Evening star., 1922-11-29
The First Three Years.

Granny, with his chronic bron-
chitis or winter cough. was as regu-
lar as taxes and as wrong in his con-
ventional notions of the cause OF the
trouble and the ways of health as
a testimonial writer. 1t took three
years. mostly winters. of eloQuence
and logic, not to say nagging, by
the doctor to impart the first rudi-
ments of a common sense hygiene.
Granny finally came to believe that
clothing Is something to be worn for
comfort, winter or summer. and not
for armor against taking cold" and
he had to admit, after an exhaustive
scientific consideration of all the tex
tile materials used for underwear.
that for a man of sedentary indoor
life a fairly light weight, porous( that
is, sort of stockinette machine
knitted stuff. and not tightly woven
flannel or fleece lined stuff) woolen
union suit, with socks of about the
same material, offered the greatest
comfort indoors and out.
Being regular. the patient had been
in the habit of wearing a curious
contrivance Of red fiannel-Why red,
it would be a puzzle to determine.
but perhaps because red is the danger
signal-cut in the outline of a shield.
and Granny rather shamefacedly con-
fessed to the doctor that this con-
traption was chest protector" He
was Influenced to discard the Chest
protector" more by the argument that
it was an uncieanly thing than by
any belief that it actually tended TO
impair his natural resistance to in
lection. Being regular. again, he was
one Of those individuals who imagine
that body warmth and comfort come
from external heat, artificial warmth,
rather than from within. With TINS
idea uppermost in mind it Is not
strange that an invalid with trouoie
he imagines was caused by cold" in
the first place should be inclined to
wear more clothing than comfort
really called for, especially upon the
throat and chest where he childishly
fancied the cold might penetrate.
It was a great day for the doctor,
when Granny first ventured out for
his constitutional sensibly. even light
ly attired. Notwithstanding the blust-
erine weather. The doctor eSpied his
difficult patient beating it up the ave
nue. at a fine gait. swinging his stick
as blithely as any young buck, with
out a sign of a muffler about his
throat or overshoes or any of those
timorous appurtenances of the way.
ward yaletudinarian. well, well"
he said to himself. 'it looks as though
we were getting Grampy's goat. He
is sleeping nights with two bedroom
windows wide open, and taking his
oxygen ahoof daytimes. He's pretty
we'll broken Of the coddling habit and
real or imaginary drafts no longer
send him scurrying for cover. We
must try now what little sensible
dieting will do for that boy and may.
be broach the subject Of autogenous
vaccines. They give the itch seven
years in Indiana. I wonder If brcn-
II there is anything in this idea
Of live and learn" man at seventy
ings Of Intelligence. and yet so few of
US live to learn that few of us learn to
live comfortably. Granny did. reluc-
tantly. And to hear him telling about
it nowadays-as he usually is-one
would imagine Granny chose the way
and led the doctor on after him.
That's another popularity Of the
psychology of the older boys. II you
do succeed in hammering a new idea
into their heads they invariably i'm
agine they have conceived it them
selves.