The age-herald., 1898-09-04
HOMESICKNESS
 AMONG SOLDIERS


 "Homesickness," was the reply, just common or garden homesickness. The
 name is derived from two Greek words, one | of which means home and the other sick ness. Simple! Isn't it? It is of the I most perplexing diseases that we army sur geons have to contend with, inasmuch as I 1t is so hard to diagnose. Its symptoms are varied and depend greatly the tenn perament of the man affected. Dangerous? l Certainly. Haven't you heard of the two l men of the Second Massachusetts, Private I Hary Atkins and Sergeant Bourse, who l died of the disease in Cuba? Men don't die l of diseases that aren't dangerous.
 "The worst thing about nostalgia is, l however, that it undermines the sufferers l constitution and weakens them so that they are liable to catch fever or any other l infectious or non-infectious disease They 1 have no life, no vim, no power of resist l ance, nor in fact, have they the wish to
 resist an illness. They have absolutely no l energy. I remember in the civil war being l struck by the manner in which strong, l healthy men would waste away when they l became homesck It was like the effects l of galloping consumption, and occasionally l the symptoms similar. Let one man Soo''NA "a later, probably sooner, his depressing in- l fuence will affect the rest, and the doctors will have their hands full. Work is no 1 panacea, unless it is varied. Give the men something to think about. something to 1 take their minds off themselves, and you I will greatly lessen the number of cases. "Of course, in the war such a remedy was impossible. It was a case of licking I ( 3,+a .1o,1 fha char
 notice, and there was no time for anything l but drill. The forced waits in the hot southern camps till the men were some- | what acclimated, with variation in the l routine, no doubt gave numbers of them 1 that homesick feeling, too. You very sell l dom hear of it on active service, though; I 1 mean when the men are fighting they haven't time to think of themselves, and as | rule they are pretty busily engaged men, l tally as well physically.
 "A man suffering from nostalgia, how l ever, makes a poor soldier He is ener- l yated has no pluck nor ambition. The l best place for these men is home. Of course, treat nostalgia the Iame as other diseases-I mean we prescribe for it
 according to our diagnoses. The remedies? I Well, that depends You are wanting to knOW pFOIeSSlOndl secrets now.
 "The disease of homesickness," he said flor I firmly believe that it is disease, I and infectious, too-has been discussed so | much lately that anything can say would l only be a repetition of what other and | more competent judges have said before me. I will say, however, that 1t is one of the nastiest diseases to get into an officers
 command. Your best and bravest men be- 1 come babies, as fainthearted and prac- | tically as useless. One homesick man af- l fects whole camp. The men who try to | cheer him up become influenced by his de- l precision, and so 1t goes till you have l whole company of men incoming around | like historical school girls. I sometimes 1 think that if a man would adopt the wo-' | mans plan of going away by himself and 1 having a good cry, it would often effect l a cure. Homesickness is bottled up misery l seeking an outlet. If you don't cry it out 1 it will exude- in the form of bad temper, | sulks and general cussedness.
 l "There are one or two points that have
 not seen noted about homesickness. One is | the cause and the other is the cure. The l literal definition home sickness does not, I think, properly describe the malady. A l better description would be blues or l dumps You know how it is when every l thing seems to be up against you don't 1 you-when your friends have gone back | on you and your thoughts can be sum- | marized In the expression, Whats the use l of it all? I'm not worth hang, anyway. l When a man thinks he's not worth a hang l he usually is not. That is nostalgia. It is not simply that heartbreaking longing for l home and it's surroundings that we all of
 us, I suppose, have felt at one time of an- 1 other, although, of course. that, too is I n-- tAf 1t 0orr,O l the evil as stagnation, the cause of 1t l monotony, and for the cure I would pre- i scribe "a change.
 ''In my own experience I have noticed | that the sufferers are young fellows usually, | those whose spirits have all the buoyancy l and elasticity that goes with youth, who are easily elated and just as easily depressed. | These boys expect to find camp life one amending round of fun and horseplay, 1n- 1 termixed with a few necessary drills. But, l oh! the difference they find. Drill, drill, | and again drill, from morning to night; | work and nothing but work. No time Tor | joking or skylarking in the daylight and ] at night he is usually so dog tired that he | is only anxious to sleep. This endless round l of monotonous work too often in an un- l healthy camp and in all sorts of weather, | forced into the company Of men whom ne doesn't like, perhaps, and of class to 1 which he has not been accustomed, finishes 1 him. lie mas prOpdDly DeeH uSeu lO the variety of free civilian life in a healthy l atmosphere, and in a place where he can 1 choose his own companions. Do you won- l der that the change and the disappointment | depresses him?
 1 After a few weeks you will find these | men moping off by themselves, or, if in company with their fellows, they will be l lost in thought, unconscious of their sur
 roundings. Their drill will be lax, they will l lose the snap with which a soldier almost l instinctively responds to command. That | is the first symptom Next they get quar- l relsome and ugly-then the sickness. A | homesick soldier is like an old hat and has l just about much life. He seems to en- | joy being kicked around. His life is bur 1 den and he glories dismally in the fact. He | is damn coward and is proud of it. Some l times I think they place themselves in the
 way of being abused so that they can sym- | pathize with themselves on the way they | are treated. In fact, homesick man does