Evening star., 1927-11-23
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

He was rewarded with a great clat-
| ter of breaking glass, and, thinking
| that his purpose had been achieved,
| he drew several breaths of fresh air. "
uttered few exclamations of pleasure
and went soundly to sleep.
| When he awoke next morning he
was astonished, and somewhat amused
at himself, to find that he had broken
| the water pitcher to bits. He had
| slept all night with the windows
/ down-and unbroken--in the firm be-
| lief that he was getting plenty of the
| freshest air.
| He recalled how he had felt suffo.
Gated at the sight of closed windows
and how, after he heard the breaking
| glass, he had inhsled deep breaths of
what he fondly imagined was air pour
! ing in at the broken pane.
| The intense physical satisfaction
| which he had derived, he remembered,
could have been no more poignant in
! the case of actual fresh air than 1t
! had been in the enjoyment of the air
which his mind coniurcd up for him.
| If one is interested in trying this
experiment on himself, he may man
| age it in n number of ways and the
result will always be the same-he
will discover that the mind has a
great deal to do with the freshness of
fresh air.
X X X X
Honestly, now, why should thou
sands of poor little babies be trundled
around for hours in a semi-frozen
state every Winter by fond mammas
who sincerely believe that by this per-
ambulation their beautiful infants will
be induced to grow into strong
healthy men and women?
We never see such a poor little one,
with nose blue with cold, without feel
ing that the fresh-air propagandists
have much to answer for in the next
life. Our observation has not been
that this pushing of babies through
so many million cubic feet of fresh
air for so many hours per year has
had any particular effect upon making
this nation of strong, hardy men
and women.
AS a matter Of fact, respiratory dis
eases of all sorts, including colds, grip,
influenza and pneumonia, have in
creased largely since the vogue for
fresh air" set in. The treatment of
the latter disease, now more of a ma
Jor serious i'll than ever, swung from
closed rooms and fiaXSeed Jackets, in
sc, to Wide-open windows for the pa
tient 90 years later, but there is a
disposition on the part of some physi'
clans today to return to more nor
NAL procedure, as the ''fresh-air craze"
begins to die down.
After all, the hardest children. the
toughest men and the sturdiest women
this land has ever known were the
pioneers. who kept every window down
in Winter-and they didn't have many
windows, either. They slept in feather
beds. many of them entirely under the
covers, head and all.
They regarded cold as the enemy,
not as a freshener of Gods air.
That there is germ of truth in the
fresh-air craze there can be no doubt
The treatment of tuberculosis seems
to have been aided, although every one
knows some patient who, after five
years spent in the outdoors, Is no bet
ter today than at first One can scarce
lv say that fresh air alone has kept
them alive. Food and the doctor count
for something.
Let us have fresh air, by all means,
but let us not make ourselves uncom-
Portable about it. Sunshine is great
deal more important than fresh air.
If we keep in the sun, the air will take
care of itself.