
stick to q crowded town from sanitary consid-
erations--for instance, to enjoy the advantage
of free medical attendance. But the signs OF
the times presage the advent of day when
the same considerations will induce thousands
to leave tho city for the country. From year
to year the conviction is gaining ground that
wholesome food, pure air and outdoor exercise
are worth all the simples and mixtures OF the
drugstore, nay, that countless diseases have
been aggravated by the deluson that drugs
could save us the trouble of reforming the
habits which had caused the loss of health.
People will by-and-by recognize the truth that
the symptoms of q disease generally moth
ing but Natures protest against some direct or
indirect violation of her laws, and that the
hope of curing disorder by the suppression
of those symptoms would BIO rs fatuons as the
plan to extinguish confaRration by siiencing
the fre-bells. 1t is true that the causes OF
disease are sometimes complicated with cir
cumstanccs beyond the control of individuals
of moderate means, as the morbid influence Of
rocking slums or crowded tenements, the de-
fects OF ventilation and certain municipal
abuses which even wealth cannot always reme-
dy. But under normal conditions health Is as
cheap as air and sunlight, and the time Will
come when city invalids, whose ailments defy
tue skill Of the best practitioners, will remove
to the country in order to enjoy the free medi-
cal assistance Of nature.
If they only knew their own advantages"
said Virgil, nearly 1000 years ago, Z" would not
country folks be almost too happy?"
If they only knew them-their hygienic OPP
portunties for instaneel We read of travel
ers that persisted with thirst within short
distance of spring that they could not posi-
bly, have missed IL they had only searched on
the opposite bank Of the dry ravine that be-
came their grave. With almost similar feelings
q philanthropist must contemplate tho fate OF
sure, Of free and abundant means of help.
Sunlight alone would cure hundreds OF poor
city children who sclSen like cellar-plants in
the unnatural twilight of their tenement pris-
ons; but their number Is Insignificant COM
pared with that of the moro hopelessly doomed,
because voluntary, abstainers from fresh air.
In the southern Aleghanies there are highlands
where all the advantages of latitude, soil and
situation seem to combine 20 make perfect
ciimate--a climate as safe Is the Upper Alps
from the faint OF malaria, aud less liable 10 the
extremes of temperature. Yet in those same
highland regions consumption Is a very FREE
quent disease The natives are frugal and in
dustrious. aud, with now rare. exceptions, tenn.
peTatc but the night all superstition spoils all
that. After dark mountain brcezes that could
reconcile homesick Circassian 10 his exile arc
excluded as carefully as II they emanated from
the pest.hou OF Shanghai; families with
numerous progeny sleep crowded together in
IL by IL log.eabiu, often six double half
dozen persons In the same bed, breathing and
re-hreathing the same exhausted air. the refuse
Of their own lungs-young children inhaliug
the breath of their already lung-siek elders |;
ali waking up in tho morning with queer.
c0ngestcd feeling about the cbcst-a sort OF
half asthma. combined with languor and q
stitching pain in tho region of the upper ribs.
The children multiply or marry new relatives
share the shelter OF tho little cabin travelling
friends come TO stay all night, aud at last the
lung possuns eventuate In q chronic cRtarrh
The whole family begins TO bark and cough
"eatched cold, !" they explaia it-and close their
cough factory all the tighter. But the catarrh
continues, not In the form of n cold In the
head but Of a chronic lnng-tronble that re-
fuses 20 yield 20 the influence Of the Summer
air. The chill mountain wind, the rain or the
dew, must now bear the blame, though in con-
| fiet with that theory the women who stay at
horta suffer fhan the mi. 1nnP work q
aud arc generally the frat victims Of moro
serious eompilcations-blo splitting and hoe
| tic feyers.
"Try goats milk advises an old erone
dts death on coughs" though they remember
that Aunt Betsy tried that aud died all the
same.
"Curtail your diet" says the fasting cure
| fanatic; most diseases aro caused by over.eat-
| Ing. Reduce your bill Of fare"
Great Scottl II We are already down to
| cornbread and milk Z"
THAT'S just IT," insists the fanatic, "milk Is
| animal food dietetic excuses aggravate most
| diseases"
But the majority are clear for drugs. The
| hectic girl takes phosphates and cod liver oil
| with tho resignation OF q lfe-weary nun. The
| sick boy is forced 10 swallow tonies" that
make him seker and sicker. The eldest son
| travels 90 miles afOot 10 see that new doctor
who invented a patent cough strip. The poor,
| Woodworking father stlnts himself in food to
pay that doctors BILL and in Sleep, to nurse his
dying wife.
And all that misery might have been avoided
| by plan that would have cost them less than
| nothing aud saved them a trouble-the trouble
of closing their door at night An English
radical who has the merit Of being violently
| opposed TO wanton war, describes the contrast
of result Ii the sum wasted on the Soudan cam.
| paign had been distributed among the London
poor Day dreamers might do worse than dwell
on such projects; how many tears it would
have dried, how many souls saved from crime
and despair, IL the billions devoured by 0ui
civil war had been bestowed on benevolent pur
poses? Yet, as surely as disease is greater
evil than poverty, the result of that gift, as
permanent blessing TO mankind, would have
been the veriest trihe, compared with the night
air insanity.
Country life Ia the best remedy for the NOR,
serious forms of lung disorders. Consumption
Is house disease. IL Ia mere frequent In civil
lied countries than among the savages of any
race, north or south; 1t is more frequent ii
cities than in villages; extremely prevalent IL
the manufacturing districts of South Scotlant
aud extremely rare in the pastoral districts o
North Scotland. That its canse Is not cold air
but impure air, is as absolutely certain rs AM
fact in human physiology. by the simple re
moyal of that cause we might save every yea
the lives of half n million of persons, togethe
with the sums wasted on sham remedies. o
worse than wasted Invested in the purchas
equate term. Alcoholic tonics rarely fail l.
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