Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-21
/ WANT TO GO HOME
Is the Wall Of the Male Invalid From
the North Who is Seeking q
HEALTH IN THE SUNNY SOUTH.
Men Who Pine and Die for Sight Of Home
and Loved Ones.
A HINT TO POSTMASTER WANAMAKER
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE prspArcl


AIKEN, S. c., April 18.S-Much has been
written as to the woes and anguish of sea-
sickness. Millions of personal experiences
have been related of what has been suffered
by those who go down to the sea in ships
and steamers. Every voyager upon the
great waste of waters takes pleasure in re-
lating his own story concerning his inner
consciousness while bounding Ger the bill
lows of the mighty deep, as though it were
fresh, new and peculiar. Nor does the tale
grow stale, since new listeners are ever
growing up, and new spinners of the yarns
spread abroad and multiply and talk
and write. Innumerable ard sovereign
remedies for this dire disease of seasiekness
are daily promulgated, but they rarely work
out successfully in practice. Doctors with
all their vast knowledge, wisdom and ex-
perienee have failed to find any specific cure
for the NAL de mer that is no respecter of
persons, but attacks queen as readily as
kitchen maid, and afflicts a millionaire as
harshly as dead-beat without a dollar. In
despite of all, Neptune exacts his tributes
from the landsmen who venture to intrude
upon ''old oceans gray and melancholy
waste" as relentlessly and persistently as
the taxgatherer pursues the taxable for his
mills on the dollar, however much the
householder may grow restive and rise In
rebellion. But bad as it is-horrible as it
may bet is ever q matter for mirth, a sub
ject for jokes, point upon which to hang
tale as woeful in progress as it is funny to
tell after the feet have been set upon dry
land, but the comedy of the occasion comes
out in bold reliet only after the most heart
rending experiences.
HoMEsIcKNEss.
But while so much has been said and
written and described of this sickness of
the sea, much less has been told of the
equally grievous, but less common malady
of homesickness-that longing of the soul
that makes pleasures and palaces seem but
sumptuous shams as compared with the
dearer delights of home.
John Howard Payne, in his song of
''Home, Sweet Home" gave the touch of
nature that makes the whole world kin-he
voiced the heart of humanity on the inner
key of the affections.
"An exile from home, splendor dazzles in
vain" is truth that finds echo in every
soul, whether the separation be voluntary
or enforced. Homesickness-or in medical
phraseology, nostalgia-fnds but small
mention in works upon medicine. With
many, it is as much matter for fun and
| laughter as seasickness-it excites but little
sympathy, and yet is as real as an af1iction,
! and as depressing in its effects, and melan-
| choly in its results, in some cases, as many
that are more distinguished.
It may not be with the most of people q
| principal disease in itself, but when It ac-
companies another it will retard recovery
and perhaps prevent it altogether. It is an
affection Of the mind, we are told, that re-
acts upon the body, takes away the appetite
and weakens all of the physical powers, the
patient pines, and, if relief does not follow,
dies.
People come here to the South to be cured
of bodily i'll, as they hope. They leave the
| cold and SHOWS, the winds and roughness of
winter and spring in the North and imagine
/ that the air and sunshine of the softer South
ern cline will cheer, invigorate and en-
liven: that health will come from warmth
and change and rest. But alas for the ten
der leaves of hope that SO often encounter a
| frost-a killing frost. Storms come in the
South q in the North, with bitter, blight
ing blasts, and, in the words of the Florida
joker, the change goes to the walters and
the landlord gets the rest, leaving nothing
| for the exile from the North but homesick-
ness-and may be heart failure.
MEN THE CHIEF VICTIMS.
Men seem to be the especial prey of this
disease. They are bereft of the excitements
| of business-then have left the comforts of
home and the pleasures to which they have
been accustomed, they are cut off from their
household gods; while the business of the
j world moves on, they are set aside in en-
forced idleness. Men for crimes and mis-
/ demeanors are sentenced to solitude and
idleness, and nothing, say prison authori-
ties, is worse for health of mind and body.
But many who lose their health, and are
forced from home in the effort to regain it,
are in q condition almost equally melAn-
cholly, depressing and unhappy. After the
first novelty Of the change of scene has worn
off, homesickness sets in, and they wander
round dejectedly, talk despairingly, and in
many cases the supposed remedy is worse
than the disease.
Men are the most helpless of beings when
i'll and away from home. They lack the
patient endurance, of women, and are moi
possessed of their reserve of resources for
killing time. The utility of fancy work is
shown and proven on persistent rainy days
at a health resort, when the masculine in
valid is insuferably homesick, and utterly
at his wits end to know what to do with
himself. He takes his tonics with hope
less air, he gazes into the fire with a melan-
choly glare, he reads the papers until all is
blue, for he finds record in them that his
friends and associates in business are boom.
ing along and securing fat things, while he
is stranded here doing nothing but wasting
time and money in the effort to get back the
treasure Of health, without which prizes can
not be pulled in, without which money,
wisdom, pleasure, learning count but dross
without which the cream of existence is
lacking, the sparkle of pleasure is gone, the
joys of life are turned to ashes.
MELANCHOLY MEN.
He broods over his misfortune, he grows
heartsick and homesick in his loneliness
and this homesickness, this longing fol
wife, children and friends does much to re.
tard the return of vigor and health by wear.
ing out the vitality of the machine. These
melancholy men to be met upon the streets
of Aiken excite ones sympathy only to see.
With large eyes in which sickness sits al
sentry, worn faces, gaunt forms, only ghosts
of themselves, with the saddest story told in
their expression, they take their walks
abroad, looking as if their death warrants
had been read, sealed. signed and finally de.
livered.
Women are different They do not suffer
from honesickness with the same intensity
as men. They have their fancy work, their
painting. their enthusiasms and enjoyment
over pretty handiwork, and their tongues.
On relentless rainy day for instance, they
do not resign themselves to the blues like
men, but find in the elucidation of a new
stitch, the intricacY of a new pattern, the
excitement of new design or novel device
such deep interest that time flies on swiftest
wings. The dripping dullness of the hours
is enlivened by spice Of gossip, the inter-
esting remarks and criticisms of the pepper
and mustard sort that give rest and flavor