The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-01-18
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
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q MALL-PON isn't funny. Nobody
y would ever intimate such an idea,
- but the antics that people cut H.
their attitude toward the disease
would provoke mirth were they not so
pathetic. There is always something
pathetic il our efforts for self-pieser-
walton. We take such elaborate pains
to avert the calanities that would miss
us anyway, and are so reckless about
the things which can and do happen to
us every day.
We have been racing about, entirely
uncOnCerned when smallpox has been
creeping closer and closer every week.
During the holiday season we pushed
our way into shops and elbowed peo-
pie who looked as if they might be af
flictod with almost anything that we
did not want to catch. We didn
exactly crowd the street cars, but that
wasn't our fault. We did swell the
throngs in the trains and not Il wave
of trouble rolled across our peaceful
breasts because we didn't happen to be
vaccinated. Now we are almost para
lyned for fear we cant get vaccinatcd
fast enough. and are causing our fam
lily physicians to wish earnestly that
they had chosen some other profession.
Some of us are 'hysterical enough to
make it miraculous if we do not scare
ourselves into the dread disease.
\ young woman rushed Into Il doc
tors office yesterday and began to cry.
as she flung herself down in Il chair.
II was going to be married in the
spring" she sobbcd "but I'll never he
married now. Eve got an awful pain
in the back of my head and my pulse
is fluttering like everything, ana know
I'm coming down with the smallpox;
O-o-oh, dear, and | don't want you to
let George see me, for I'll he sure 10
look like Il fright: and you'll promise
me, won't you doctor? You're the only
person I can trust in the wide world. I
want you to soc to it that he doesn't
come to the funeral. O-O-Oh, DEAR
and then she broke down and walled.
You needn't worry about your
funeral" said the doctor, Grimly II
don't believe even George will be wildly
anxious to come to that If you die with
the smallpox; but you haven't got it
vet. and what business have you TO
know whether your pulse is tluttering
or not? You've been eating too many
chocolate creams and your liver is
stirred up; that's all the matter with
you. Now, take this and go home, and
don't eat any more candy for a month";
And as she dried her tears and hast
ened off, he glrimbled: These blessed
women. They make me tired They go
To studying symptoms and reading
what the newspapers say, and imagine
they have everything, from yellow
fever to spinal meningitis
If YOU see a person with an uncou-
monty Snug and self-satisfied express
sion on his face You can make up your
mind that he has recently been Vaccin-
ated The more it hurts him. the more
Self-satisiied he looks. There is scarce
ly anything even in the consultations of
religion which will give Il person such
Il complacellt look as the certainty that
his vaccination is taking. After all,
shouldn't wonder If little of the
good effect of vaccination lies in the
mental consciousness that one is i'm
mune. one knows that ii Is the logical
thing to do and then the mind is re-
lieved from further anxiety. TO be
sure, this mental state will not pro-
teCt one from catching the smallpox
if one is exposed, but it does go long
way in assisting the body to resist the
attacks OF various maladies. l, for
one, haven't any patience with these
self sufficient smart" people who
scorn vaccination Its efficacy has
been proved so completely in the past