The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1915-01-29

the forest, everything? Any food-get
ter who would not get food for US
him wo punished or compelled to
starve to death. And very few did
that. They preferred to get food for
US, and make clothes for US, and pre-
pare and administer to us a thousand
"a mussel shell, Hoo-Hoo-a thou.
sand satisfactions and delights. And
! was Professor Smith in those days
Prof. James Howard Smith.
And | was very happy, and had
beautiful things to eat, and my hands
we're soft, because did not work with
them, and my body was clean all over
and dressed in the softest garments"
He surveyed his NANCY goatskin with
disgust. I'VE did not wear such things
In those days. Even the slaves had
better garments. And we were most
clean. We washed our faces and
hands often every day You boys
never wash unless you fall into the
water or go in swimming"
Neither do you, Granser," Hoo-Hoo
retorted.
1 know, ] know. !, am a filthy old
man. But times have changed. No
body washes these days, and there are
no conveniences, 1t is sixty years
since | have seen piece Of soap.
You do not know what soap iE, and /
shall not tell you, for / am telling the
story of the Scarlet Death. You know
what sickness is. We called It a dis
ease. Very many of the diseases came
from what we called germs. Remem-
Der that word-germs A germ is
very small thing. 1t is like a wood
tick, such as you find on the dogs in
the spring of the year when they run
in the forest. Only the germ is very
small. 1t Is so small that you cannot
see it."
Hoo-Hoo began to laugh
You're queer un, Granser, talking
about things you can't see. If you
can't see EN-, how do you know they
are? That's what I want to know.
How do you know anything you can't
see"
"A good question, very good ques-
ton, Hoo-Hoo. But we did see-some
of them. We had what we called mi
croscopes and ultramicroscopes, and |
we put them to our eyes and looked |
through them, SO that we saw things |
larger than they really were, and many !
things We could not see without the |
microscopes at all Our best ultra
microscopes could make a germ look
forty thousand times larger. A mus
sci shell is a thousand times larger.
mussel shell is a thousand fingers
like Edwin's. Take forty mussel shells,
and by as many times larger was the
germ when we looked at 1t through
microscope. And after that, we
had other ways, by using what we
called moving pictures, of making the
Observation-Disclosures germ many.
many thousand times larger still. And
hus we saw all these things which
our eyes of themselves could not see.
fake grain of sand. Break it into
EN- pieces. Break one of those pieces
nto ten, and one of those into ten,
md one of those into ten, and one of
hose into ten, and do it all day, and
maybe, by sunset, you will have
,tece as small as one of the germA."
The boys were openly incredulous.
iareLip shifted and snccred and Hoo.
loo snickered, until Edwin nudged
hem to be silent
"The woodtick sucks the blood of
he dog, but the germ, being SO very
mall goes right into the blood of the
'ody, and there 1t has many children.
n those days there would be as many
S a billion-a crab shell, please-as
many as that crab shell In one mans
ody. We called germs micro-organ-
SINS. When few million, or a Dill
on, Of them were in a man, in all the
lood of man, he was sick. These
erms we're a disease. There were {
many different kinds of them-more
ifferent kinds than there are grains !
{ sand on this beach. We knew only 9
few of the kinds The micro-organic |
'orld Yas an invisible world, a world {
70 could not see, and we knew very
tile about 1t. Yet, we did know
There was the bacillus an t
lracis; there was the micrococus; &
lere was the bacterium termo. and | i
le bacterium lactis-that's what s
rms the goat milk sour even to this 1
ay, Hare-Lip; and there were schizo- {
lycetes without end. And there were d
Iany others. !" &
But the Scarlet Death. Granser." 0
dwin at last suggested. t,
Yes, yes, Edwin; had forgotten. K
ometimes the memory Of the past is v
cry strong upon me. and forget that Il
am dirty old man, clad In goat ii
Tin, wandering with my savage ii
'andsons who are goatherds in the Ii
'imeval wilderness. The fieeting Ia
stems lapse like foam, and SO W
psed our glorious, colossal civiliza- q
On. am Granser. tired old man. al