Year: 1875

The first time l began to sneeze,


friend told me to go and bathe my fee


in hot water and 20 to bed. l did Sc


Shortly after, another friend told me t


get up and take cold shower bath.


did that also. Within the hour anothe
friend assured ME that it was policy t


iced cold and starve fever l hat


both. So l thought it best to fill mysel


up for the cold, and let the fever starry


awhile. In case of this kind l seldom
do things by halves; | ate pretty hearti


ly. l conferred my custom upon stran


ger, who had just opened his restauran
| on Cortlandt street, near the hotel, tina


morning, paying SO much for full meal
| He waited near me in respectful silence
until l had finished feeding my cold


when he inquired if the people about
! New Iork were much afflicted with


colds. l told him l thought they were
| He then went out and took in his sign
| started up toward the office, and on
the way encountered another bosom
| friend, who told me that quart of warm
salt water would come as near curing a
cold as anything in the world l hardly
though | had room for it, but | tried it
any how. The result was surprising.
believe ! threw up my immortal soul.
Now, as L give my experience only for





are troubled with this distemper. l feel
that they will see the propriety of my
cautioning them against following such
portions of it as proved inefficient with
me, and acting upon this conviction
warn them against warm salt water. 1t
may be a good enough remedy, but
think it is rather too severe. If l had
another cold in the head, and there was
no course left me to take either an earth
quake or quart of warm salt water, 1
would take my chances on the earth
quake. After this everybody in the ho-
tel became interested, and | took all
sorts of remedies-hot lemonade, cold
lemonade, pepper tea, boneset, stewed
quaker, hoarhound sirup onions and
loaf sugar, lemons and brown sugar vim
egar and laudanum, five bottles fir bal
sam, eight bottles cherry pectoral, and
ten bottles Uncle Sans remedy, but all
without effect. One of the prescriptions,
given by an old lady, was-well, it was
dreadful. She mixed decoction com.
posed of molasses, catnip, peppermint,
aquafortis, turpentine, kerosene and va
rous other drugs, and instructed me to
take a wineglassful of it every fifteen
minutes. l never took but one dose;
that was enough. | had to take to my
bed, and remained there for two entire
days. When felt little better, more
things were recommended | was des-
perate, and willing to take anything
Plain gin was recommended, then gin
and molasses, then gin and onions.
took all three. l detected no particular
result, however, except that l had acz
quired breath like a turkey buzzard,
and had to change my boarding place
Al this new place they suggested a differ
,OTlrv to = y
bath was recommended. [ had never re-
fused a remedy yet, and it seemed poor
policy to commence then; therefore |
determined to make sheet bath, though
1 had no idea what sort of arrangement
it was. 1t was administered at mid
night, and the weather was very frosty
My back and breast were stripped, and a
sheet (there appeared to be a thousand
yards Of iD soaked in ice water was
wound around me until | resembled
swab for columbiad. 1t is a cruel ex-
pedient When the chilly rag touches
ones warm flesh, it makes him start with
sudden violence and gasp for breath, just
as men do in the death agony. 1t froze
the marrow in my bones and stopped the
beating OF my heart. 1 thought my time
had come. When | recovered from this,
a friend recommended the application OF
a mustard plaster to my breast. l be-
lieve that would have cured me effectu-
ally if it had not been for young Glenn
ems. When l went to bed l put the
plaster where l could reach it
when l should be ready for it. But
young Clemens got hungry in the night,
and ate it up. l never saw any child
have such an appetite. | am confident
that he would have eaten me if | had
been healthy Ta0ain