The National tribune., 1891-12-03
HEALTH HINTS
For Old and Young.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD. u. D.
CnAPTEE CXX%.
THE "sIBERIA SECRET"


teTing the terTacc-land on the southern slope
OF those mountains. looks down upon para
disc of gardens and orchards, alternating with
groves aud natural meadows. IL IS the valley
OF tho Heri Rood River, which here approaches
the border Of the vast plateau dividing its
watershed from that of the AMOR and the Sea
Of Aral.
SO narrow is that dividing ridge that within
10 miles of the Herr garden valley, an exploT-
ing party might waste week in vain search
for drinking water. The table-land is tree
less desert, swept by icy gales in Winte= and by
sandstOTms in Summer, aud visited only by
troops Of armed COssacks who, since the Rus
sian conquest of Turkestan, range this border
region IN pursuit Of fugitive exiles, aud are apt
to arrest every stranger not furnished with
passports Of the next military commander.
Now, suppose the natives of the Herr Valley
should volunteer TO abandon their garden
homes, and force their helpless families aud do
nestle cattle 10 share the horrors Of a sOiOuTn
In the noighboring land Of desOlatiou, would
the COssact Rangers not slay them as madmeu,
or drag them away to the settlements where
the tent-cover Of every immigrant wagon is
marked with large capital IS" the abbreyia-
tion of word signifying tho fact that the oc-
cupants of the conveyance are condemned
criminals.
Yet a similar exodus is even now going on
within the borders Of our own free Republic.
Year after year hundreds Of families sacrifice
the savings Of many years to defray the
penses OF journey that carries them from the
Eden Of the Southern Aleganies to the deserts
of the far Northwest, to a borderand where the
heat OF Summer paTehes out the scanty brooks
to the very bottom, and where the severity Of
the long Winter is aggravated by the absence
Of wood
That Snow-Sahara does not even recommend
itself by the cheapHess Of its lands; the valley
districts for hundreds of miles have been bought
up by SPECTATORS who sell an acre Of arabic
ground at a price which in Tennessee and north
ern Georgia would buy little farm, orchards.
Teady-made fences and all. The distance Of
the markets aud the exOrbitant freight-chaTges
OF the railways. sadly reduce profits Of the best
managed wheat-lands; the settlers can find no
fish IN the shallow rivers, no game on the tree
less hills. What could have induced them to
abandon the happy hunting grounds Of their
Southern home? IL is the Siberia Secret, az a
friend OF mine calls it, who maintains that our
voluntary exiles would agree 10 perform the
labor and subsist on the fare Of the Irkutsk
mining prisoners rather than fOregO the
pleasure of going West" and, if possible,
Northwest.
Lack Of room in the old East States can GER
tainly not explain that mystery. In the Caro-
linas, in old Virginia, nay even in many Of
the New England States, we'll wooded and WE'LL
ing vacant, and could often be bought for less
than the sum required to transport the family
OF the self-banished Soulful lander TO the borders
Of British North America.
Some Of these exiles have undertaken the
long journey at the invitation Of friends whose
misery makes them yearn for the company Of
their former neighbOrs; others have been
lured away by the Misrepresentation Of elO-
quent landshaTks; others, no doubt by de-
mand for their speciality Of skilled labor, bat as
whole, tue phenomenon of the Siberia Secret
IS founded chiefly on the circumstance that a
low temperature mitigates the penalties Of our
sins against the health laws of nature Frost
is an antidote. Ii does not enable the victims
OF intemporanee to indulge their penchant
with absolute impunity, but it grants them a
longer term Of respite, it partly counteracts the
marasmus Of alcoholism, and above all, it sub
stitutes an artificial incentive for the spou-
taneous energy forfeited by the habitual prac-
tlce OF intOXication. In the Sierras Of southern
Spain the Disappearance Of former WateTcOurses
has obliged many villagers 10 remove their
mills from the valleys to the hilltOps, where
the machinery once moved by the water can
still DO worked by Wind-pOwer. sort Of in
stinct seems to teach our alcohOliZed country
men TO avail themselves of similar expedient,
by emigratinS to regions where icy Winter
storms supply q motive Of enterprise. They
brave the Billiards Of the high ATTITUDES in de-
fault Of better way to revive their lethaTgized
energies, and often, perhaps, in the hope that
the same frOst-bTaced pluck helping them to
shake OFF the letters Of Incidence will also
enable them to break the Chains Of the stimu-
liant vice.
capital a." as symbol Of alcohol
bondage, might fifty be written on the canvas
roof Of many Of the emigrant wagons which
yearly cross the dividing line of climatic
heaven and hades, in a nOrtheFly direction.
Eheminacy. too, occasionally resorts to the
expedent Of that heroic remedy resembling
the cold water cure of the hydropathic school.
Starving CATTLE shivering in the blast Of pitiess
Winter storms, poor children gathering bundles
Of snow. tulted weeds to allay the fuel faminine
OF their dreary homes, have TO expiate by proxy
the sins Of by-gOne generations Of health-aw
breakers. And yet the respite bought at such
a sacrifice of comfort is often only brief one.
a quautum Of brandy which in Hindostan
would kill a man outright, can be sWal-
lowed in Siberia without immediate discOm-
fort, but the immigrants Of our Western
snOw-wasted come already enfeebled by the
effects of ancestral transgressions. Under the
stimulus Of the first few billiards. they may
experience revival Of energy, but continued
intempeTance will soon sink the level of their
vital spirits SO low that it can be revived only
by removal to higher and still higher ATTITUDES.
In tho course Of the last 20 centuries the
stimulant habit has forced the centers Of civil
izatiOn about thousand miles farther north
At the beginning of our chronological era the
strongest aad most enlightened nations Of
Europe had possessed themselves Of regions
blest with climate corresponding to that Of
the happiest districts of Mexico. The Romans
conquered the lands Of the transalpine barbar-
ians to prevent their invasiOns but the idea
OF permanent residence in those hypeFboTean
countries was contemplated with undisguised
horror. Ireland they called "Hibernia" q
land Of perpetual Winter; central Germany
they described as "hOrrid with frozen woods"
JOve, in paroxysm Of wrath, chained Prone
thcus to rock of frigid Caucasus" and the
Emperor Augustus, not daring TO take the life
of the poet Ovid, did worse" by banishing
him TO the village Of TOmi on the Black Sea-
Toni and the Caucasus are now, on the whole
the most pleasant places of the Russian Empire
whose greatest ruler seems to have anticipated
the tendency of the age when he removed his
Capital from chilly Moscow to icy Petersburg
The center of Germanc culture has been shifted
from Vienna to Berlin; the empire of the sea
from Carthage to London. Within less than a
century the hegeMOHy Of our composite Republic
has been pushed from the banks of the James
River beyond the sources Of the Ohio and to the
shores of Lake Michigan.
Will our grandchildren have TO brace their
tTemulOus nerves in the gales of Labrador?
The habitable borders Of our continent will
soon be reached. and while il is probable that
the lost Eden Of the Mahometan nations will
be redeemed by forest-culture, il is certain that
the paradise of the Caucasian race can be re-
gained only by health reforms.