Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1901-12-07
BOON TOCONSUMPTIVES
Interesting Features of a Col
ony Started IL Colorado.
WORKED ON COOPERATIVE LINES
Cannot Afford to Be Idle and
Planned to he Self SupportinE-Pa-
tient. Live In Tents and Work Out
doors.


tient. Live In Tents and work Out
doors.
A cooperative colony for consump
tives, planned TO be self supporting. in
which patients in the first stages OF
the disease can live in tents and work
outdoors in the dry. health giving ali
Of Colorado, has made a start in a ten
acre tract of fruit land near Barnum
1t is backed by several men prominent
in business in Denver. and about TWEEN
ty physicians of high standing are
watching the experiment with interest
If it is a success. the colony Will
solve the biggest problem that the
sanitariums of Colorado have to face
and it will probably save the lives OF
thousands of men from all over the
country who discover the disease while
1t Is still in an incipient stage. but can
not afford to go to Colorado and re-
main there in idleness, says the New
York Sun. The great problem with
the majority of consumptives who &c
to Denver is how to stay in Colorado
and to support themselves by some
healthful occupation during the long
period in which the wasted lung It's
sues are repairing in the mountain air.
Hundreds go there each year. effect
a partial cure and then. because their
money has given out and they cannot
afford to live any longer without work
ing. return to their old homes and I'M
healthful occupation only to succumb
TO the disease in a few months. Hun
dreds more go to work in offices and
stores. with the result that they de
rive little benefit from their change OF
home and only succeed in delaying the
end for a little while.
For these two classes of patients the
colony is founded. 1t has been incor-
porated as the Rocky Mountain Inde-
pendent sanitarium- Its present quar-
tiers are only temporary. They would
not give the colony a chance to ex-
pand. and the dream of its directors is
to see it occupying about 1900 acres.
self supporting and Independent of out
side labor
1t is not charitable institution, nor
is 1t q money making concern. Its con-
stitntion is framed with a view to pre-
vent ii from becoming the latter 1t
has been started and got under way by
few Denver business men as their
contribution toward solving the tuber-
culosis problem. and their idea is SIM
ply to help consumptives to help them
selves.
Only patients who can do outdoor
work or have money enough to pay for
their board for the present and are
likely to be able to join the ablebodied
workers before that money is spent
will be accepted at the time. They
Will have good medical treatment, but
it is upon the outdoor life that the
principal reliance is placed to effect a
cure.
To insure the patients being In the
open air all the time they will sleep in
tents and will even eat their meals
outdoors. This is the plan followed in
the temporary quarters at Barnum.
and the results have been most salts
factory. There are now about twenty
consumptives there. Among them are
a carpenter and a shoemaker. but the
majority find work on the fruit lands
which now comprise the homes terri
tory.
The institution will stay near Bar
mum till next spring Then it will seek
larger quarters. When it is well estab-
Iished. it is expected to make it capa-
BILE of living entirely by itself. its in
mates supplying all its wants. The
idea is that men of all trades will go
there and ply their trades. SO that the
home will not need to buy much of
anything but materials.
Even in the winter the patients will
continue the tent life. That is the
pivot on which the whole system
hangs. Some of the present patients
have been at the sanitarium for about
six weeks. and they find that their con-
dition has been very perceptibly i'm
proved by the life outdoors. They say
that 1t is uncomfortable to go into
heated rooms since their lungs became
accustomed to the cold air.
The superintendent of the colony is
a convalescent consumptive. She Is
Miss Margaret S. Dunno. In the war
with Spain she served in Cuba as a
nurse. and at the close of the fighting
she was put in charge of the officers
wards in the military hospital in Ha-
vana. There her health gave way. and
she came to Colorado.
She is trying to found auxiliary
branches of the home in the east with
view to interesting philanthropic in
stitutions throughout the country In it
before it launches out on a more ex-
tended scale. The land it will take will
be used principally for fruit cultiva-
ton. as that gives the best field for
la Dor. but some of it will be grain and
pasture land.
If the experiment continues to fulfill
the promise with which it has opened.
there are plenty Of physicians ready to
encourage il. and it will have the most
modern and complete medical equip
men, that it is possible to obtain.
Glass Road In Paris.