Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-03-17

.NApNhAh6s AAAo AhA hANAANs us hAoh0o
and even his pocket-book would go
there once a month. Who could tell
whether a crisp bank note or a coin,
even at its brightest might not have
been handled by a consumptive or be-
fouled by diptheretic? His poor old
servant, jeanette, was nearly driven
crazy by all this.
What an odd sight when Prudent
Capon put his knives, his razors and
even his gold watch and chain in the
flame that kills the evil micrococure,
the streptococque, etc, almost cremat-
ing them while cremating the mi
crobes upon them.
Prudent Capron never ventured out.
He dreaded the ever-active parasite
in the dust of the street, while the
ground was fairly alive with millions
of nameless germs. In the omnibus
and the trolley one rubbed elbows
with persons suffering with smallpox,
typhoid fever or scarlatina; at the
theatre, at church, in q restaurant. in
the cafes and in the public halls one
inhales an air surcharged with poisons
sits upon chairs that others have
contaminated, used glasses that
others have soiled with their lips,
turns the pages Of books already
turned and tainted by consumptives'
fingers.
For the same reasons my poor
friend closed his door to visitors and
never wrote a letter for fear of re-
ceiving a reply that might introduce
into his house some foul germ.
Is it necessary to say that he had
neither dog, cat nor parrot? The ter
rible stories he had read in his daily
paper Carefully borated and steril
lied in advance) OF animals teeming
with germs and microbes positively
gave him an attack of jaundice, and
the accounts OF deaths from malignant
carbuncle resulting from the bites of
flies that had fed upon poisoned or de
composing meats caused a shiver OF
fright at the mere sight or sound Of
one
Besides, Prudent Capron passed the
greater part Of his life in his bath.
room or dressing room. Carbolic
aci1 was his favorlte perfume Twenty
times a day he sponged himself on,
gargled his throat to dislodge pneu-
monia germs. He calculated that at
each antiseptic nasal douche that he
took killed no less than fifty thousand
bacteria. Oh, these phantom mi
crobes, these accursed germs.
Capon, thus washed ana disinfected
and anointed antiseptically, ought to
have lived to be centnearian. But
no; one day last summer he com
mitted, for the first and last time in
his life, a grave imprudence. The sun
shone brightly, the air was pure and
the birds were singing in the trees.
Margot, the young and pretty farmers
daughter, happened to pass under the
bachelors window. Prudent discreet
ly pushed the shutter part way open,
thus braving. perhaps the measels or
malaria. and leaned out to follow a
moment the vision of trim ankle. Oh,
woman. we have always sinned
through you
A slate detached from the rOof-a
slate large and heavy all charged
with microbes without doubt-fell sud
denly upon the aseptic head of my
friend. He fell like a bullock, his
skull fractured They supposed that
he was dead.
With a thousand cares they car.
ried him TO his bed and ran 10 find me
1.-The doctor,
MY poor friend" said I, softly.
after having carefully examined the
wound, you long ago made mo swear
never TO hide the truth from you when
your last hour was near II you are
religious send for a priest"
Prudent heard ma dietractadIx