Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1919-03-13
SMOKED TO DEATH.

Riding along a few minutes after Z
sleeper window. The sky was bright,
not a cloud in sight. The sun was
shining brightly. I thought. we are to
nave a pretty day.
Twenty minutes later l happened to
look eastward again. This time the
was q ball OF red fire. We were
entering q medium sized manufacture
ing city n hundreds of chimneys
were belching smoke into the air.. The
sun was less than an hour high and
the ordinary beam was unable to pene-
trate the pail Of smoke. dus and dirt
Which hung yer the city.
1 watched the sun as we pulled
away from the station. traversed an
other section of the city, and re-
entered the country. The redness of
the ball of fire was gradually trans
formed into the radiant wilderness of
the unobscured sun and presently we
were out into the white light again.
The suns rays. SO powerful in many
ways. AVE not much penetrating pow
er. "A few feet below the surface of
the ocean eternal darkness prevails
and the animal life found resident
mere are without eyes. A few feet Just
below The earth's surface we reach q
zone to which light does not penetrate.
The amount of dirt in a cubic yard of
air is too small to be appreciated by
the ye, but pile up a few miles Of air
and the amount becomes great enough
TO filter out the sun rays.
In the early morning and late after
noon the sun ray must traverse many
mlles OF air to reach the section OF
earth on which the day is breaking or
fading. IT the air is dirty not much
OF the ray gets through and what does
is without power to kill bacteria.
This winter the air has been excep-
tionally dirty. For one thing, we have
had to burn whatever the mines have
seen fit to sell us. and they have run
IN all sorts Of Stag, dirt and general
trash that they had no more profit
able use for and sold it to us as coal
Som OF them should be indicted as
profiteers n grafters.
There are other sources of dirt in
the air and smoke only carries a part
OF the blame, but between them 1 sus-
pect they have added to the death
rates this winter.
The busy season for the city doctor
is the late winter and the spring. 1t
Is during these months that he spends
hours in visiting a long list of patients.
The sickness which he combats is air
borne in the main. On the other hand.
the busy seaso for the country doc
tor. In most sections at least, il the
summer and autumn. During these
months he cannot get away to attend
medical societies or for any kind of
recreation. The diseases with which
he has to contend are not air borne.
Even when the late winter and early
spring season is not the healthy season
there Is no such rise in the sickness
rate IN these seasons as prevails in the
city.
Last fall the country suffered from
influenza quite as much as the city did.
Many appeals for help came from the
rural districts. Most Of the stories Of
recurrence OF Influenza and of high
death rates that are now coming in are
from the cities.
No man knows all Of the reasons for
the relative healthiness Of the country
IN the late winter and early spring. I
think n of the important ones is the
dirtiness Of the city air. Few rains and
SHOWS have washed it this winter. The
smoke has been unusually dense and
dirty and In consequence Of all OF this
the sunlight that has been coming to
the city dweller is not of q germ de-
stroying quality.