Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-03-28

open windows. The change that is
quickly wrought in his appearance is
marvellous. By the end of two weeks
he has lost the wan, anxious look of
the invalid, and shows the proper red
n his cheeks. He forgets about his
deformity, for as it decreases there
is nothing left for him to brood upon;
and he learns to become joyous, ac-
cording to his birthright.
The Daisy Fields home IS open all
the year round The other children's
branch of the post graduate, the
Southampton fresh air home for Grip
pies, is open only from May until
November Its work is supplemented
by visits to the patients in their
homes by the matron in charge dur
ing the summer. This young woman
is well instructed in nursing, and she
goes from home to home, through the
most distressful sections of the city.
carrying practical comfort for the
tiny pent-up sufferers. She arranges
to have the wagonette from the Grip
pies school call for her little patients
if they are able to attend She sees
to it that they receive each two quarts
of milk and two eggs every day, that
they sleep alone i'll the best room of
the house, and with the windows
open. The patients and the families
of the patients are made accustomed
to the open window. Roofs, fire es-
capes streets and parks are utilized
to their fullest capacity in this de-
mand for fresh air. The Southampton
management provides cots for the
roofs, reclining chairs for the fire es
capes, and baby carriages or wheel
chairs for the parks and streets.
Sometimes it is evident that home
is not the best place for the little SUI
ferers, and forthwith setps are taken
to remove them. One day recently
The matTon found a crippled boy lying
in baby carriage in a room almost
hot enough to bake bread in, and in
attendance on the ptiable child was
an old woman who seemed to have no
idea either of the seriousness of the
patients case or of the ways in which
his distress could be alleviated
In another place the matron found
child afflicted with hip-disease
cooped up in a room as unclean and
uninviting as a pig-sty The floor
was so rotten that it had begun to
cave in and the walls we're moldering
with damp.
Of course, in these instances the
only humane thing to do was to have
the suffering children removed At
home they We're simply wasting their
feeble strength; and poisoned air and
unsuitable treatment were slowly
bringing on the inevitable end To
little ones who have endured these
double hardships, the delight of rest
ing in cheerful rooms, of basking in
the sun on pleasant days and of hav-
ing with them, to ease their aching
bodies and uplift their. depressed
minds, nurses and teachers whose
training fits them to serve as both
attendants and companions, is itself
great step on the road to recovery.
Encouragement faces the friends
of the crippled children in the poorer
districts of the city on every hand. In
many homes the diet for the cripple
and the rest of the members of the
family alike is coffee or tea with the
buns that can be bought so cheap and
which seem to furnish so much for
so little. On the east side, one day,
crippled girl was discovered limping
about without her shoe, the gift of
the management of the Southampton
home. Her mother explained that she
thought she would be wearing it
out"
1t was the same mother who ex-
planned, greatly to the visitors hor-
ror, that she was careful always to
wash the dressings before using them
again They must always be burned,
said the nurse forcibly; but it was an
old story, and the doubt remained
| that it had any effect on the we'll
meaning but unimpressionable wo-
man.
However, in spite of all discour
agement the work goes on. What the
city is doing for pulmonary tubercu
losis, the post graduate hospital is do
ing Systematically for children Grip
pied by tuberculosis of the bone, and
the results already obtained give
promise Of even larger success in the
| poor fr,+Y7ra