(Continued from August Issue)

THE SAN, June 20

GOOD OLD HEN: Hooray that dame I picked out of the flock has got her sea legs so to speak at last. She was in the bunch that strolled by last evening and it did me good to see her out like a regular skirt. I'll be there soon to, I feel better already. I cant get no knockdown though yet. She and the assortment she travels with dont have no dealings with no males and I'm afraid for once to start something for fear I'll gum the whole business. I'm still feeding off a tray, I kinda got used to eating with myself but I can see hopes of eating like a regular guy soon. We got a funny guy up here. Hes a wop and used to be a pug, hes always wanting to bust some guy on the jaw. He aint got fresh with me yet and I aint going to give him no chance. I'm going to beat this game and aint taking no chances of ruining my health scrapping with no wop. Nothing doing. Outside of that classy dame breaking loose things is dull. Guess these is the dog days. Write soon I aint heard from you in a dogs age.

Yours,

BILL. THE SAN, Aug 9 DEAR HENRY: Well Hen old sport I'm still kicking. I been about dead with my biler. A few days back mebbę it was two weeks I dont know I lost track of the days somehow, I run off my feed and the biler didnt work at all O. K. The doc says I'll fix you up dont worry. I says I aint worrying none but I dont like to run off my feed. About a 1⁄2 hour after a nurse trots in with something in a cup. I says what you got there? She says only a little castor oil, swaller it down it aint bad. I says nix on that noise no castor oil for little willie. She motions to another nurse down the line one of them grabs me tight and the other forces the junk down my throat. Gosh I says when I got my wind back, was that castor oil? If it dont taste no worsen that I'll have a diet of the stuff. You see says my nurse your a predejuiced nut. We'll show you a few things before you get out of here. You showed me something already I says and thats how to give castor oil. I dont think I could take it no other way without you holding me like that. Aw can that chatter she says and beats it. No Hen I dont want no castor oil for no diet. If I wanted to lay my worst enemy out I'd disguise a shot of castor oil in orange juice and hand it to him for a peace offering. I guess it fixed me though, I'm eating good again and still putting on weight. You watch me beat this game yet Hen, your scrapping friend,

BILL.

THE SAN, Oct 4 MY DEAR OLD PAL: Gosh Hen it never rains but it pours. A few days ago I thought it was

curtains for yours truly. I had one of them funny dark red tastes which finally come strong. Say that was a beautiful ruby I spilled. She was coming up pretty fast, the nurse was holding my hand and the doc strolls in. She says well Bill what you doing. OI says I'm trying to make a fool of myself. Aint I doing a good job at it? She grinned and says its clearing up it'll stop soon. And sure enough it did but I was still scared shed start up again. After it had most stopped I got to thinking hard and begun to feel sorry for myself. But I didnt stay that way long, I says to myself why you old nut you Bill, what you thinking thataway for. You cant never beat this little old game if you let a little hemorrage lay you out cold like this. To hear you going on here youd think you was going to play host at a funeral. So you quit that noise and get that little old kidder working. Then to I begun to think about you Hen I thinks gee, if I slip by poor old Hen'll have to part with a lot of coin seeing me planted and I'm costing him enough already so I just cant croak on Hens account. Naw and I aint croaking neither not by a long shot. When nursie come tripping in I starts in to let out the same old line of gas but she locks the switch quick. Hey there can that racket she warns me. Let them windbags of yourn do a little healing before you start to work them again. I says your on kiddo if thats the way the land lies me for the mute act. So all I did Hen was lie there for two or 3 weeks flat on my back. They say it was only 4 or 5 days but I never seen such long days before Hen. Say that ceeling in my room sure got some studying performed on it. First I counted the cleats then the nails in each cleat, from that I got to lining up the nails and by drawing imaginary lines through them I laid out some classy scenic railways and toboggans. After I'd constructed all them I could I got to counting the grain in the boards and tried to figger out how old some of the trees was they was chopped from. I went to sleep about ten times doing this last and never did finish the job altogether. The doc didnt keep me flat long, about the forth or fift day I guess it was she says well kid, you better sit up some today. I dont think it'll hurt you none. But dont move around to frisky and dont keep that fly trap working much. I says dont worry none doc about me I'll remember where I'm at. And the next day I set up longer so the doc says finally I guess you can haul your pants on tomorrow Bill your doing first rate. I says of

course I never was no second rater. Since I been getting up some I'm feeding better again. Gosh for them few days I was stretched out I darn near almost starved to death. I put in a kick about the second day. I says here, if you dont give me some real grub to prop this here stummick up I'll be busting in two (2) like them

T. B. bugs does. But they says dont get excited now. We got to diet you for a day or two (2) but you'll be feeding good again soon. I says alright if you says so but I aint exactly enjoying this layout none to speak on. However

as I says feeding is better now Hen a fact which gives me great joy because you know Hen I like to throw a good feed into me regular. Now I'm feeding good again you watch me beat this little old game. Well Hen I guess I'll pull the switch and run this letter on the siding. I aint seen much of my chicken lately seeing as I was laid up some but wait till I get my sea legs so to speak and I'll be there like a duck. You watch me Hen.

Your old side kick,

I

BILL. THE SAN, Oct 25 HELLO OLD SCOUT: Well Hen I sure got a lot to tell you this trip. At last I got to the dining room to eat with the regular bunch. I had been despairing of ever getting there, I thought I'd have to eat with myself forever the way things was going but I got surprised. The other morning the doc says to me you can go in to dinner today Bill and see how it affects you. says to her say, quit your kidding aint you ashamed to be picking on a poor sick gink like me. She says no, I aint kidding you Bill. Take a shot at the dining room like I'm telling you and see what happens. Before she left I says to her confidential like now doc, I aint exactly no backward guy but I aint used to fighting for my grub. Dont stick me at no table with no hog. Most of these ambidextrious eaters (do you know what a ambidextrious eater is Hen, its a guy who while hes swallering the sword is stacking up the prongs ready to heave it in) as I was saying to the doc most of these ambidextrious caters has a bad habit of thinking the rest of the ginks at the table was placed there to watch him clean up the grub. Then to doc, I says I been eating so long alone mebbe my table manners aint all up to scratch so dont put no females where I hang out. I could mebbe stand one but if you corner me in with a couple I wont be able to swaller my vittles proper. The doc laughed and says alright Bill, I'll see you get fixed up 0. K. And she sure fixed me up O. K. Hen, gosh I bet she forgot all about me Hen telling her earnest like to watch out where I landed. I beats it to the hashery the first crack of the gong and the waiter there gives me a seat. Pretty soon in blows a light haired dame who cops the chair at my left and interdooces herself and says o, aint you that guy Bill whos always saying such killing things to the nurses. Gosh I says do they repeat the junk I toss them. If they do its me for the tall timber. She says dont worry none theyve give you quite a rep. yes I bet they have. While we was conversing another dame had yanked out the chair acrost from me and when the first dame had give me a knockdown this second one started a string of chatter that had me gasping high and dry and looking at her earnest like to see if she was all there. While I was engaged in trying to decipher this new dame some one camped in the remaining

I says

chair at my right, and when the second dame quit gassing for lack of wind I takes a slant at what was next to me and say Hen you could have laid me out cold with a love tap. There looking at me was my chicken, the one I been telling you about Hen, smiling and looking cheerfull and happy. I got a knockdown then of course, the first dame seen to that. Say she is some kid Hen, the classiest ever. I didnt know hardly what to say for onct so I tried to cover up my dizziness with a lot of racket. Hey you hash slinger I says calling the waiter and shoving my chair around to one side, bring over a plate and some tools. Mebbe another dame will want to sit here with a good looking guy and I also like a lot of company when I eats. The waiter kinda grinned and I histed my chair back and then looked to see what the fireworks was doing to the skirts. It was to funny to see them looking at each other embarassed like, not knowing what to say. I guess I must have been to presumptious-I guess thats the word I want -so I tried to set them at their ease and says you ladies needent mind me none, I been so long eating with Bill I got out of the habit of talking with my feed. But I'm a good listener though and my receiver aint got no leeks neither so you can gossip about the other dames and slam the guys and it wont get out none. Theres plenty of bone here I says tapping my dome significant like but its AI quality and aint got no cracks at all at all. They kinda flushed up at that and I see I'd got them where they wasnt looking for me. But they took me at my word and did there gassing alone leaving me to eat in peace a fact for which I was most thankfull. Gosh I was afraid of doing something wrong. I kept holt of the tools like they was solid gold set with diamonds and the three (3) wimmen was sneak thieves waiting to grab them when my holt weakened. I see I couldnt eat nothing much so I beat it pretty quick and went back to my room and loaded up on some junk I had stuck away in my dresser. I'll get used to the wimmen some time I suppose but it sure come sudden like. Say Hen you ought to seen me ball the doc out the next morning but she only smiled and says aw Bill, quit your fussing you know you know you like the ladies. I says yes, you bet I do but you give a sick guy a awfull shock that time. I'm feeling fine now Hen. You watch me beat this little old con game. last that thermometer of mine stays closter to the normal, it aint all the way down yet but it is nearer by a long shot than it was. My biler being off and that little old ruby cost me a few pounds but watch me get it back. I aint so much below my weight anyhow, of course I aint trained down fine and am pretty soft but when I get to hiking around a little you watch me harden up some. I'm getting more used to the dames now and can chaw my grub some instead of swallering it whole. I guess me and the dames will hit it off O. K. when we gets more acquainted. Well Hen I guess I bothered you enought for onct so I'll draw my fires and shut off the air. So long Hen, BILL. (To be Concluded in October Issue)

At

"Did you find any germs in the sputum, doctor?" "Yes; some,' was the evasive reply of Dr. Aiken. These were the opening words of a conversation in which Dr. Aiken acknowledged his defeat and his inability to cope with discase, and in which John Ambiken fully realized that he was the victim of that disease which he dreaded and suspected, tuberculosis. John Ambiken had been an office patient of Dr. Aiken's for nearly two years and had been constantly on the decline. No one will ever know how much determination, grit, effort and hope it took to keep John going during this time. If Dr. Aiken had told John what Dr. Osborne said to Hattie Adams when he examined her for what was supposed to be a slight indisposition, our story might have been different.

'Are you ready for the worst," said Dr. Osborne to Hattie, in rather a serious way, and Hattie, who never cowed down, whether it was before a dare to ride half-broken Jim to the post-office, or to inflict corporal punishment on the biggest boy in school, if discipline demanded it, said, "Fire away; I never yet dodged an unpleasant truth." To hide or ignore a truth or disease increases the danger of the situation. Well would it have been for the reputation of Dr. Aiken and the health of John Ambiken if they had been made to face the truth they were facing now two years earlier.

John had been a T. B. for eight years, had in the meantime been a patient of several physicians, had undergone an operation in the county hospital, and had lost forty pounds in weight, and this was the first time he positively knew that he was a T. B. Yet the city in which he lived prided itself on its health and sanitation.

If I were writing only a story, I'd tell how John bore the dreaded truth home to his family, of which he was the support, and how they told him that God was as close to him and them in the mountain as when he was at home. But it is my duty in this article to force home truth stranger and more dangerous than fiction.

John was intellectual, vain, ambitious, excitable, and lacking in self-confidence and selfassertion, a combination of temperament which would have killed a Roosevelt. With this temperament and weak resistive powers, he entered one of the eastern universities. Here, under the obsolete system of three decades ago, when ambitious boys went to college, not to be developed, but to be examined, he was kept from learning almost everything he should have learned. He was told everything he should know except that his health was his most precious asset. John was educated into disease while a more brilliant classmate, with less longevity in his constitution was educated to death. His case is not an argument against a college education, but it is a broadside invective against that trait in human nature which licks the horse that pulls and urges to greater exertion those who are al

ready over-exerting themselves. This practice is one of the remote causes of T. B.

John Ambiken never went back to Dr. Aiken's office as a patient, but was turned out on the mountain by his friends and his sanitary city to die. But he was too mean to do his friends or the city any such great favor. He got his disease under arrest and returned to the city to remind his physicians and friends that they, through their silence and ignorance, had been accessories in the ruination of his health, and that he was not a mysterious Providence, but a mysterious ignorance.

Society is like the ostrich, which hides its head in the sand in time of danger, and prefers a ton of cure to an ounce of prevention. But for this very reason we should the more assiduously offer it the ounce of prevention. Going into the prognosis and prevention of John Ambiken's case, and giving freely to the public that knowledge which John acquired by losing his health; we find that he carried too much steam for his engine capacity, that his temperament rode his body to death, and that his friends and society, by whetting his ambition and urging him to greater effort, when he was already overworking himself, quickened his march towards the grave. T. B. seldom enters the body unless invited to do so by predisposing causes.

John first worked himself into chronic indigestion at college. After he recovered from this he worked his way through the panic of '93 to '96 by accepting inferior jobs and working like a plough-horse, metamorphosing in a night from bootblack to business manager, from preacher to peddler, from school-teacher to scavenger. Then, in order to get the advantage of a merciful Providence which had prevented him from “kicking in" in 1902, he responded to a business call to go into a malarial climate, which at last enabled him to get the victory over his weak resistive powers.

We

The way to cure T. B. is to prevent it, and the way to prevent it is to suspect it in every case of catarrh, cough, languidity and indisposition. Its method is to entrench itself in the lungs under the white flag of a delusive hope and undermine the constitution before it is detected. are not fit to live spiritually until we are fit to die, and the T. B. is not apt to live until he knows that he is in danger of dying. One may be justified in lying to save life, but to lie to a T. B. about his condition is refined murder. An intelligent hope may be a factor in recovery, but to hold out a delusive ignorant hope to a T. B. is to try to cure him by giving him poison. And John Ambiken had for several years been taking poison in the form of over-exertion, exposure,

and nervous strain.

It is an honor to be a T. B., for it loves a shining mark. It is a disease of the bright and energetic, and John Ambiken's case was no exception. We deplore war because it prevents the perpetua

tion of the best physical manhood. We should deplore T. B. because it hinders the perpetuation of ambitious, intellectual and energetic manhood. Tuberculosis, unlike other diseases, seems to increase the strength of the sexual instinct in the male, and in the expectant mother it halts in its deadly march till a new life has entered the world, when it proceeds on its lifedestroying course with accelerated speed. This is because Nature is so careful of future life and careless of present life that she hastens to maturity and reproduction plants and animals whose lives are being cut short by wasting disease and lack of nutrition. No general rule can be laid down regarding the marriage of T. B. Any law that would go farther than to give a committee of well-educated experts with large hearts power to forbid individual cases to marry, would be ignorant and unjust. The public never see the anguish and sorrow that the deprival of marriage and offspring can cause an arrested

case.

John Ambiken had been too busy early in life to listen to Cupid's calls. When he had time to reflect he began to lament, as any intellectual man would, his celibate condition and the prospects of a lonesome, cheerless old age. Nothing good can be said about tuberculosis unless it is that it gives one time to prepare for a place where there is none. But one of the sharpest thorns in its crown of misery is its interference with marriage. It was too much for John's Christian resignation to be compelled to forego what he had coveted most through all his early life, a woman's love. Was God paying him in like coin by making him a lonely, selfish hermit in his declining years?

"Good morning, John. How in the world did you ever get so fat? I thought I'd have the pleasure of reading your epitaph long before this," said old Michael Newman as John entered his shop to get his razor honed. And John, who always stopped for a moment's conversation when he met Michael, began to explain that the only cures for tuberculosis were first, quiet; second, quiet; third, more quiet; fourth, most quiet. And that the way to treat a T. B. was to "feed him, feed him again and feed him all the time." "Well, then," said Michael, who had won independence through his common sense and knowledge of human nature, "the cure for a man as active as you are is worse than the disease.' "That's where the shoe pinches, and that's why I complain," said John, as he walked out of Michael's dingy shop, thinking that he could cheerfully endure the disease if he could only exert himself in some congenial employment.

We close here the history of John Ambiken and leave him where society has placed him, buried in the social scrap-heap, perhaps never again to appear on the stage of human activity.

Like as a general who, during the battle, while the fires of ambition are burning in his breast, and the aspiration to do deeds of valor tantalize his mind, is tied to a tree, so is John Ambiken wrenched from a good position, baffled in his ambitions and hopes, while his soul is still harassed with noble aspirations and lofty ambitions. Too strong for an invalid, and lacking in the power of endurance to meet the competition and hold a salaried position, he faces, at fortyfive, his declining years with a feeling like to that of a general who, with a disabled army and short in provisions and ammunition, is compelled to besiege a city.

If only one of the score of physicians that he employed during the last twenty years had cautioned him to conserve and protect his weak resistive powers, and boldly warned him of the danger of any debilitated condition, his life might have been normal, happy and useful. Would to God that some one might tell every child in the grammar schools the necessity of conserving and protecting weak resistive powers and the insidious and non-spectacular nature of tuberculosis, which means that it kills you before it warns you of its presence. And warn them that tuberculosis lies in ambush behind every indisposition, especially chronic indigestion and malaria and malnutrition.

The fact that the lungs are supplied by the cerebro-spinal nervous system permits a patient to remain cheerful and buoyant to the last-and he may suffer little pain. While in the stomach, which is supplied by the sympathetic nervous system, the most trivial disorder makes a patient miserable enough to want to die.

The state could help John Ambiken by having a state employment bureau for T. B.s. Society could have helped him by demanding that physicians who doctor chronic catarrh, bronchitis and languidity with delusive hopes send these cases to an expert as suspected T. B.s. It would also have been better for John if we had had the sensible and civilized method of feeing physicians that the Chinese have; pay the doctor so long as he keeps you well.

Are you and I going to do with our friends as John Ambiken's did with him; follow the heathenish custom of suggesting to them when they are indisposed every ailment and remedy in the dictionary, rather than boldly facing the truth and helping them to prolong and save their lives by assisting them to secure quiet and rich nourishment? The way to prevent T. B. is to educate the youth to conserve and protect weak resistive powers; to warn them against the insidious and non-spectacular nature of the disease, and to have a specialist take out a searchwarrant for the arrest of this slow poison, but sure death, whenever languidity or a stubborn cold or catarrh makes the lungs a good campingplace for tuberculous parasites.

When man lived in the forest and slept in the open, sickness was a rare visitor, but as civilization has driven him farther and farther from his native home and habits, his love of comfort and luxury have developed at the expense of his health, until now he is met on all sides by the germs of disease. This new environment is especially favorable to diseases which come as the result of lowered vitality, so that to maintain health one must secure the best possible resist

ance.

Pure air is like a tonic and sunshine is a germicide. The latter helps to defend the body against disease while the former assists in the building up of a strong, healthy organism which is capable of defending itself against infection. The third and strongest ally in creating health and vigor is proper food. Since lowered resistance is the result of the absence of pure air, sunshine, and proper food, and since conditions are such that we cannot go back to the forest to live, then good health becomes more and more dependent upon the third ally, proper food.

Prevention-not cure-is the key-note to good health and happiness, for it is far easier to keep a house in repair than to patch and prop it up after the foundations have been undermined. Proper diet is the only means of keeping the foundation of the body in good condition, thereby supplying the material needed for growth, repair, and activity.

When we hear of a case of starvation, we are accustomed to associate it with little or no food, but starvation is going on just as surely if each organ or tissue is not receiving that which it needs for proper functioning. Some chronic illnesses may be due to too little water, or water starvation, some are the result of lime starvation, while others follow iron starvation. All of these substances may be obtained by the proper selection of foods. An individual, suffering from a certain disease, may have had food sufficient in quantity, but deficient in quality.

The tissues can be made capable of defending themselves against the germs of disease only by food sufficient in both quantity and quality, for natural immunity comes with healthy blood and the proper functioning of all the organs. Each organ is made up of minute cells and each individual cell has its own peculiar function to perform with its own peculiar needs.

Until recent years, very little attention has been paid to the diet. People ate as appetite, custom, or convenience dictated, but as health has too often been the price paid, it has gradually dawned upon the consciousness of man that Discretion is the better part of valor," and that it is far wiser to preserve friendship with his health than to try to coax it back when once he has imposed upon it.

The growing recognition of this fact is every

where apparent. That people are becoming interested in proper diet is evidenced by the appearance of a book recently brought before the public, called "The New Cookery," * written by Miss Lenna Cooper, of Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle Creek, Michigan.

This book gives a brief, but comprehensive treatment of the needs of the body and how these may be met by the food-both as to kind and as to amount. The introduction emphasizes the importance of a consideration of the diet as follows: "The question of diet which used to be one to which only physicians and invalids gave thought is now recognized as one of the most important man has to consider. Great as is the mission of healing the sick, we now realize that it is a greater mission to help people to keep well, and this is the mission of New Cookery,' for we know that good health is best maintained-all other things being equal-by attention to diet."

The author states that the book is not intended as a book of recipes for invalids, but rather that its purpose is to suggest those foods ard their preparation which build for health, strength, and efficiency. It is especially valuable for those who have the responsibility of the selection and preparation of food for a family, where the family diet must provide for the varying needs of the hard worker, the moderate worker, for the invalid, for the aged, for the student, and for the growing child. In addition to the above, a diet must provide for each individual cell in every organ, every muscle, and every bone. If, however, one had to consider each of these demands separately, the task of feeding the family would appear more like an engineering feat than a simple, every-day problem of the household.

But an analysis of the various cells of the body shows that there are only five main groups of substances which must be supplied for their growth, repair, and functioning. An analysis of our foods shows that they consist of these same kinds of substances. Hence the problem of supplying the proper material is comparatively easy, but the problem of supplying the correct amounts of each substance requires more thought. The needs of the body may be grouped as protein, fat, carbohydrate, water, and mineral salts.

In "New Cookery" Miss Cooper discusses briefly the energy value of fats and carbohydrates and the place in the diet of foods containing them. In accordance with Dr. Kellogg's observations at Battle Creek, to the effect that fat is beneficial, especially in lowered vitality diseases, such as anemia and tuberculosis, cream is used freely in the recipes. At the end of each recipe are the number of calories furnished by

"The New Cookery." by Lenna Frances Cooper, Third Edition, 1916. Good Health Publishing Co., 412 pp. 8 ills. May be purchased through the JOURNAL OF THE OUTDOOR LIFE, for $1.50, postpaid.