The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1912-02-08
ESTE BROSIUS WRITES
FROM SWITZERLAND

Este BrOsius. son OF Dr. r. I. BRO
sius of this city, and who while travel
ing through France last Fall was taken
I'M. is now at a hospital at Leysin,
Switzerland. Mr.. BrOsius writes the
following interesting letter from the
little European country:
Leysin, (Suissel Switzerland.
Dec. %, 1911.
Dear ones in u. S. A.
Guess the last time | wrote you
was reveling IN the JOY Of being out OF
doors in the sunshine, well that was the
first and last Of it, Just two days, we
have had one Of those fierce Alpine
storms 1.-THE kind you read about ever
since. 1t seems as though at times
Les Chamoix" would surely be blown
away, however, after IL days of it.
today is warm and there is no wind
and | think that soon we will surely
get some Of that continuous sunshine
have heard so much about. Ii has
showed almost continuously and |
understand that there is between and
feet of snow on the ground now. On
the 18th DR.. Roller punctured my
abeess, and 1t must have been the
the right thing TO do, for my tempera-
ture, which bad been up around 100
degrees, dropped at once to normal.
| am Just beginning to realize that
am up against il proper and / will
tell you frankly that have not much
idea right now Just how long | can
expect to be laid up here OF course
have been rather unfortunate in com
ing here in December for it is their
worst month, but January and Febru-
airy they claim as the two best in the
whole year, so again | am lucky.
Sometime ago | raised my estimate
that if was O. X. by the end of Feb
ruary | would be thankful, but now
am beginning to think that is too much
to hope for tell you | certainly
appreciate those fine hopeful letters
from all of you at home, and you can
just bet that | am keeping a stiff
upper lip and showing this assembled
multitude of foreigners what real
American is, | am the only American
and quite a curiosity. These people
have the same ideas about Americans
that the typical Fasteners have of
the westerners wild and woolly and
uncultured) and you see it is up to
me to change that impression, and I'm
doing my darndest. have worked up
quite bunch of optimistic philosophy
and have to keep it constantly on hand,
for the Belgian Tiny next door neigh
bor) gets down in the deeps and then
have to argue him out, and Madam
Sesti (the Partisan Artist gets the
blues once in a while because she s
nearly broke and her Paris patronage
is going to the dogs and no chance to
get away from here for some time.
This climate when it is good is a
wonderful thing, and after all, that is
what counts. Well. | must tell you
about my Christmas, my room has
quite festive look as a result. On
the oath led and Miss Williams came
at II o'clock a. m. and they were load
ed down with bundles. The basket
was huge affair, gorgeously decorated
with mistletoe and holly, and was a
present from Mrs. White and Mrs.
Young. of Washington, d. g.. friends
of Miss Williams at the Montreux Pal
ace Hotel They had heard Miss Will
hams speak of Doc so often that they
said they wanted to make up this
basket for me, and say, it was great
the whole top was covered with layer
of the largest grapes have ever seen,
and beneath this were three large
boxes of sweets, bright red necktie
and a gorgeous fake diamond ring, and
tie pin, a pencil joke, box of real
cigaretts and another of fake cigaretts,
and very amusing novelty. Ted
brought dozen oranges, box of figs,
and four large packages of milk choco-
late. Miss Williams brought present
from herself, and one from her sister
in Seattle We all had lunch in my
room. AT three O'Clock p. m. they had
to leave and at that time | was taken
from my bed on stretcher and taken
down stairs and placed on a cot with
raisable back. | wish that my powers
of description were good. for that
| Christmas Eve is one | shall never
forget. Every one in the building had
been assembled in that large room, a
good many being brought down in their
beds. Nearly every nation of Europe
was represented, and there was one
swarthy Egyptian. People in all sorts
of i'll health; nearly half the clinic
are children and they were very much
IN evidence, about half of them were
up and running around and did not
look the least bit sick. The program
began with lottery, each one was
given a number and each number drew
a present. | received a pin cushion,
then came a long succession of tab
leaux put ON chiefly by the children,
then there were several liJtle playlets,
| ha 10 -,
German mostly, so ! did not absorb
much of what they said. but knew
when the time came for applause. All
of these stunts were interspersed by
the nurses brigade they put lots of
steam into it and seem to enjoy max
ing noise. At about z 80 p. m. we
were handed into the dining room
where a beautiful Christmas tree was
displayed, and there the distribution of
presents took place, and the kids went
as wild over their things as American
children do; not much difference when
1t comes to these things. At 8 O'Clock
p. m. | was brought back to my little
bed, about all in from the excitement
OF it.
So you see | had a pretty decent
Christmas considering that I'm a
blooming American, fiat on my back
and 5000 miles from home. am for
tunate in having so many fine friends.
as am receiving letters from them
all the time. | have received the Hood
River papers and | don't believe that
there was letter that escaped my
eye. With lots of love will close for
this time. Este Brosius.
Warning Against Wet Feet.