Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-02-08
THE SIMPLE LIFE
OF A COMMONER
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grand peroration in which he
dramatically declared that he saw a
vision of the future development
and glorious destiny of this great
country.
Among other things, l learned
more about the naughtiness OF
George the Third that day than
had ever dreamed of before; it was
a great occasion to me, the barbe-
cue was a revelation. / had never
seen anything like it before, nor
have 1 seen anything like it since;
/ began to think America was
some" If l had missed any of
the inspiration at the stand, l GER
tainly made up for the loss at the
barbecue, at which I proved beyond
all question that / was as good an
American as any native on the
ground.
Soon after the fourth my father
obtained employment about two
miles out of town at Fish's mill
which was undergoing repairs, SO
the family moved out to the mill
and occupied the house of the miller
which happened to be vacant at the
time. For few days all went well,
my time was occupied chiefly in
fishing in the mill-pond which was
well stocked with sunfish, also in
carrying water to the workmen at
the mill, as well as in doing chores
about the house. We we're getting
on nicely and really enjoying the
new life upon which we had enter
ed, until one day my sister, Mary
Ann, was stricken with fever and
ague; that was something new in
our experience, it was a depressing
surprise. One after another we were
brought low, until all of us were
either burning with fever or shiver-
ing with cold. 1t was a grievous
thing that had befallen us and that
at time when we were least pre-
pared to meet it. The cause was the
malarial conditions under which we
were living, breaking up of virgin
soil, decaying vegetation which was
extremely rank everywhere, and
finally drawing off all water from
the mill-pond. The demon was in
termittent in his assaults for he
would pounce upon us today and
let us rest tomorrow; none of us
shook every day and in that was our
only consolation. Fortunately we
were not all down at the same time,
so we took our turns in waiting on
one another. My father would
shake one day and work the next
until he became so reduced as to
be unable to work at all, and that
was really the case with all of US.
for my own part I distinctly re-
member that / could hardly get
about at all; so low had my sister
Clara and i become that we were
unable to climb over a stake and
rider fence, we could only crawl un-
der or through it. The doctors in
sisted that the evil spirit of the
ague could only be expelled by calo-
mel, which was supposed to be a
purgative of great value, therefore
we were fed on calomel. Whatever
effect that powerful purgative may
have had on the ague it certainly
salivated us good and plenty; it
loosened our teeth, but that did not
matter very much under the circum-
stances, seeing we had little use for
teeth in the absence of an appetite.
In the course of time, however, all
fully recovered and had plenty of
time to philosophise over this new
feature of life in a new country.
Mark Twain has it that the shaking
ague is wise provision of nature,
to enable person to take exercise
without exertion. If that be true
nature must have been very kind to
US for we took an immense amount
of exercise that summer and had
no occasion for over exertion.