Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-11-27
GRANDMOTHER %.


In these days when we send our
bodies to the hospitals TO be gone
over" by human machinsts as we do
our watches to the jeweler and our
automobiles to the garage. when a
pain in the right side sends US skurry
ing to the doctor and slight headache
to the drug store, Grandmother. NJ. D.
looms high on the horizon of memory.
Grandmother didn't know the differ
ence between the vermiform appendix
and an angleworm. Such terms as
pathology and therapeutics and prog
nosis We're all the same 20 her as
Choctaw or any other Indian language
She referred to sastrodyn!a as belly
ache" and may have called a subcuta
neous whitiow a 'beeling.' When you
came out Of that argument with the
neighbor boy with a profuse epitaXis
grandmother exclaimed, Laws
mercy, see the boys nose bleed and
put rag wrung out of cold water to
the back OF your neck instead of cold
compress. She may not have been
long on latin or wise in anatomy or
keen on physiological function but she
always knew something TO do,
II was she who built that mighty
onion poul1ice and spread It's odorifer-
Gus but grateful warmth across your
chest that time you had such cold
and wheezeed so when you breathed.
She said you might have lung fever.
She'd never heard any one say pneu-
monia-'' But j, did the business, that
and that onion syrup she cooked MP
on the three legged stove with the eie-
waited oven. She wouldn', have known
g bacillus if she had met it in the road
and was not on speaking terms with
any OF the bacteria family; but she
put turpentine into that CUT you got on
washed ii thoroughly in hot water and
bound IL up with Balm Of Gilead' or
Gregory Ointment and the thing got
well despite the fact that you ran ev-
ervwhere barefoot and tucked wash
ing your feet at night because, as you
told your mother, grandmother said to
leave the rag on it three days without
disturbing it, She didn't know about
fermentation but she knew all abou,
sour stomach and had remedy at
hand She wasn't strong on ulateria
nsedica but her boneset tea was SOW
ereign medicine and she could cure
"canker sore mouth and have the
baby wriggling and cooling in a jiffy.
The fact is that Gran dmother. VI. D.,
" lille she never heard a lecture and
might have tainted in a dissecting
room, was mighty good practitioner
what TO do to bring aid and comfort
to a sick room. She might have
tainted in a d!ssecting room but she
, never lost her poise while life lasted
and there were things to do for those
who needed attention or consolation.
Death did not frighten her for she
smoothed the path of many down TO
the dark river and drew the bereaveG
/ little flock about her to weep ON her
ample bosom when all was ever. She
never held degree, her title of Grand
mother, NJ. D., was given her jokingly
| among the family but her coming into
! the room Of the suffering was never a
| joke but a JOY. She had two hands
| that knew how, she had plain common
| sense and infinite control Of herself.
And when she came the sun came
! out When desperation started a man
| for the doctor ten miles away with
orders TO kill the horse if you have
to, but get him here another mes
! senger came for grandmother. And
| when the doctor came he was glad to
see her. They never tangled, she and
the doctors. She was honorary Grand
mother, First Assistant NJ. D. among
them all. a bundle Of herbs, rare com
mon sense and a kindly heart and
gran dmother constituted college and
its output a certainly as Mark Hop
kins and a student at each end Of a log
ever constituted a university.