The Portland daily press., 1893-05-26
Especial Corresnondence.l

AS sit on an old nail keg on the shady
side of the old, old, battered little build
ing in which my father ''kept store" in
1919 have to laugh at @nemory of
the many odd characters then in evil
dence in this Wabash country. But the
laugh is quickly followed by sigh
when I remember how they suffered
with malaria and how, for want Of
transportation except to New Orleans,
they suffered equally by poverty. At
that time the Wabash valley Hoosier
was the nations standing joke for his
ignorance and awkwardness, but the one
indisputable and painful fact was that
they did indeed suffer in the flesh.
AS late as 1850 the people Of few IA
vored sections told amusing stories of ad-
jacent villages where q church bell was
rung or horn blown every two hours
(only one family owning clock) for the
people to take their quinine; Of places in
the ''bottom" where they put the boys in
the tree just before the ague fit came on,
that they might "shake off the hickory
nuts" or Of farmers who could not pro-
duce pork because the ague stricken
hogs shook all the fat off. In 1850 my
native township had about as many wild
ows as the average Virginia township at
the close of the war. The fact that wom-
en- generally escaped the worst effects
ought to have given the men hint that
it was the morning and evening exposure
that did most damage, but apparently it
did not One generation of good men
was killed off in redeeming this section,
and though full grown men when they
came read on their tombstones that
most of them died at or under 40. Ver-
lily it was at great price that we won
this goodlyo heritage.
Our pioneers came from the high
lands and old sections of Kentucky and
Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
There it had been their custom to get into
the field as soon as they could see, to take
a long rest in the heat of the day and
then work in the field as late as they
could see. Such habits meant death in
a malarious region. Almost every fam
lily developed scrofula in some form
that is, it showed itself in the second Or
third child born in the new country. In
careful inquiry made among the old
records and tombstones of my native
county several years ago / proved that
the average length of life there in 1905
was but 80 years; now it is Al.
The doctors were woefully unskillful
"Calomel and jollop," as the people ex-
pressed it, were the first reliance, and
with their prescription went always the
rigid injunction that the patient must
not touch cold water or milk othin
warmer or colder than the milk as it
comes from the cow" All, many time
in boyhood have lifted up my voice
and wept for permission to go to the
spring. In fevered sleepI dreamed ct
STOPPING down to the cold current as it
gushed from the rocks, and like an in
FAINT Tantalus I saw it vanish even as
drank it with my eye. Nor did real
ize the beauty of the Hebrew Scriptures
till I read that expression of David, "Oh,
that one would give me to drink Of the
well of Beth-Horon that is by the gate"
If a man couldn't stand fire, he wasn't
expected to live, and the fire was inside
of him. By and by, when the worst was
past, the people made a joke Of it, for
western humor triumpled even over the
terrors of the ague. Each village had its
story about some neighboring village in
which the people lived chiefly on whisky
and quinine with an occasional '9mess Of
jowl and green's"
One story ran to the effect that fam
lily from the sand hills Of North Carolina,
''cawnsisting. sir, of the ole man, ole wo-
man, fifteen children an ee-lev'n dawgs,"
had two rather simple minded children.
Sam nd Susannah, Of whom they were
ashamed. They were mortal hungry
for green's but afraid to eat many Of
the plants which were strange to them.
So when they found new and tempt
ing plant that looked fit for "greens"
they, fed Sam and Susannah "a power
full mess Of it, SO if it did not kill them
the rest might eat of it.
''Milk SICK was also terror. The
fact that oats laid on a milk sicky",
piece of ground would prove the fact
was discovered by accident. Afterward
the experiment was tried with con-
demned stock, and in one instance the
oats thus impregnated killed a calf.
Children of any age QS50-0 were always
carefully instructed to avoid drinking of
springs near such tracts, but in truth
the caution was almost superfuous,
since the recognized and admitted ''milk
tick" springs were fenced in,. and so
were the streams issuing from them until
they had flowed far enough for the nox-
ious element to be dissipated.
All these evils have passed away,
though ''milk sick" is still occasionally
heard of. Markets are easier of access,
and as to ignorance, "our reproach is
taken away" The school system of In
diana was adjudged the best at the CEN
tennial, and our percentage of native il
literates is almost the smallest in the
Union. So we can now afford to laugh
at ourselves as we were in the days when
the Hoosier language was spoken here in
all its impurity and the past tense was
expressed by "been gone done it."
j. Fl. BEADLE.