Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-12-03
Bob@s
Ddvi/N y
Mte059
Tales From Vancouver Island;
Along the Highway

Clitl1 ely 4lOC AOAAA eAAS AAASAA
nation to protest against what
he called the ''bad breaks" re-
ceived now and then along the
route. All Of us are prone to
complain when anything goes
wrong with our program, and
it doesn't take much either to
start the squawking.
After a bad morning on a trout
stream, a blowout in the neighbor-
hood of Cobble hill, the loss of
sweater alleged to be rain she'd
der, and fried instead of grilled sal
mon served for lunch, I was in
duced by my fat friend, George
Warren, to halt and have look at
the Queen Alexandra Solarium for
Crippled Children, along Malahat
beach off the main highway on the
east coast of Vancouver island.
"What is there that can be turned
into copy?" I asked, thinking in
terms of the column, "aren't all
solariurns pretty much alike?"
George said they were, but none
theless drove into maple-lined
road half a mile onward and
stopped his car before long two
stored building extending north and
south into a beautiful grove of jack
pines, the whole set in garden of
old fashioned flowers blooming riot
ously among rocks and on trellises.
"We shan't be long, he said, wal
lowing out from behind the wheel.
cit will do you good to see what is
being done there in the name of
humanity. Come along, only one
short flight
Automatically I followed the fat
man, with no interest one way or
another. But as he had insisted. ..
Disciples of Hope.
At the second floor elevations we
came out on a wide platform fac
ing west by north, and deluged in
yellow sunlight, tempered by cool
breezes from the Georgian straits
| filtered drought endless forests of
pine, fir and spruce trees, extending
to the blue sea. Against the back
wall, on " cots, spread with inn
maculate linen and pillows, enliv-
ened by an occasional colored blan-
ket, lay u children, in slips and
breech cloths, with nothing between
them and the sky.
In years they ranged from four to
twelve. Not among them all was
there boy or girl free from afflic-
ton, in the majority of cases, pre-
natal. Brought into the world in
complete, knowing naught off any
life save one of pain and physical
restrictions, they had come, even
in childhood, to accept life with
resignation. From these misshap-
en-, stunted, unconscious contortion-
lists, most of them fiat on their
backs, came no single word of COM
plant, no murmurs of discomfort.
There they are, disciples of forti-
tude and hope, living legacies in no
way responsible for their presence
in this vale of tears.
DR.. Glenn Simpson, acting medi-
cal superintendent, conversing with
or touching tenderly each child as
he passed, informed us that the So
larium patients have SO per cent
chance for complete recovery, and
that about 70 per cent are perma-
nently benefited.
Kids Know How to "Take" 1t.
After an hour not unmixed with
considerable serious reflection that
there should be so much misfor-
tune, and so little complaint among
the solarium waits, we returned to
the open road, the luxury of lib
erty, the dissolving view that is
part of freedom.
"What do you think now of the
bad breaks we get and the i'll luck
dealt. to us grumblers?" asked
George Warren, fumbling the wheel
of his car. adults can't take it
like those kids. Few of us stop to
laid restraining hand upon his
corpulent knee. There was nothing
more to be said, anyhow, that is,
nothing that words might convey.
However, to those who read these
lines, more especially 10 tnOSe VINO
go through life complaining, would
suggest, if opportunity offers, that
they drop in at the Queen Alexandra
Solarium for Crippled Children,
Malahat beach, Cobble hill, Van
couver island, B. c., and get a true
Interpretation of the words patients
and patience, spelled two ways, but
both meaning the same thing.
On a small steamboat crossing
Juan De F'uca strait between Vic
toria and Port Angeles, I observed
that nearly all of the passengers,
except an old man who sat quietly
in corner by himself, went sea-
sick.
"That cove has got it on the rest
of these guys" volunteered a deck
hand, who seemed much amused
by the widespread distress.
Gin what way?" I asked.
"Blind as bat," replied the ma
rine. Give spent nearly 20 years
on the water and never knew blind
man to lose his lunch. Unless you