Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1904-03-25
Nebraska Sick Abed.
Walt Mason in Lincoln (Neb.) Journal.


who can stand up in the open light of
day, and place his hand upon his heart
and say that the heart in question is
not afflicted with fatty degeneration?
Is there man who can kiss the sacred
cover of the Koran and say that he has
no pains in his larynx. or his gzzard'
These are pertinent questions, and we
pause for reply, or rather, for several
replies.
The truth is, and there is no longer
any use in attempting to disguise or
conceal it, that there is more sickness
in Nebraka this winter than the Oldest
Inhabltant ever saw before. The
weather is trifle more absurd in its
fluctuations than is usual, even in this
part of the country, where the climate
is about as reliable as an airship. The
wonder is that anybody ever lives long
enough to grow whiskers. Do you re-
member the condition of affairs last
Wednesday? At noon it was like June
day. People came down town wearing
their mosquito bar oyercoats and their
palm leaf fans, and there was perspira-
ton on every brow. Men leaned against
buildings in the shade, and painted, and
said they would be everlastingly dog
goned. Ladies gathered in little groups
and famed themselves, and said that
it did beat all. You couldn't turn a
corner without running slam up against
harbinger of spring. Suddenly-very
suddenly = the scene changed. A
beastly, brutal wind came along as
though it had been shot out Of a gun.
1t gathered up dust and newspapers,
and dead leaves and decayed oats and
threw them into your face, and then
chased you down an alley and tore your
hat off with au insane shrek, and de-
posted that hat on top of the steeple
of the Presbyterian church. 1t was
the siliest wind that ever came down
the pike And in few minutes it was
evident to the most superficial observer
that the wind had been kept in the re-.
frigerator for weeks; and the people
who had been tanning themselves and
perspiring, and saying "Goodnes Gra-
cious," in raucous tones, shivered in
three languages, and tried to keep
themselves warm by using adjectives Of
the old-fashioned sulphurous kind.
ISM t it surprising when you come to
think of it, that any people were left
alive on Thursday morning?
Yet the majority of folks were around
the same as ever, going through the
motions OF living, and swapping their
fingers in the undertaker's face. Yet
they were all unhappy, and the only
talk you could hear on the streets was
about lungs and alimentary canals and
dlaphragms, and pneumonia, and grip
and headaches.
The worst feature of the prevailing
i'll health is that the doctors are as sick
as the rest of the people; in some cases
they are sicker The Oily Tongued
Stranger, to whom we have referred in
previous issues, commenting upon the
fact, said, on Thursday morning: "Wel
sir, l woke up in the middle OF the
night and thought WIS dying; my
heart was beating away at such rate
that it shook the house, and / was al
choked up so that my breathing
sounded like q fire alarm. / managed
to stagger to the telephone after while
and called up the family physician, anc
asked him to come out just as fast a,
he could do it. told him to hit the
high places only, and get to my house
in three minutes. He replied, in {
husky voice, that he was threatened
with pneumonia and would not dare
venture into the cold and darkness
Then / called up another doctor and h,
said he was all covered with mustard
plasters and had 10 stay up home unit
they came off. l rang up several NOR,
doctors and they were all sick in bed
with but slight hopes of recovery
Finally induced veterinary surgeon
to come and that l had bad case o
the heaves and ordered a bran mash TO
me, and told me TO have my hay wei
sprinkled with water before eating it
He said that he was so sick himsel
that he ought to be in bed and volun
: teered the information that there j
more sickness among horses and cattl
3 this winter than he ever knew before
He is chasing himself all over tn