The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-11
TIE EXPERIENCE
 OF A ''LUNCER' Having Gone Away for His Health He Went Home
 for It. HE FOUND IT AT HOME Kept as Busy as He Could and Is Now Pretty
 Well.
HE FOUND IT AT HOME

IAs'll y, yOu SeSLH tO pc growing weaker all the time, and you'll have to change climate if you get any better. Get ready and go west or southwest as soon as you can"
 This was the decree that Dr. Good, our old family physician, had handed out to me, Not so very comforting, to be sure, but the directions said 10 take it. There were a great many consump- tives in that part of Indiana where I lived, and it was the fashion to bundle them up when they were on their last pegs and send them "out West" It would have been considered ldiotic to have sent one of these tnvalids in any other direction; so it was toward the setting sun that I turned my pale face. It was a serious matter with me, this leaving of home and friends, and rather doubted whether I would look upon the familiar scenes and faces again. I had seen so many of my friends come back in a box or get back just in time to die that the situation appealed to me differently than 1t had ever before. The hope and optimism of consumptives are often commented up- on; how they lay plans for their little worldly affairs up until almost the mo- ment of their death Well, that is be- cause they want a little something to occupy their time something pleasant to think about, and Ii Is easier for the concumptlvo to be cheerful than mor- ose. He is more dead than alive any way; his nerve cells and centers do not respond readily to such ordinary stim- uli as thoughts of dying. and, on the whole, he is not capable of worrying very much If he wanted 10. Neverthe- less, the gravity of the situation was , fully apparent with me. I began to take stock to see just how stood in the matter of vitality and to count the forces that weighed against me.
 First I recalled the fact that fortune or the fates--commoniy called heredity had not dealt kindly with me. I was born of parents whose stock of vitality was below par. My mother had been carried off at an early age by the arch enemy of the race, tuberculosis. My father. while not manifesting tuhercu- lar tendencies, nevertheless possessed an inherent weakness which caused him to succumb in his prime to an att tack of pneumonia I had arrived at mans estate in the home of a generous uncle, and had acquired a fair educa 1 ton, but my store of physical strength was scant My narrow chest, delicate features, eyes of unrsual lustre, to say nothing of more convincing signs, im- pressed even the casual observer that I was doomed to be another victim of i ''the great white plague" I tried to ! teach school, but was compelled to give 1t up. The consensus of medical opin- ion at that time was that the extreme southwestern part Of the United States was the most favored spotfor consump- tives. and thither went. after a nasty closing up of affairs at home I was weak and wan, and my friends hardly expected me to stand the arduous trip, if may express a candid opinion But then they would not have been per- ! forming what they considered Q bound- en duty had they not shipped me off to some promised land for consump- lives. had little tissue to excite fever and invite a rapid action of the dis ease, so I was enabled to stand the journey better than I had anticipated, | Tn my new surroundings ! met with ! many obstacles Things were not as expected. I could not get a desirable room or any accommodations for a reasonable price. Board alone cost me $30 a month My room was anything l but inviting, but l paid well for 1t. I ' found that the man who occupied the room before was a health seeker and / had lost his life at the job.
 The water was bad, the sand storms were dsagreeable and the torrid sun, while perhaps destructive to germ life | in a way, was also enervating to an unacclimated Invalid I wondered at flrpt why I did not improve now that I was "out west I weighed myself frequently and found that I was hard ' ly holding my own. l consulted every day with a doctor of reputed skill He occupied palatial rooms and drove one of the highest priced automobiles. But l soon discovered that this man was not painstaking like the home physi- clans No examination of sputum was made to confirm in a positive manner my true condition although I paid the doctor well for his tersely told advice. In fact, I soon learned that every ser xriao ufbnf if yrn tually worth
 I was growing very Respondent, and with my other aff1ictions was coupled a bad case of homesickness. This malady If such we may call it-we are told by old soldiers, is often responsible for the death of healthy young men who are called upon to serve their country. How much more appalling, then, is it l to the doomed consumptive away from home and friends on a mission so de- void of hope
 | This town of Lungville-only that wasn't it's real name-was full of 'lungers.' Being widely advertised as health resort, the afflicted flocked here in great droves, only to be shorn of their cash. These health seekers all came from the north and east The na- tive eonsumptives were sent elsewhere another case of the hills being green far away.
 l found that consumptives were os- tracked from all save their kind, They were, generally speaking, oolonized to themselves, for citizens shunned them as they would lepers. They were grad ed according to the size of their pock- etbooks and the stage of the disease. There was a sort of social distinction that would be hard to define, and it ,<,,,,faa s uGf1a ot 6rs+ +o lypovr