GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST (Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona) Being Impressions of a Layman, Based on Seven Years' Personal Experience with "Climate" BY GEORGE B. PRICE NEW YORK B. W. HUEBSCH 1907 \7\ Copyright, 1907, by B. W. HUEBSCH PRINTED IN U. S. A. CONTENTS PAGE Foreword i Consumption (some phases) is curable, but condi- tions cannot be ignored. — Ignorance too often fatal. — Advice of the home physician must frequently be modified, owing to local conditions. — A "fight to a finish." CHAPTER I. Introduction 7 Not an argument for emigration; the physician to take that responsibility. — Purpose, to give an insight into conditions in the West. — Difficulty of finding the desired information. — Going unprepared. — Thou- sands of benefited persons. — Plain speaking desirable. — No alchemy in "climate." — The real virtues for healing. — Climate but another name for opportunity. — Those who fail, and why. — Desperate cases some- times saved. — Realization of danger a safeguard. — Courage essential. — Aids to the enemy. — A year to become well. — A limited income. — Charitable help avoidable. — Moral responsibility of the physician. — Fifty dollars per month for comfort. — Not hopeless for the poor man, if not too ill. II. The Beginning of a Hope . . . .20 How the author got out of his doldrums. — The jour- ney westward [v] 304591 CONTENTS chapter page 111. Climatic Conditions 26 Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona compared. — Colorado climate: Winter in the spring. — Delightful all the year. — Summer change of residence unneces- sary. — Little snow. — Summer months for tourists. — Thunder-storms. — Drives, picnics, etc. — Delightful nights. — Champagne air. — Wind-storms. — Horseback and log fires. — Glorious winter. — New Mexico climate: Similar but warmer. — Air dryer. — Some patients do better here. — A fine climate. — Life dull outside the cities. — Dual towns. — The Mexican element.— im- proving conditions. — Arizona climate: .Alkali deserts. — Petrified forest and Grand Canon here. — Exceed- ingly dry air. — Cost of living, high. — Phenix and Tucson. IV. Where and How to Live . . . -39 Coing on a ranch: Differences in ranches. — .Average ranch not comfortable. — Emergencies. — When ranch life may be profitable. — Benefits overestimated. — Boarding Houses: Generally good. — Cost. — Advan- tages. — Sanatoria: Prejudice unwarranted. — Their comforts and advantages. — Tents on grounds.— Cost of sanatorium living. — Exchanging confidences possible and helpful. — A steamer chair community. — Fires of adversity. — Sanatorium treatment unquestionably best for very ill. — Profitable for all classes of invalids. — Living in a Tent: May be cheap or costly. — Suit- able food important. — In connection with boarding house. — Tent-porches. — Ordinary tents. — Selecting ground. — Danger in brooks. — Object of a tent " fly." [vi] CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE — Value in tenting. — Improved tents. — Tent-houses. — Portable houses. — Cheap housekeeping. — Tenting sometimes injurious. — Housekeeping: Desirability of keeping house. — Rent before buying. — Cost of fur- nished houses. — Apartments. — Cost of apartments. — Furnished rooms and their cost. — Cost of table board. V. Marital Obligations . . . . -63 The question of moving the family. — Married people. — The invalid's need of companionship. — Hope de- ferred. — Effects of prolonged absence. — Injustice in long separations. — The invalid is sensitive. — Worldly pursuits, or love, which? — Small income enough. VI. Getting Employment . . . . -70 Injurious to accept employment too early. — Condi- tions of demand. — Boom towns. — Exaggerating pos- sibilities. — Infant towns. — Caution in estimating. — A rational estimate. — Accepting expedients. — Com- peting invalids. — Salaries low. — Possibilities increase with health. — Mechanic trades. — Art little encour- aged. — Professional classes. — Teachers and musi- cians. — Domestics. — Different character of domestic service in the West. — Chance conditions of success. — Buying a partnership. — Information by the Chamber of Commerce. — Increasing opportunities. — The West an empire. — Most successful men once invalids. VII. How to Avoid Loneliness . . .81 Importance of a cheery disposition. — Folly of regrets. — Substitution of object of business. — Need of pleas- ant diversion. — Delights of relaxation. — Value of [vli] CONTENTS CHAPTEK making friends. — Choosing environment. — Abbrevi- ated indulgences. — Early to bed. — Open windows. — Light exercise only. — Many alternative employments uf time. — College towns. — Taking a special course. — Latent brain possibilities. — Lack of interest a bad sign. — Being " hipped." — Diversions must be mental. — Permitted and denied diversions. — All dissipation must be avoided. — Joining a club. — Amusements. — Genialitv among women. — Women's clubs. VI 11. Social and Ethical Aspects . . 9^ The question of congeniality. — Eastern people. — Englishmen. — " Little London." — Society a counter- part of the best. — Natural living. — Veritable homes. — Inviting aspect of the towns. — Beautiful residences. — Enjoying life. — Contrast between cities and coun- try. — All kinds of people. — Mountain towns.— Min- ing camps. — The cowboy. — Unconventional types. — Ethics of the type. — Moral transmutations. — Up-to- date character of towns. — Pride in education. — Schools and colleges. — Low cost of tuition. — Co-edu- cation. — Type of scholarship. — Sports and fraterni- ties. — Wealth not requisite. — Social functions. — A live-and-let-live policy. — Clubs, libraries and churches. — Speculation. — Gold mines, real and delusive. — Towns varying in characteristics. — Denver, Colorado Springs, Manitou, Pueblo, Boulder, Canyon City, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Phenix, Tucsc^n. — Character of health-resort towns. — Leisure class. — Reason for choosing a certain location. — "Smart" set. — Materialism in the West. — Letters of intro- duction desirable. [vill] CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE IX. The Lure of the West in Progressive Americanism. — An Indefinable change. — The East loses its hold.— The thrall of Nature's glories. — Transmuted love. X. The Nature of the Disease . . . • i'5 Knowledge desirable as a preventive. — Consumption not inherited. — How contracted. — An accident. — Tubercle bacilli a vegetable growth. — Immunity through health. — Weak organs invite it. — Danger in delay. — Medicines practically useless. — The only known method of cure. — Nature's effort. — When disease is arrested. — Returning confidence. — Need of caution. — Danger in resuming old habits and habitat. — Why too early emplnvment is dangerous. — The quandary and alternatives. — Great importance of the first year's residence. — Freedom from infection in health-resort cities of the West. XI. A Chapter on Don'ts . . . .124 Some hints on the most important things to do and not to do. — Nostrums, exercise, indulgence, exposure, digestion, stimulants, hemorrhage, sleep, food, clean- liness. — Importance of sputum disposal. Appendix: Statistics . . . . . • '33 A brief summary of the climate, sanatoria, physical aspect, inhabitants, and principal cities and towns in the three states, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. [ix] FOREWORD Consumption can be cured ! At least, some phases of it can be: such is the general state- ment now held out as a hope. But there are conditions. Weigh the import of such sentences as the following, penned by specialists who have worked and observed for years right in the heart of climates which are popularly sup- posed to be " cure-alls " for consumptives: " Very . . . many cases of phthisis which we would designate curable, fail of re- covery, simply from imprudence . . . and indiscretion." ^ Again: "Other invalids fail to do well simply from an erroneous idea," etc.- Stop a moment and think ! What does this * Dr. B. p. Anderson. In connection with this and fol- lowing references see the note on the last page. 2 Dr. W, H. Swan. [I] GAINING Hi^ALTH IN THE WEST mean? Does it not clearly indicate that there are necessary conditions of recovery of which the patients referred to were either ignorant or careless? Every one of these patients had gone many miles from home, suffered more or less hardship, made positive sacrifices. Each one had reluctantly separated himself from business, family, home, and prospects, possibly had involved himself or some sym- pathetic relative in financial stress — all in order to gain benefit from a distant cli- mate — and then failed, foolishly and hope- lessly failed, not because it was impossible to get well, but because he did not realize or attend to conditions. Yet every one of them probably thought he knew all that was neces- sary for his cure. Can anything more clearly of fatally dem- onstrate the blindness or ignorance or lack of preparation of the man to be benefited? The result — death! When it might have been and should have been many years of a happy, useful life. [2] FOREWORD It Is not to be understood that all cases oi tuberculosis sent to the West can be cured; some cases (not the ones we are discussing) ought never to be sent away from home; for, as Dr. C. J. B. Williams says, " There are a certain number of cases where the best of climates avail nothing." But if you are in the " probably curable " class (as your home doctor, if he is an honest man, implies when he sends you West), isn't it worth while that you should thoroughly understand the required conditions for your cure? Wherein lies the fault of these hun- dreds who needlessly go to an untimely death, so uninformed as to commit " imprudences " and " indiscretions " and hold erroneous ideas? I believe that my own experience in the West suggests some answers. This, then, if any be needed, is my apology for offering the following pages: the hope that these sugges- tions — so entirely unprofessional and strictly from the standpoint of the man to be bene- [3] GAINING HEALTH IN THP: WEST fited — may help some Invalid to think more deeply; perhaps to see that his cure depends upon much more than climate alone, even though that he unexcelled. Another thought, before closing this fore- word: I believe I am implying no disrespect to an honored profession in saying that, what- ever the general advice given the invalid by his home physician upon starting him on his westward trip, experience shows that such advice must often be modified greatly by the physician in the place to which he goes. Local conditions of climate, often varying considera- bly with the time of year, peculiarities of the locality, of which the home doctor can know little or nothing, the state of the disease, etc., sometimes make a most important difference in treatment and living. If the invalid is act- ing only on the general and unmodified advice of a non-resident physician he is, therefore, likely to remain ignorant of these differences, commits some indiscretion, and, instead of gaining, loses ground. Even the local physi- [4] FOREWORD cian is often too busy to give the patient, in one interview, a full, tabulated statement of everything he is to do, or avoid doing, or else these things do not at first make an impres- sion on his mind, and, in consequence, he does something imprudent.^ Is it not, then, worth something to the in- valid to be forewarned? Phthisis, even in its most favorable forms, is difficult enough to combat, and the patient who insists upon regarding his own case lightly (as he often does from a false personal pride) and does imprudent things, just to show, perhaps, that he does not have to be careful, is already well on the road to doom: for his is an enemy not to be trifled with or given quarter, even for a day. This error doubtless lies at the root of much indiscretion and, if continued, is almost certain to spell eventual failure. 1 Dr. B. p. Anderson says : " Many cases of phthisis which we would designate curable, fail of recovery, simply from im- prudence in the matter of exercise and indiscretion in the manner of living." [5] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST There Is little use in seeking " climate " unless the patient realizes that he is in for a " fight to a finish," and possesses also the de- termination to win that fight if it is within human possibility. [fi] INTRODUCTION To THE man or woman in health and strong for the day's work, this book may have sHght import. But these pages, written by one who has spent seven years in those regions (having originally gone there on a similar quest for health), ought to be of more than passing interest to such as are in need of a thorough building up to be effected through climatic change — particularly to him who has recently heard from his physician the disquiet- ing news that his lung or throat has been invaded by the insidious bacilli of that " white plague," tuberculosis, which annually adds probably sixty thousand new recruits to the list of invalids in the United States alone, and that, in order to give himself the best chance for recovery he must live a while in the table- [7] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST lands of Colorado, New Mexico, or Ari- zona — that Mecca for the invalid. The writer wishes to state at the outset that he is not arguing in favor of emigration to the West or singing a paean to its great- ness: that has been done already by others. He does not attempt to discuss at all the ques- tion as to whether or not the particular invalid should go there: that is taken to have been determined by the physician. His whole pur- pose is to tell those who are yet new to the experience some things that might be useful and instructive, and to acquaint them slightly with the conditions and " atmosphere " of the West in advance. It is the personal interest of the invalid, and especially that of the tuberculosis invalid — not that of the West — which is constantly kept in view. Holding this distinct purpose and, more- over, sharing a kindred feeling with all who are similarly afflicted, and believing that the following pages may bear more emphasis and, he hopes, encouragement if addressed [8] INTRODUCTION directly to the individual in personal confer- ence, the author begs leave to dispense with the more formal essay style and speak directly to his readers in the second person. If you have the inclination and time to hunt for books of travel, encyclopaedias, medi- cal and government statistics, etc., you may acquire a more or less comprehensive idea of that western land of promise; ^ yet even this method leaves much unanswered, particulars of importance to you as an invalid, which you would have to find out for yourself by experi- ence. This lack of full information and the consequent proceeding on assumptions have too often brought disappointment, if not a worse thing. However, it is far from my intention to speak forebodingly, for there is much to in- 1 " A country, then, in which life can be saved, an El Dorado, not of gold, but of health, a country right here in the United States, well called 'our natural sanitarium,' where to catch consumption is next door to impossible, and where even those who are said to be hopelessly ill with the disease recover, is a country of such a sort that one needs to offer no apology for presenting its merits to the whole world, at once and with all the force one can."— Dr. C. F. Gardiner. [9] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST spirit in that western world and its unaccus- tomed life, while as to achieving the object of search — regained health — the patient has only to hold before his eyes the indisputable fact that thousands have been cured who, at one time or another, safely passed through the same ordeal he is now experiencing. If I sound occasional plain-spoken notes of warning and do not treat the whole subject with the levity appropriate to a summer's out- ing, it will be because I, once an invalid, learned something of the importance of going as well prepared as possible, of avoiding fool- ish but not always suspected errors, and of then resting in such peace of mind and hope- fulness as should characterize the philosopher, instead of ignorantly and over-confidently trusting to chance or hazard to " bring you out all right." If there are such things as laws of health and rules for right living — and it is generally conceded that there are — then, however heed- lessly you may have trifled with these in the [ml INTRODUCTION past, it is of first importance that you sincerely lay them to heart now. Do not imagine for a moment that there is going to be any alchemy or ikon In the Rocky Mountain region or elsewhere to charm away a distemper or perform miracles of heal- ing on your physical body. That region has its virtues — that is why you are going there: virtues of pure air with which to fill the lungs deeply; of altitude, for quickening the sluggish pulse; of every-day sunshine, mellow and golden, in which to bask and bathe the body; but understand at the outset, and remember always, that these things are only just so many little aids — the best and strongest yet discovered — for assist- ing you to make good use of all the other potentialities within your own physical make- up. They themselves will never cure you ; they may help you very much : possibly they will give you just that extra help which your physical depletion now needs to carry you over the dividing line between going deeper into [ii] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST the shadow or coming out on the hillside; remember, Colorado, or New Mexico, or Arizona may simply be another name for your opportunity for life, everything depending upon how you use the opportunity. Many a young man with a comparatively light case of tuberculosis, who ought, by all calculation, to have been restored, has suc- cumbed within a year or two, principally be- cause he was reckless or lived prodigally; while at the same time some invalid so ill as to be unable to walk when first brought there, by better realizing his desperate condition and consequently attending to the doctor's orders, has gradually been lifted back to life and busi- ness. Indeed, it is a matter of remark that the " stretcher cases " often recover. When it is so I believe the explanation is generally to be found in the fact that the really sick man more fully apprehends his danger and is more on the watch to thwart his enemy.^ ' Dr. W. H. Swan says: "It is true that many cases with far advanced disease have done well here (Colorado) and have [12] INTRODUCTION So, while you need not be despondent If you are among the stretcher cases, be thank- ful If you have not reached that stage, and do not trifle with your chance any more than If you had. The doctor has probably put It quite mildly. In order not to frighten you, and has advised you to go for a few months to those dry table- lands of the West to escape the more rigorous Eastern climate and to build up your strength. been for years living active, useful livfes; but . . . they require more prolonged rest and careful feeding, than those in the earlier stages of the disease." And again: "Other invalids fail to do well simply from an erroneous idea that simply living in this climate will cure, without regard to the manner of living. It is not an unusual thing to see a patient, after three or four months' residence here, in a materially worse condition than on his arrival; and to find that he came with the belief (too often from instruction from his home physician) that if he will 'live out-of-doors,' exercise, ride horseback, play golf, tennis— do anything to keep him in the open air— he will get well. Very likely he may have climbed Pike's Peak, or done some equally foolhardy thing within a few days of his arrival. . . . Now it is a definite fact that a person coming here from a lower altitude, till he is adjusted to the change, fatigues much more easily than at home. At the same time the bracing, exhilarating air often acts as a constant nervous stimulant which spurs one on to exercise without his feeling fatigue, till at length his physical limit is exceeded, his powers of resistance depressed, . . . [and] a fresh or extended infection occurs." [13] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST Perhaps this is really all there is to it, and if so you are very fortunate. But perhaps the threat of destruction has already invaded your lung: the actual assault of those miserable microbes has already begun. Do not lose heart, for courage is the first essential. You have simply been encountered by an enemy whom you must vanquish. Feelings of antagonism against fate, bitter- ness of soul, dejection of spirits, restless pee- vishness and all kinds of worries are aids to your adversary. Such morbid mental states even in comparative health have a psychologi- cal influence upon the physical condition of the blood, actually engendering a kind of slow poison In the circulation; instead of which you now need rich and vigorous blood to attack the disease. Very likely the patient has been recom- mended to put himself, upon his arrival in the West, under the care of a local physician, which he undoubtedly should do, and from him and the observation of other cases he M4l INTRODUCTION gradually learns the truth that if he can be pronounced cured within the year, his will have been one of the quicker cases of recovery. Perhaps I may be criticised a little for mak- ing this revelation in advance ( I was some months in finding it out for myself), but my justification for doing so lies in my conviction that it not only influences the patient to make more thoughtful provision for himself and his family, if he has one, but it also leads him to realize fully the importance of making every day of the year count for his recovery. It introduces, also, another consideration very important to most people — that of maintain- ing himself during many months of enforced idleness on, perhaps, a limited income. Obvi- ously, if one has but a possible five hundred dollars, let us say, to draw on, it would be foolish policy to begin on a scale of living requiring two or three hundred dollars a month, under the delusion that two or three months would perfectly restore his health. The end of It would be reached all too [15] GAINING HEALTH IN THP: WEST quickly, long before a cure could be effected, and disappointment must result. Many a man or woman has gone West un- der the delusion of a speedy cure, only to use up his or her last dollar to purchase a return railroad ticket, or perchance has had to be put aboard the train through the charitable help of some kind-hearted physician or stranger. These are among some sad things which one occasionally sees in that land — too often things that might have been avoided by more foresight or better judgment. I cannot refrain from remarking, right here, upon what appears to me to be the moral responsibility of the advising physician who sends his patient, unenlightened, to a distant land when he has not good reason to sup- pose his patient's finances are sufficient.^ It ' " For any person suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis to be sent to this climate with no means of support, or so little that he must work when he should be resting — perhaps in a vocation in itself harmful — and with poor and insufficient food and the worry attending such circumstances, is to impose more on the kindness of a favorable climate than a rational view of matters will justify. Such a person would have a [1 6] INTRODUCTION may be argued that the doctor's opinion is professionally limited to telling his patient what would be helpful to his cure, and that it is no part of his obligation to inquire into the patient's financial resources. As a general statement, this would undoubtedly hold, but in such a case as tuberculosis, where the physi- cian at least can foresee that no lasting benefit can come to the patient except under condi- tions involving many months of residence in a far-away land, at constant expense and with little or no opportunity to earn a living, it becomes a responsibility which the conscien- tious and thoughtful adviser must take into account. I do not assert that it is hopeless for the poor man to seek restoration in this way, be- cause it is possible, if one is willing to and provided the invalid is not too sick to begin with, to manage to live on an exceedingly better chance of recovery were he to remain in a less favorable chmate, if he could there have the other measures of treatment with the freedom from care and worrv so necessary if he would make a winning fight." — Dr. W. H. Swan. [17] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST modest scale of expense. But by all means let the patient have the necessary information and choice at the outset. This matter of the expense and of the different modes of living I shall discuss in other chapters. Suffice it here to remark that an assured income of fifty dollars a month will sustain the health-seeker in all he actually needs for existence and fair comfort, unless he requires a nurse and fre- quent attention from the doctor. If a patient has very limited means, he should undoubtedly give a hint to this effect to his doctor in the new town. It may save him unnecessary bills. In straight, uncomplicated cases of tuber- culosis of the lung, very little doctoring is necessary, usually nothing more than an oc- casional physical examination — say once every three months — to determine the improvement and the desirability of continued residence In that locality. But it often happens that the case is not so simple as this: that there are complications, perhaps a badly impaired [i8] INTRODUCTION digestion or a weak heart. Then the doctor's ministrations must be more frequent. It will not do for the invalid to assume that he is necessarily benefiting just because he is in a region which is beneficial to others. Peculiarities of his case may make it desirable for him to be in another location. A first-class, conscientious local physician is, therefore, your safest adviser and your first necessity. [19] II THE BEGINNING OF A HOPE (The author feels some hesitancy in introducing a personal experience. His apology for doing so is in the hope that the simple narration of how, in one case, the "blues" were made to vanish will give a hopeful uplift to some fellow not yet out of his d( idrums.) It was seven-thirty in the morning of the first day of January, 1898, that I alighted from the Rock Island train at Colorado Springs. The three nights and days spent in the luxuri- ous Pullman sleeper, on the trip from the East, had not only been comfortable, but each succeeding day of the journey had been gradu- ally lifting my mind out of the depression in which I had bid good-by to my family, my business hopes and many cherished associ- ations. Only a few weeks before I had learned from my doctor the depressing information that one lung showed evidences of invasion [20] THE BEGINNING OF A HOPE and, my health having never been robust, It was deemed essential to safety that I undergo this sacrifice of separation from all that I sup- posed made life worth living. It was easy for my morbid imagination to picture that this separation would be final and that the last act of my human drama was about to close in utter discouragement. What was the use in going at all? Why not remain at home, accept the decree of fate, and die quietly and respectably in the city of my birth, as my ancestors had done before me when " consumption " was regarded as inevitably fatal? Yes, I am acknowledging the weakness of my own human nature (elsewhere inveighed against in these pages) just to encourage you to hold on ! Some day you will get your chance to smile good-humoredly upon the poor fellow who believes himself already standing over a spouting volcano, your chance to crack jokes with " invalids " and graciously to smile at [21] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST the apologetic way in which the new arrival explains his presence there by referring to " just a little cold." You will smile, too, though not without a shade of sympathy, to see how the newcomer recoils at first upon hearing some old stager complacently refer to him as a " lunger." Well, no matter; these little things are easily survived, and after all they are only hall-marks or kindly initiations, introducing you into a really warm hearted fellow-feeling; bound to leave you none the worse, but only broader and more generous. But my narrative: where was I? O, yes, in a Pullman car, speeding for Colorado, en- joying the dining-car cuisine, and sleeping in my narrow berth more soundly, those three nights, than for weeks before; from the car windows watching the varying evidences of man's activities flit past, cities succeeded by farms, and these by open prairies and a far- reaching skyline; until I become sensible, as never before, of the width and vastncss of my [22] THE BEGINNING OF A HOPE country, of the thousands upon thousands of acres still waiting to be tilled by man. What a population this country will hold and nour- ish, some day! And how little we realize it, while hving cramped lives in the great city. This very sense of limitless expansion and possibilities seemed to breathe upon me, as a quickening spirit, giving new impulse to my blood; and thus, as I remarked, each succeed- ing day of that journey was clearing my mind, strengthening hope, and actually bringing a buoyancy to my spirits. Now at last Colorado is reached. Here and there, dotting at long intervals the russet plains, stand what look like toy houses, and those miniature animals are really cows or horses. Something must be wrong with my eyes, that I see things so small ! Some one cries out, " The mountains! " Sure enough, over against the horizon, clear and rosy in the sunrise, some mounds are visible. Gradu- ally these mounds rise higher and higher above the plain, while stretching away from [23] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST them, right and left, is discovered an uneven ridge, of the same rosy formation. " Moun- tains!" I remark to a fellow-passenger; "Surely those are only foothills: the real Rocky Mountain range must still be back of those." I have been deluded again. That highest rounded mound is actually Pike's Peak, one of the highest of the whole great backbone of the continent; and yet my unaccustomed eyes, scanning over thirty miles of level prairie through an atmosphere of clear crystal, were estimating those peaks as something akin to molehills. It prepared me for the subsequent jokes anent Colorado atmosphere and visual delusion. My destination is reached as the train comes to a standstill in Colorado Springs. The mountain chain is now but six miles dis- tant to the west, no longer to be apologized for, but rearing its mighty mass, with bul- warks and bastions, in a continuous fortress wall as far as the eye can see. [24] THE BEGINNING OF A HOPE It is the first day of the new year, and Its bright sun is already diffusing a genial warmth in the delicious atmosphere. An open trolley car glides cheerily across an overhead bridge. Not a particle of snow is in sight. The beau- tifully wide streets look clean and level; the pretty houses, uncramped and individual, look homelike and inviting. Another few minutes, and a new name is on the register of a near-by hotel. It is the beginning of a new hope and a new epoch in a life! [25] Ill CLIMATIC CONDITIONS Of the three States we are discussing, namely, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, the first may be said to have the more bracing climate and also the wider variation in temperature, which ranges from winter " cold snaps " be- low zero to temperatures in the nineties during part of the summer. These, however, are extremes which are infrequent, and even when they do occur imply no inconvenience owing to the comparative dryness of the air. All the year in Colorado is pleasant. It is one of the few states in the Union where one feels no necessity of change of residence to escape oppressive heat or benumbing cold, though it does afford that variety of seasons which seems best suited to maintaining the physical tone of the average man. There is no season [26] CLIMATIC CONDITIONS there, and very few days in the whole year, when an invahd cannot sit out-of-doors on an open porch and enjoy the always delightful air. The spring months are the least agreeable, corresponding to the winter months of the Eastern Middle States, although the weather is not so raw and inclement: but from the middle of March until mid-May occur most of the rains and practically all of the snows (except in the mountains) of the year. Three or four wet, heavy snows fall during this period, often blocking traffic within three hours, but by noon of the second day every vestige of it will be gone, evaporated by the warm sun, dry air and sandy soil. Such an object as a sleigh is seldom seen in Colorado, since a sleighing party starting out in the morning, on an apparently good bed of snow, might return in the afternoon with sleigh- runners dragging through a gravelly soil. The summer months are very inviting, and during this season many thousands of tour- ists visit the State, partly, no doubt, in [27] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST consequence of the greatly reduced round-trip rates made by the railroads in the summer. It is then, of all the year, that hotels, boarding- and rooming-houses are filled to their maxi- mum capacity, although they seem to have a way of expanding with the demand, so that one never hears of a weary traveler having to sleep out-of-doors unless he prefers to. The summer is usually warm and clear, ex- cept for the almost daily thunder-shower which is seen hovering along the mountain ridges in the afternoon and not infrequently visits the nearer plains with an hour's scurry- ing rain. The effect of thunder-storms within the mountain gorges is often awe-inspiring and sometimes terrific to those who are natur- ally timid, as the lightning bolts are star- tlingly brilliant and the reverberations of thunder are intensified by the rocky walls. There is also an element of danger from the possibility that a cloud-burst may descend a cafion with unexpected and alarming rapidity in an onrushing wall of water down what [28] CLIMATIC CONDITIONS was, a minute before, but an innocent moun- tain brook. During July and August, therefore, the better time for drives or picnics in the moun- tains is the morning, with a second choice late in the afternoon or early in the evening. But one should go well supplied with wraps toward the end of the day, as there is a sharp difference in temperature and in the feel of the air when the sun disappears behind the moun- tains. The mornings are nearly always beautifully clear and delightful, although the mercury is not unlikely to mount into the eighties and remain there between eleven and three o'clock in July and August. As the shadows grow purplish with the waning of the sun a "refresh- ing coolness replaces the heat, and one or two blankets are comfortable as you lie at night with windows open wide to delightful breezes, and twinkling stars glitter at you from a spangled sky. Then it is that sleeping out- of-doors is fascinating, and you feel that you [29] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST would not exchange your simple tent, with the glorious canopy of the night heaven above you, for the most palatial room imaginable. The night winds, sifting downward from yon mountain peaks and sipping the balsam from ten thousand fir trees, breathe gently upon your cheek and brow, like the touch of a fairy wand, and presently you are fast asleep in such sweet repose as good fairies bring to childhood. Such is genial summer-time in Colorado. By the middle of September the period of summer is past, but the transition to winter is so gradual as to be scarce perceived. The nights are growing a bit colder and even more silent, for the touch of frost in the air has shut off the few insect voices of summer, and, standing in the door of your tent, not a sound of any kind reaches the ear from the vast plain stretching away in the moonlight like an ocean without horizon. From September till the following March the air is like cham- pagne, dry and sparkling in the effulgent sun- [JO] CLIMATIC CONDITIONS light. It is a joy to breathe, a happiness to move and be in existence ! Now it is that the livelong day can be enjoyed out-of-doors without fear of either heat or storm. True, a few windy blows are due along in the autumn months, but they are never of the cyclone variety, and the worst inconvenience from them is usually nothing more than a blowing of sand or gravel into your face, if you happen to be so persistent as to walk abroad just then. But these wind- storms are easily overlooked in the superb climate of this season when every form of locomotion is a delight. Pleasurable as was driving in the summer, it is even more so now, when the cooler atmosphere invites be- coming wraps, and a cozy log-fire awaits the return at the gloaming. It is the season, par excellence, for horseback parties to go on exhilarating canters over browning prairies or to traverse the winding paths of canons or to climb the mountain-sides. By mid-October furnace fires begin to be [31] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST lighted for a few hours each day, their service being gradually increased till the culmination of the cold weather, in January, when, on a night or two, the thermometer may drop to 15° or 20° below zero; yet cheering warmth always comes with the sun's peep above the horizon, and by noon even a light wrap is often unnecessary. Open trolley-cars run practically all winter. There are few spots on earth where Decem- ber, January and February are such delight- ful, clear, clean, invigorating months as in Colorado. Scarce a cloud to break the blue serenity, or a drop of rain, or a fall of snow except upon the higher mountains, and there have been days in midwinter when I have seen the whole visible mountain range, including Pike's Peak, with its altitude of over fourteen thousand feet, stand out in its native color of old rose against a background of purest blue, and not a glimmer of white upon its whole breast, to show that it was winter-time. Such is glorious winter in Colorado ! [32] CLIiMATIC CONDITIONS New Mexico, like Colorado, is a high table-land, but here the great Rocky Moun- tain chain, which reached some of its highest peaks in the northern State, begins to dwindle down and drop oft in the region of Santa Fe. The climatic conditions are similar, with win- ters not quite so cold, and the heated term rather more prolonged. If, in consequence, the stimulus to physical activity is lessened, it offers compensation to the weak invalid ^ in affording even more days when he can sit out in the open without wraps, as well as burn less fuel within doors. The air seems somewhat drier here than in Colorado, and the stars a bit more brilliant. The lessening of the moisture in the air is probably due to the nearer proximity of the sandy deserts ' "When the patients are too feeble to exercise, it is some- times best to begin their cure in a warmer and lower climate, and later to transfer them to the higher and cooler regions. . . . When the patient is able to exercise, the cooler air, such as found during the winter in most resorts of Colorado, is most desirable and the cure progresses more rapidly and certainly."— Dr. S. E. Solly. [33] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST of Arizona. Owing to these conditions, rather than to difference in altitude, some patients appear to do better in New Mexico, especially those sensitive to cold. Outside of a very few towns, of which Santa Fe, Las Vegas and Albuquerque are the most easternized and important, life would be somewhat dull, I apprehend, for those who have been accustomed to the larger cities of the East. The climatic conditions here are certainly fine, affording everything possible in that line for health, but the newness of this State, with its comparatively small Eastern-born popula- tion and few opportunities, has held it back somewhat, but during the past few years con- ditions have improved. Mexicans and half- breed Indians are not only everywhere c\ident here, but they constitute the larger part of the population. Even in the towns mentioned there are two distinct divisions: the older town, inhabited almost exclusively by so-called Mexicans, who are probably descendants of [34] CLIMATIC CONDITIONS the crossed blood of the original Pueblo Indians and the early Spanish invaders; and the new town, built adjacent to the old, by those who have wandered thither for health, or adventure, or business, within the last few decades. The two elements do not fraternize, and a walk of a few hundred yards may trans- plant you from a modern community of your own ilk, to one immersed in the superstition and modes of living of earlier centuries. It affords a contrast interesting to the student of sociology, this juxtaposition of old and new civilizations. But the Mexican element al- ready shows signs of being importantly affected by its modern contact: schools are well attended, and a spirit of patriotism has been steadily developing during the last ten years, in anticipation of New Mexico's taking rank as a state (instead of a territory), when the callow young Mexican doubtless dreams of becoming not only a full-fledged citizen, but also an important factor in the great nation's destiny. [35] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST Arizona, lying westward of New Mexico, is a part of that broad table-land between the Rocky Mountain chain, on the east, and the Sierras of California to the west. Until within a few years it was a region almost un- explored and known principally for its scorch- ing alkali deserts, its petrified forest, and its Grand Canon of the Colorado River. Its few Indians and half-breed Mexicans lived poorly and shared the alkali plains with the half-starved coyotes. Neither man nor beast seemed to covet this land of pictured rocks but barren soil and parching dryness. The early travelers to California looked fear- fully forward to the crossing of that alkali desert where many human and animal bones showed that disaster or thirst had vanquished their victims. But traders and government outposts began to take root, through neces- sity, until the Santa Fe railroad finally over- came the perils of distance, and from its car windows thousands of west-bound travelers, onrushing to California, have been made [36] CLIMATIC CONDITIONS acquainted with some of the scenery and the extreme dryness of the air of Arizona. An acquaintance forced upon man, rather than originally sought by him, has revealed atmospheric qualities which have been found of great benefit to some invalids, especially to those suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. For some years comfortable accommodations for the sick were few, and, owing to the fact that practically everything had to be brought from a distance, the cost of living and food was very high. These conditions have be- come more favorable within the past ten years, so that Phenix and Tucson are now offering, with the Arizona climate, hospitable accommodations to meet modern require- ments. Dr. S. E. Solly, a notable writer on cli- matology, makes these comparisons: "The statistics show an almost steady rise in the percentage of improvement from the ocean to the altitudes. The percentage of improve- ment among those who took sea voyages was [37] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST 54 per cent. ; in lowland climates, 57 per cent. ; in lowland desert climates, 65 per cent.; while in altitudes the improvement runs up to 77 per cent." In comparing the relative virtues of Colo- rado, New Mexico and Arizona he says: " The spring weather in New Mexico and in Arizona is, as a rule, much better than in Colorado. The summers on the high ground of Colorado are cooler and pleasanter, and they are as dry as those of like elevations in New Mexico and Arizona, where the resorts of moderately low elevation are impossible, on account of the excessive heat. . . . There is generally more wind in the more northerly and elevated resorts; the dust, how- ever, is more objectionable in the more south- erly and lower resorts, because the soil is usually adobe (clay) and alkaline, and so rises steadily in the form of a light irritating pow- der, while on the high ground the soil is more apt to be gravel or granite detritus." [38] IV WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE One of the earliest questions to be settled is where and how to live. No matter what your ultimate destination, it is better to go first to one of the larger towns or cities and stay for a few days at a hotel there, whence you can look around for a boarding-place or whatever else you may have in mind. There is a wide range as to expense of liv- ing and several alternatives as to manner and location. A ranch in Western parlance may mean anything from an unenclosed area of thou- sands of acres of wild country with branded cattle and broncos, presided over by the nomadic cowboy, down to a two-room shanty on a half-acre lot, with chickens and a dog. [39] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST So there are ranches and ranches, and if you strike a really good one, conducted on In- telligent business principles for the benefit, not of the proprietor only, but of the in- valid as well, you may be quite happy In realizing that you are getting that abundance of fresh air and nourishment which has been pictured in your mind as belonging to ranch life. But do not assume that you will find it all to your liking. The average ranch Is not nearly so good a place to live in as the a\ erage boarding-house, and It is much to be doubted whether the average results to the invalid are as good. The food is too often coarse or carelessly cooked and not sufficiently nourishing or abun- dant, while as to milk and cream, the best of it has probably gone to be sold to the city trade. Ranch houses are not supposed to be fitted to modern comfort, and you may have to " put up with things " relating to Insufficiently [40] WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE heated or ground-floor rooms, poor plumbing or none at all, limited supply of hot water — and that by special arrangement with " cook " — no indoor toilet accommodations, or bath- room, miles of distance between you and the post-office, the nearest doctor and the drug- gist, and likely no telephone or telegraph office near. If you become ill suddenly and need medical attention it may be hours reach- ing you, while sympathetic care and scientific nursing may be less obtainable than if you were a wounded soldier on a battlefield. Thoughts of early rising, of riding the farm horse daily to the post-office, of watch- ing the seeds grow and of making friends with the pigs and chickens may form quite an idealistic picture, for a limited time, in the brain of the wearied invalid; but at best these things are apt to be overestimated as means to health, and are certainly not to be seriously entertained as compensations for the aforesaid disadvantages. Again, you may be either a lone boarder [41] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST at this ranch, having practically no compan- ionship and left to eat out your heart in weari- some dejection, or you may be one among a community of invalids seeking health like yourself, and drawn thither by the reputation of that particular ranch. The notion that one can get better air and cheaper board at a ranch is largely over- drawn. As to air, the populations are rela- tively so small and non-compact, even in the towns, as to have little appreciable effect in contaminating the air; while as to board, if a ranchman takes you at all he will want quite as much out of your finances as the average town boarding-house keeper. There is a great deal of overestimation and delusion about the superiority of ranch life, and if you are sensible you will first take up your abode within the precincts of some town, to get your bearings and view the possible allurements of ranch life from a nearer van- tage ground. Doubtless a few weeks of it, in the warm and open time of the year, may be [42J WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE quite pleasant, even jolly if you happen to be with " your own crowd," and provided you are strong enough to enjoy several miles' walk or a ten-mile horseback ride daily; but there are more suitable places for the real invalid. Boarding-houses are more usually chosen by the sojourners in the West, and there are several good reasons why this is so. There are plenty of them to be found in almost any Western community, which in itself tends to produce that kind of business competition productive of comfort to the boarder. They are of all kinds and in towns of say, ten thousand inhabitants or over, they range from houses fitted with the most modern plumbing, electricity, telephones, and a very excellent style of domestic service down to the simple but comfortable home of the ordinary mechanic's family, with its " home cooking," the price of room and board correspondingly varying from twenty-five dollars to five dol- lars a week. [43] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST A very satisfactory room and board can be had in such cities as Denver or Colorado Springs at from thirty-five dollars to fifty dol- lars a month. At such houses the invalid is likely to get a good table and a cozy, com- fortable room, and have his wants generally looked after by his landlady. He will usually not lack, either, for more or less agreeable companionship to help while away the hours. A boarding-house home, as contrasted with a ranch home, gives you the advantage of easy access to your physician or other helps, if emergency arises, while the larger commu- nity affords change of thought and scene be- cause of its more varied opportunities. As to sanatorium life: People in general entertain a sort of primitive aversion to going into a sanatorium as a place to regain health. They regard it somehow as a kind of prison, and feel as Dante felt when he read that alarming sentence over the portal to hell, " All hope abandon, ye who enter here." But no prejudice can be less founded in reason or [44] WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE experience, and the timorous individual who has crossed that dreadful Rubicon of super- stition and found, by blessed personal experi- ence, the physical helpfulness and mental rest which come of a residence in one of these well-appointed sanatoria for consumptives, looks back upon his earlier fears as having occurred in a period when he " felt as a child and thought as a child." I acknowledge the weakness, or rather ig- norance, of having felt the same sort of timid- ity when I first went West. A friend, perhaps wiser than I, had mentioned to me the name of a sanatorium in Colorado Springs, as prob- ably a good place for me to go to. " Very likely," thought I, " a good enough place for one who is quite hopeless — but for myself, no, I thank you." After living out there some months I had occasion to spend a week at this sanatorium. Those few days dispelled my prejudices. It were difficult to find a more contented lot of people anywhere. Why not? There [45] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST was food of excellent quality, daintily served at tables spread with spotless linen in a large well-lighted dining-room; bedrooms as neat as a pin, and cozy and comfortable as your own at home; sanitary appliances as perfect as art can produce, and the scrupulous enforce- ment of sanitary rules throughout the house and grounds, which results in making such a sanatorium a much safer place, so far as con- tagion is concerned, than any hotel in the world. Beside all this, a doctor, an apothe- cary shop, every emergency appliance, and skilled nurses always near; cozy parlors, with piano and open fireplace, well stocked book shelves, an amusement room for games, per- haps a billiard room. Often there are indi- vidual tents about the grounds where those who prefer to can sleep nearer to earth and sky. What is there not in such a sanatorium to provide one's comfort? The whole build- ing, with its every appointment and particu- lar, is the embodiment of all that the tnost advanced science has discovered tor the wcl- [46] WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE fare and cure of the consumptive. Why should it not, then, be the best place and the quickest means for restoring the invalid? Accumulating statistics are proving it to be so: a larger percentage of cures is being effected through the ordered life, treatment and methods of the sanatorium than by any other known course. I believe it is not ques- tionable that whatever the patient's condi- tion — and all the better if he is not very ill — he will gain far more steadily if he spends his first months in such a place than he is likely to gain in twice the time, if left to his own undisciplined guidance. This fact is worth thinking about seriously. Investigate it a little for yourself. Get the opinion of your physician on it, and of others — who haven't ideas simply, but who know without prejudice. Perhaps it will cost you a little more to live in a sanatorium (their rates are usually from ten to fifteen dollars a week, without extras) than in a medium-priced boarding- [47] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST house; but If the living is better and your gain is to be faster, the probability is that it will prove the most economical kind of an invest- ment. In order to adopt the sanatorium life, it appears that about all you have to overcome is that first feeling of repugnance to making one of a company who sit around in steamer- chairs and wraps and whose occasional cough- ing isn't quite musical. But, my dear fellow, whether or not you wish to disguise the fact and try to fool yourself with forced delusions, you are already, by circumstances beyond your control, In that same category; so instead of foolishly fighting that invincible fact you might save your strength and courage for better purposes by gracefully admitting it and letting a more amiable logic aid your recovery. You are not the only fellow who has had a " knock-out," neither has fate been particu- larly unkind to you alone, as you will learn presently when you get to exchanging confi- [48] WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE dences with some in that company. Very likely there will be a slow, silent effect upon your heart that will do you good, just as every sorrow is gradually made easier to bear through the undefined sympathy of closer con- tact with those who have drunk from the same wine-press. Yes, when you come to know them you will find men and women among that steamer-chair community, from which you so lately turned away in aversion, whose patience will make you ashamed of your rest- lessness; men of reputation, of education, of scientific learning; men and women who can discuss your chosen hobby, or pleasantly while away your idle hours with discourse of travels and experiences and past acquaintanceships, leading you to realize anew that friends and friendships are not of one place and time alone, but are as broad as life's pilgrimage. Day by day that once formidable sanato- rium community will resolve itself into a large family whose characteristics will interest you increasingly, as you learn who and what and [49] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST whence they are and your own heart opens more to their already wilhng helpfuhiess tor you. You may discover, after a little, that you never before were in a company so varied : among them, personalities whose culture rep- resents the best homes in the land; strong characters and weak; noble souls, generous, tender and sympathetic, often entertaining and gracious; all of them broadened and made more sensible of the true brotherhood of man through having their several tempta- tions to petty jealousy and grosser overreach- ing burned away by the cleansing, leveling, purifying fire that has borne them, severally, from the activities of life's feverish rush. A silent voice is teaching their souls the philoso- phy of an inner life. Then do not look askance at the invalids in a sanatorium, or regard too lightly the claims which such an institution may rightly prefer, as being both a home and a means to restore you to health; for many have proved them true. I have known people who, after spending [50] WHERE -AND HOW TO LIVE some months at one of these places, have tried boarding elsewhere, have longed for the sana- torium again, and have gone back to it sim- ply as boarders, for it appealed to them finally as the most homelike place to be found. This is my advice: if you are very sick, go straight to a sanatorium; there is no question of its being the best place for you, because your case is serious and you simply cannot afford to trifle with experiments or waste your most valuable asset, time, in getting rid of prejudices by trying everything else first. If you are "not at all sick" — only a little scratch on your lung — you certainly will lose nothing and will be allowing yourself a wider margin of safety by early applying for board at a first-class sanatorium. Living in a tent — which generally means sleeping in one at night and spending the day- time out-of-doors — is much in vogue, being frequently prescribed by physicians. Under certain conditions and restrictions it has the advantage of cheapness, but this is not neces- [51] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST sarily implied, as tent-life may be carried on in a manner quite as expensive as any other. The matter of providing good meals is not to be overlooked, since suitable food, and plenty of it, is as important as fresh air, and since you are very apt to slight your diet if you have to prepare and cook the food your- self, it is much better to pitch your tent in proximity to a boarding-house, where you can and will eat your three square meals a day. Don't try living on canned foods and the numerous wheat and hay preparations only, or even chiefly. Every day you will need some hot, well-cooked meat and other food, quite likely plenty of milk and some raw eggs. Whatever you do, don't try to skimp on your diet! Remember that the food you put into your human boiler is the only thing that can keep up your strength and also repair the now unusual waste, and unless your system can renew itself and gradually gain over the daily depletion going on, the disease will gain on you! [52] WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE Sanatoria quite often have a few tents on some part of their premises, in which those patients who prefer to, or for whom it is or- dered, can sleep out and at the same time have all the advantages of the institution, eating in the dining-room, using the croquet grounds, porches, etc. It is also not unusual for boarding-houses to have one or more tents, tent-houses, or tent- porches to be used in conjunction with the regular house table and other domestic facili- ties. A tent-porch is either a small floor balcony extending outside of one of the bed- rooms, enclosed by canvas and just big enough to hold one or two iron bedsteads, or it is a section of the general porch, set apart and enclosed by canvas. In either case, ingress and egress are customarily through a door or window to the adjoining room in which the occupant dresses and undresses, going thence out into the porch-tent to sleep. These tents have one advantage over the ground tents, especially for those of rheumatic tendency, in [53] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST being higher oft' the earth. They are, how- ever, necessarily limited in numbers, as few- houses can spare their porches for such exclu- sive use. The usual tent is the familiar A-type of canvas covering, built upon the ground. For this purpose a thoroughly dry piece of ground must be selected, sandy soil if possible, and there must always be a good board floor within, raised from four to six inches oft the ground, so that there may be a free circula- tion of air underneath to insure dryness. Since a tent must lack water and sanitary facilities, it is desirable that it be pitched with- in easy access of a house, or at least of some pure water supply. By the way, don't trust running brooks, even mountain brooks, too implicitly without inquiring as to their purity, especially if there be houses, camps or picnic grounds in the neighborhood. I have known of cases of typhoid fever contracted from sparkling mountain brooks, very innocent- looking but befouled by careless campers. [54] WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE Don't forget, either, the Importance to your comfort of pitching your tent where it will get the cast shadow of a tree or some other object during the hotter hours of the after- noon, for a tent out in the blazing sun of a July or August afternoon is nearly an Impos- sible place to stay in during just those hours when you might wish to lie down in seclu- sion. Every tent should be provided wnth an over-cover of canvas, called a " fly," which is stretched several inches above the true tent roof. The use of this fly is to break the force both of the sun's rays and of occasional hard rains which otherwise would penetrate the single canvas wall. Sometimes another smaller fly is projected outward from the tent doorway, under which you can sit on a camp chair enjoying the quiet scenery or a good book and feel that you are quite a monarch on a small scale. The chief value in tenting is that you sleep out-of-doors (you are supposed to keep out- of-doors in the daytime anyway), and get [55] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST more fresh air than you would sleeping in a bedroom; not that fresh air and plenty of it cannot be had in a bedroom provided enough windows are kept open, but too often the patient cannot be depended upon to keep the windows open, while in a tent he cannot pre- vent a certain percolation of fresh air through the canvas walls. But this natural percolation is not now considered quite sufficient of itself, so that several improvements have been de- vised, notably by a leading physician,^ and such improved tents are to be had from the principal tent-makers of the large Western cities. The improvements consist mainly of a ventilation opening in the apex of the tent, covered by a regulating cone, and of a channel-like, screen-covered orifice extending around the inside lowermost edge of the tent wall and open to the outside atmosphere; by which double arrangement air is constantly entering all round the tent, at the floor line, ' Designed by Dr. C. F. Gardini :r an.l known as llie Gardiner tent. [S6] WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE and passing up and out through the top vent. The patent tents are much more costly than the ordinary form and it may not be expedi- ent to purchase one, but the tent-dweller should at least provide some sort of covered outlet, to be opened or closed at will, at some high point in his tent wall, as this simple expedient will be found to improve ventila- tion. There is a modified form of tent known as a tent-house, a kind of cross between a tiny house and a tent, combining the desirable features of both. This is essentially a board floor with a shingle roof extending completely over it. About one-half of this area is en- closed by four board walls, making a complete room about yx 12 feet, with windows and door, and holding a couch, stove, washstand, chair, small table, clothes-press and bookshelf — really quite an ideal little den. The other half of the area is enclosed by canvas or by wire screens and curtains, and contains the iron bedstead. This arrangement permits of [57] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST sleeping out-of-doors, screened from flies and other insects, and provides a cozy, warm room for dressing and other uses. It seems much superior in accommodation and comfort to any tent. Its cost, for the size mentioned, would be about one hundred and twenty-five dollars, exclusive of furnishings. What is known as the " Chicago Portable House " is also convenient, and is the least expensive form of a fully enclosed room. It is built entirely of wood, lined with building- paper for extra warmth, and has doors and windows to suit. Its cost, for a room twelve feet wide is about five dollars per lineal foot of depth, making a 12 x 12-foot room cost only about sixty dollars. It is built up and taken apart in sections, making it transport- able. A couple can live quite comfortably in such a portable house, and at the minimum of expense. Tenting, however, seems to afford the cheapest opportunity for the really poor man to maintain himself, since an 8x10 tent [5SJ WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE with a fly, poles, ropes, etc., big enough for a single individual, can be bought (in Denver) for about ten dollars. The wooden floor, if he employs a carpenter and uses new lumber, will cost nearly as much as the tent, but might be constructed in homemade style with sec- ond-hand lumber for two dollars. A canvas cot costs about one dollar and a half; a small wood-burning, sheet-iron cook-stove (used in cold weather for warmth), three dollars; a camp-chair, fifty cents; plain bedding, say eight dollars. But this would be a rather lonely way to get on for any length of time, and, since food would cost quite three dollars, the saving would be only about two dollars a week over the cheapest boarding-house. However, it might be preferred for health's sake. A man and wife together can live in a tent on but little more than it would cost one alone, and the companionship and helpfulness of it would make tenting not only endurable, but happy. The question might be asked [59] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST here : Is there not danger to the well person from dwelling in such close proximity to the sick one? There need not be if the proper precautions ^ are observed. The tent should be of a somewhat larger size, naturally, to accommodate two single beds, chairs and a closet. The whole question as to the advisability of living in a tent would better be left until you are on the ground and have the advice of the local physician there. It is not always and everywhere equally advisable for every patient. While some are undoubtedly bene- fited by tenting, under the right conditions, all are not. Let the doctor decide it for your case. Housekeeping. Of course the ideal way to live in a Western community, as anywhere else on earth, is for the married man or woman and the family to live regularly in their own comfortable home. This home See Chapter XI. [60] WHERE AND HOW TO LIVE may be only a rented house; no matter, it is yours for the time being and may be enjoyed no less than if you held the title-deed. In- deed, on the whole it is rather better to rent a home before owning one: it gives oppor- tunity to test conditions and environment be- fore pledging yourself to a permanent invest- ment. Sometimes desirable furnished houses can be rented for a few months, while the owners are away, at from fifty to one hundred dollars or more a month. In the larger towns you may find one or more apartment houses, where fiats or suites of rooms — usually unfur- nished — may be rented for housekeeping. The average rent of such unfurnished suites is from forty to seventy-five dollars per month, including steam heat and janitor service. Furnished rooms without board can often be rented in semi-private houses, desirably located, and may sometimes be had in suites as well as singly. This plan Implies going out to meals, but meals of a good quality can [6i] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST usually be obtained in the near neighborhood, at from five to eight dollars per week. The rooms would cost from eight to twenty-five dollars apiece per month, including linen and service, ordinary lighting and heating. [62] MARITAL OBLIGATIONS However desirable it may seem, from the standpoint of sentiment, to have one's family with one in the West, there are many other important considerations to be weighed. The question of maintaining a family, in an utterly new environment, with little or no opportunity to earn the means of their support for perhaps an indefinite period, is certainly important, unless you have a sufficient assured income. The family life is more deeply rooted in its old habitat than is likely to be fully appre- ciated until it is wrenched loose, and although the transplanting may, in the sequel, prove advantageous, that outcome is not too lightly to be assumed. Generally speaking, it is bet- [63] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST ter that the invalid first spend a few months in his new location (preferably with some one member of his family along) when, if his stay seems likely to be indefinitely pro- longed, a general transplanting may be de- sired. In the case of a married man or woman this becomes a very serious consideration, and if there are no children involved there is hardly a question in my mind as to what should be done : they should certainly be together, what- ever hardship this might involve for the well one. I can understand that it means very much for a husband and father to give up a lucra- tive business or profession in the city where he has spent years of hard endeavor to build it up, and to depend upon the hazard of for- tune to prove as propitious elsewhere. Also, it means much for a wife and mother to give up all her personal friendships and the social activities to which she has become accustomed and to count upon the new and untried en- [64] MARITAL OBLIGATIONS vironment to harmonize with her own social instincts and prejudices. On the other hand, it may mean worse than all this: it sometimes means ultimate wreck- ing of marital ties and family life for husband or wife to permit too long a separation and living alone. Writing letters will not always satisfy; the human heart sometimes needs the physical touch of a sympathetic hand, the ministering solace of the audible voice of love. If these are important in health, how much greater is their value when ill health tends to separate the invalid from the usual opportuni- ties of life. The responsibility rests with the helpmate who is well, that there be not even the suspicion of desertion at such a time. It is then that the heart leans on love and fidelity; or else, being disappointed, it is enlisted grad- ually by a nearer sympathy. I hope my readers will pardon it if I seem to be preaching a little homily on this topic of marital fidelity to the sick one. I know that the very suggestion ought to seem unnec- [65] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST essary if not unreasonable, but I have person- ally witnessed too many failures along this line to believe it is unnecessary', for some are thoughtless. It is not to be supposed that a long separa- tion between husband and wife is premedi- tated or begins from choice. It usually begins by the invalid wife's being sent away for health's sake, the husband meantime believing there is no necessity for him also to leave home, but that matters will be better if he remain at business, and that anyway his wife will soon be cured and able to return. Once in a while it happens that way, but usually the invalid's possible date of return is very much farther off than was anticipated. The hope which for months sufficed begins to grow faint through too long waiting for the re- union. When things come to this pass it is time something be done; if, as often happens, the patient cannot return in safety to the former home, the only alternative is that the well member go and help make home anew. [66] MARITAL OBLIGATIONS This must often Involve great sacrifice, but if not done, there is too frequently a complete breaking of marital ties, if not the real break- ing of a human heart. To an invalid in such a case, it actually seems like sarcasm when perfectly well, strong people, in the full enjoyment of their own domestic felicities, offer pious suggestions to the effect that, if two people love each other, they ought to be able to remain per- fectly loving and loyal, no matter how many years they are separated; and If they don't love each other — well, they ought to act in just the same way, because they promised to. This may be supposed a beautiful theory, but It Is not the way of actual human life about which I am talking. Nor, as a matter of fact, do human beings knowingly make a contract to remain loyal to each other without the Implied contract that they are to continue In the enjoyment of each other's companionship. The persistent refusal of companionship, even though on pretended grounds of expediency, [67] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST may well raise the question of justice and right. Let it be remembered that there is a limit, varying with individual temperament, beyond which absence does not " make the heart grow fonder," but has the opposite effect. Con- sider also that the tuberculosis invalid espe- cially, being out of normal relations with his or her family and society, is sensitive to slights or neglect, and a separation which, in ordinary health, would not cause much disquietude easily becomes augmented in the brooding mind into a thoughtless, if not unpardonable, neglect. It is practically the same whether the wife or the husband is the expatriate, and it is useless to deny that there can come to be a real menace in the situation, no matter how good the intentions to start with : there- fore, no wife, no husband, should permit the other to continue living so; it were far better to give up all material advantages or pros- pects and live there together, if need be in a one-room portable house, on the minimum of expense, rather than grow estranged through [68] MARITAL OBLIGATIONS too long separation and neglect. That is simply justice. Many communities of the West — in fact it might be said that all the large cities, in- cluding Denver — are largely built up of fam- ilies transplanted from the East. In many cases, an invalid father or mother, son or daughter, in search of health, has been the first to go. Finally the whole family has fol- lowed, gone to housekeeping, engaged in busi- ness, and otherwise become absorbed in the activities of the young and rapidly growing city, where talent and ability count and repu- tations are more quickly made. Men or Avomen whom circumstances, in their former home, would have forever kept below the horizon of recognition, will often, in this ampler air of the West, rise to com- parative importance. Competition is not so cruelly keen, and business and social emula- tion possess a kindlier spirit. A relatively small income suffices, in the West, for a family to live upon in comfort and respectability, and schools are unexcelled. [69] VI GETTING EMPLOYMENT I REALIZE that in this chapter I must discuss that which, to the majority of invahds going West, is perhaps the most vital of questions — so much seems to them to hang upon the answer to the question whether or not they can get suitable and sustaining employment after arriving there. There are very positive reasons why no tuberculosis invalid should attempt to take any sort of business obligation immediately after arriving, or indeed for some months after. These reasons are not likely to be apprehended by the patient himself until he attains a more definite idea of the peculiar nature of the disease. This matter is so im- portant that it is treated in a separate chapter^ * See Chapter X on "The Nature of the Disease." [70] GETTING EMPLOYMENT for the benefit of the patient who would be properly on his guard. Suppose the inquirer has become well enough to accept employment: what are his opportunities for obtaining It? The question might be answered generally and optimistically, If somewhat vaguely, by pointing to the growing towns and multiply- ing pursuits, with the remark that these peo- ple are existing and therefore they must have discovered a means of living: why not you? The argument Is valid as far as It goes, but it usually requires time and a watching of opportunities before any particular individual settles Into his own niche of money-making, and before this Is found he has not improb- ably sought long and discouraglngly for the opportunity, especially if he has been looking for a salaried position on half-time. Apples of gold no more hang upon the trees in the West than they do elsewhere. Sometimes the geographical position of a new town with reference to a newly dis- [71] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST covered source of wealth, such as a gold camp, or a cattle center, gives it a sudden accelera- tion in business prosperity. The cause may remain fairly permanent, in which case the town becomes a strong and healthy city finan- cially; or it may be merely ephemeral, in which case the town with all its dependent business and values, after its first sky-rocket boom, shrinks and withers, or at best pre- serves a precarious existence. During the first period of any such "boom" town, everybody in its vicinity seems infected with an unmitigated exaggeration of possi- bilities, among them, that there is to be plenty of work and prosperity for all who wish to come. Then follows the temporary onrush of humanity. The few prizes are captured, as always, by the strong and daring. The supply of workers overruns the fictitious de- mand, and conditions soon subside to their truer level in which a large portion of the unnatural population may be on the verge of actual want. [72] GETTING EMPLOYMENT Romantic stories of such sudden leaping into prosperity and wealth, with a correspond- ing forgetfulness of the collapse, are probably cherished in some remote corner of many an American's brain, to be drawn upon hope- fully at will. That sort of reliance may go under the name of optimism, if you like, and there is no objection to anyone's trying his own experiment as to its truth and depend- ability — provided he has a comfortable purse to sustain defeat! Rationally, no sane man of caution, espe- cially no Invalid, Is justified in depending for his living upon any such glowing picture of " opportunity for all " in a town yet so young as not to be out of Its swaddling-clothes. The town may be all right In Itself, a healthy youngster with real promise, but it were Irra- tional to expect it to feed and clothe every stranger who imposed his society there. For all that is worth considering, then, the Individual's opportunity for obtaining em- ployment is not very unlike what it would be [73] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST in the favored towns of equal population in the East, with an equal percentage of appli- cants for positions. Suppose, instead of imagining that opportunities for employment are numerous in the vague West, one reflects a little upon his probable success in getting similar employment, should he apply for it as a stranger, In some town of one thousand, five thousand, or fifty thousand inhabitants in any Eastern state. Would he not have to hunt around a bit, suffer discouragement, and perhaps accept a comparatively humble posi- tion In order to get any foothold at all ? If this would be so In the long-established towns of the East, is it not really unfair to de- mand and expect that young Western towns, generously as they will welcome the new- comer, can offer, offhand, remunerative em- ployment to any and all who wish to stay? ^ 1 " It must not be inferred that Colorado has more positions than people to fill them, or that it is especially easy to get remunerative employment, for such is not the case. But talent and ability can find scope for their exercise here as promising as elsewhere." — Dr. H. B. Moore. [74] GETTING EMPLOYMENT Doubtless you will find your niche in time, although it may be something quite different from what you had in mind. Meantime, a man may have to resort to expedients and even occupy humble positions which " go against the grain " of his prejudices. It is very often not a case of choosing among opportunities so much as it is of accepting the first, and possibly only, one that comes along and using that as a stepping-stone. When a man is handicapped by limited strength which prohibits more than three to five hours of work a day, and when a hundred or more others like him are eagerly looking for similar short-hour service, he may feel fortunate if he can secure such a berth at from thirty to forty dollars a month. The dearth of opportunities for short-day service together with the almost certain hind- rance to health of an all-day employment in- doors has led many men to take employment as street-car conductors or as drivers of hacks, delivery wagons, etc., where they can at least [75] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST be hourly in the fresh air and sunshine. But even these employments, since they require the daily expenditure of not a small amount of vital force, cannot be assumed by the very weak. When one becomes stronger and well enough for a full day's service In ordinary business, the field of possibilities widens. All branches of the mechanic trades, espe- cially such as are related to building, are, as a rule, ready to give fair employment to good workmen. Trade unionism Is strong. Wages In all of these lines are good, but the employ- ment Is apt to fluctuate with the presence or absence of a " boom " In any particular locality. However, taking it in the long run, the mechanic probably stands a better chance of employment and of earning more wages in the year than the average clerk. The artisan, also, has a fair chance of em- ployment, but pure art has, as yet, little encouragement from remuneration. The professional and semi-professional [76] GETTING EMPLOYMENT classes of workers, such as doctors, surgeons, oculists, dentists, etc., seem to make a living, while the number of lawyers who thrive, or appear to, is sufficient to give the Impression that " Westerners " must be a people ad- dicted to litigation. But In alluding to these latter classes I am going rather outside the bounds of salaried positions. Both men and women with ability as teach- ers would stand a chance of employment either in regular Institutions, or by possible coaching, or by taking a few pupils. Music teachers, good pianists, In particular, often earn a good living by taking private pupils. Outside of a few lines, women probably have fewer chances of employment than men, unless domestic service be taken into account. In that their field Is practically unlimited: such service is always in demand at high wages, twenty-five dollars a month being an average wage, with a comfortable room and good board thrown in. This class of service in the West Is quite different, too, from what [77] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST one is accustomed to In our large Eastern cities: those seeking domestic service being often the educated daughters of prosperous farmers of Kansas, Iowa, etc., who tal<^e up the occupation for a year or two, in order to be self-supporting or to gain a change of horizon from that of their accustomed farm life. This matter of finding salaried employment I have been able to treat only in a very gen- eral way, and with a purposed intent to err on the side of conservative statements. Almost any real " Western " man can paint you roseate pictures in abundance. They seem unable to help it. Optimism, of which the West is full, is not apt to produce too con- servative reports. Perhaps it is well for the West that this has been so : it has helped It to grow. Time, local conditions, personal ability or popularity, the making of a friend, a concur- rence of unforeseen circumstances, perhaps a chance and the taking hold of a passing [78] GETTING EMPLOYMENT opportunity — any of these may lead you on to prosperity. The man who is not simply seeking a " position," but who has money to invest in business enterprises, need not be long without occupation or some definite interest. Aside from speculation he has two alternatives at least: either to buy a partnership in some already established business, or to start a new one. The local chamber of commerce in any town will gladly give him information as to what kinds of new enterprises seem to be demanded there. The West is still very young, with practi- cally no limit as to what it may become. Con- ditions there are changing so rapidly that the limitations of to-day may become opportuni- ties to-morrow. And so, while I > have discussed this subject in a spirit of caution, there is really no reason for your adopting a discouraging view. Taking it city for city, town for town, with equal populations, those of the West probably offer larger opportuni- [79] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST ties for employment than those in any other part of the country. There is less of con- servatism, more of the confident stimulus of youth in them, and these things alone are factors in success and growth. The West is bound to become, at no very distant day, a great empire in itself, where opportunity must rival anything yet known in the world's history. Already the moving spirits, the strong men, the rich men in that new empire are often the very same men who, years ago, left dearest hopes in the East and, ill and crest- fallen, took what they supposed to be a hope- less journey to an unknown region — to die! And these men have not absorbed all oppor- tunity to themselves, but rather their pioneer service has but made further opportunity' for others coming after: why not also for you? [80] CHAPTER VII HOW TO AVOID LONELINESS One of the most valuable assets to the re- covery of health is the possession of a cheery disposition. If you don't possess one naturally, try to cultivate one. In the first place, rid yourself at once of that uncomfortable state of mind which sees only profound misfortune in your having to go away from home to get well. It may prove, in the end, one of the most fortunate necessities of your life, as it has proved to be for others. Get rid of the feeling that " now you are in for it you will try to endure it." It is possible to do much better than endure : it is perfectly possible to enjoy it. [8i] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST Antagonism of all sorts is to be put in a bag and dumped overboard. Look at things philosophically and you may soon learn to be happy. Don't permit your thoughts to dwell regretfully on your lost opportunities in the East, or sarcastically compare the simpler life of your new abode with the rush and glamour of a great metropo- lis. When you stop to reflect that those wider opportunities, as you consider them, and all commingling w^ith metropolitan life had already been forfeited by reason of your invalidism which, had you remained there, would speedily have put you forever out of the realm of mortals, the comparison is no longer a just one. You have reason to feel thankful that under restricted conditions your life is yet spared you and that these very restrictions may ultimately prove the means whereby you shall find other avenues of use- fulness and enlargement of your prosperity. Do not fret yourself, either, because of a present lack of " business." After all, have [82] HOW TO AVOID LONELINESS you not simply substituted another business of a different kind? Instead of a business having money-getting as its chief object, you now have on hand the business of getting well ! And isn't that quite as valuable to you per- sonally as any other result? I sometimes think that there is a good deal of the " spoiled child " still remaining in our grown-up natures, which is prone to whimper when everything doesn't go exactly as we want it : we still have the desire to possess both the penny and the cake. Be sensible! Your body needs rest and your mind needs relief from worry and re- gret; it needs also pleasant diversion. Per- haps you have been needing these things for many months past, and you wouldn't give up and take them. Now Nature has taken the matter in hand and, with a sound metaphori- cal cuff to wake you up, has said: " Get out and learn something else than the errors in which you have been living. Learn now that all your business, your profession, your sue- [83] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST cesses, are not worth a picayune without health! Get that back, and while doing it learn the delights of relaxation!" Continue to fight against your lot, keep yourself in a melancholy, cross, crabbed humor, and such stupidity will bring its further sorrows : you might as well have stayed at home. Be courageous and hopeful, come out of your shell, put on a smile, make everybody your friend, read good light litera- ture, talk cheerily with others trying the same prescription, and the effect is bound to be beneficial. It will not be many weeks before you begin to feel it is quite a picnic ! But you will surely want diversions: let's see what you can do to make the hours pass pleasantly. In the first place, choose your environment, as nearly as possible, to put yourself among people who will probably be companionable. We all need companionship and favorable environment, and when we are invalided and otherwise dependent we especially need them. [84] HOW TO AVOID LOxNELINESS Of course your permitted indulgences will be somewhat abbreviated for a while. The doctor will probably prohibit the theater and perhaps church, too, to prevent your getting into crowded rooms or close atmosphere. It must be early to bed, and not too early to rise, with window open top and bottom (curtain and shade removed) all night, and out-of- doors all day, not exercising much, but mostly sitting in the sun, wrapped, if need be, for extra warmth. Now is a time for good reading (but not sitting with your book in the sun), for out- door sketching, for writing, for photography, for genial conversation. If you haven't yet learned the fascination of drawing and coloring try it now, with pencil, with brush, in pastelles, or in pen-and- ink. Possibly a latent talent may develop into no mean artistic ability. Or, with pen, paper, and thoughts, what is to prevent your becoming an author? How about that long cherished hobby [85] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST which you have been promising yourself for years past that you would some day ride, when you found the time? Well, here is the time now ; why not begin ? During college days wasn't there a subject that particularly interested you ? — pursue it further. Or perhaps you never went to college, but wanted to: what is to prevent your taking up now some subject there offered? If you hap- pen to be located in a college town this Avill be easy to do, attending some one course as a special student with no fear of examinations to harass you. This would pleasantly employ much time and would cost very little. Aside from such study, think of all the de- lightful branches of knowledge easily within your grasp for the cost of a few books or a share in a library. Are you already well versed in the wonderful things in astronomy, in botany, in chemistry, in geology, in miner- alogy or in the interesting fields of zoology, of physics, of anatomy and hygiene, of secular [86] HOW TO AVOID LONELINESS and religious history? Have you ever ex- perienced what an antidote to the blues there is in mathematics? — what a range of thought in philosophy? — what a mine of useful knowledge in the study of mechanics? — what fascination in electricity ?— what pleasure in studying architecture; in learning how to de- sign buildings and figure out strains and stresses in the materials used? Such studies, investigations and analyses may develop you into an inventor or a dis- coverer. Why not? Because some of these brain possibilities have never been used, is that any reason why they cannot be ? Come to think it over, you have thus far been playing upon only a very few chords of your possible being, with whole ranges of its possibility not yet touched into vibration. You really don't know your entire self. Ex- plore your brain a little, let down some grap- pling-hooks into its unknown depths and see what sort of pearls may be there. Very likely you got a fit of the doldrums [87] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST when that little accident to your lungs or throat blew you out of your wonted sailing; but that was only an incident, perhaps to show what kind of a skipper you are. Besides if everybody kept on sailing forever in his little narrow channel who would ever discover that " gem of purest ray serene the dark, un- fathom'd caves of ocean bear "? While that mountain-side would forever keep locked the precious metals hidden beneath Its rough and ordinary-looking surface, unless the explorer came. If you are aesthetic in feeling there are the magnificent fields of art, poetry, literature, music, as inexhaustible studies and delightful diversions. The study of historic ornament, embodying history, legend, art, is only one of the related branches in this field, yet this study alone might develop you into a practical designer of fabrics, ornaments or wall deco- rations. If none of these things Interests a man. It is a bad sign and needs treatment. It means [88] HOW TO AVOID LONELINESS either that his intellect has never yet been truly cultivated (and now is the chance to pull up another rung on the intellectual ladder), or else it means that he is discouraged and sees no good or usefulness in anything. If you are hipped about yourself there is nothing so wholesome as to shift the mind off to the purest and best thoughts engaging the attention of the best type of manhood. In one who is " down " the process may have to be forced a little at first; but try it. Most of your diversions and occupations must be mental rather than physical, for a while, since your physical nature particu- larly needs resting and building. Exercise must be limited and watched that it produce only healthy reaction and not exhaustion. Driving or trolley-car rides, with short walks, are permitted enjoyments. Bicycle riding and horseback riding should be enjoyed only with the doctor's permission, since these forms of exercise are often too violent and may be even dangerous for those [89] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST with tendency to hemorrhage. Tennis, for the same reason, must be avoided. Picnics in the canons are pleasant half-day diversions, while golf opens a field for both diversion and health to those who are fairly strong. Golf and country clubs are popular and their membership embraces the " best " people in the community, although sometimes a very fast set. But apart from dissipation, which is always foolish for the " lunger," one may live very comfortably, healthily and happily, with ample diversion, especially if the pocketbook be not too cramped. A good club, with its hospitable fireside and easy chair for an hour's rest and coziness, card parties as often as one cares to play (if you don't sit in a closed room), occasional musicales or performances by traveling the- atrical companies, sometimes a grand opera, are among the possible diversions. The ladies are particularly genial and ap- parently never lack for entertainment among themselves — afternoon teas, card parties, [90] HOW TO AVOID LONELINESS luncheons, and frequent meetings of women's clubs with discussions of all sorts of things interesting to womankind, keep up an endless round of " something to do." Then there are all sorts of fads, fancies and " isms " which you may find diverting or study seriously, according to your mood and temperament. It will take a few weeks to get acclimated and realize your surroundings; but no one need lack pleasant diversion who makes him- self agreeable in return. [91] VIII SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS When one Is about to transplant himself or herself from accustomed social conditions to an unfamiliar region, it is something more than idle curiosity which prompts the inquiry : What kind of people live there? What is the social status of the community with which I shall have to mingle? Are their ethical ideas at all like my own? Can I feel at home with them? These questions appear of espe- cial importance when you are practically alone and when the whole matter of suitable or un- suitable companionship, for many months to come, is to be dependent upon the compara- tively few people whom you may meet socially. Be reassured at once: it would be difficult to drop down anywhere in the West and not [92J SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS discover (if you look around) people whose acquaintance can meet the requirements of your social nature. The kind of people you want is there, it is only a matter of your get- ting into the environment. A large proportion of the dwellers in those Western cities and towns — particularly those who are householders, and the more influen- tial in their respective communities — are East- ern people, representative of every large city along the whole Atlantic seaboard, as well as of numerous inland cities of New England, the Middle and the Southern States. There is also quite a noticeable element of Englishmen who have come out from their homeland either to seek health or to go into ranching. One city, Colorado Springs, has such a conspicuous English contingent as to have been dubbed " Little London " by its neighbors. The manners and social status of these resi- dents are, of course, exactly similar to the best that one finds in the metropolitan cities [93] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST of the East. I do not mean to say that there is the same extent or degree of luxurious hv- ing and spending, although such cities have their millionaires; but it is certainly as possible to find high types of intelligent manhood and womanhood and all that pertains to gracious- ness and courtliness of manner, as elsewhere. The amenities are not wanting. The homes of the West are veritable homes, sweet and wholesome; each one a little garden spot where children know the exuber- ant happiness of youth, and mothers and fathers are not society-mad or business-mad, but lead such natural lives as men and women can live who are neither bound to an endlessly revolving wheel of " society " nor suffer the blight of poverty. The physical aspect of the more important cities of the West is inviting. The streets are generally wide and clean, often with shade trees and greenswards. Little or no disorder is seen. Tramway service, electric lighting, telephones, etc., are of the latest type. The [94] SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS residence portions often contain very costly and pretentious dwellings, while all the homes, whether of millionaires or of humble clerks, have an appearance of comfort and ease. That the people enjoy life is evidenced in many ways. Handsome turnouts, gay horse- back parties and the inevitable automobiles are seen at all hours on the spacious streets or in the parks. Free band concerts are given during the summer months. Theaters are Avell patronized, and luncheons, card parties and dinners are always on the social calendar. Such conditions as I have just described, however, pertain to the cities and larger towns. It is also true that there is a large popula- tion in these cities, and more especially in the country districts, of those who are not Eastern people, as that term is generally understood. In fact the West may be said to contain peo- ple representative of every social stratum and every nationality, and a few miles out of the [95] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST city's limits you may come up against a very primitive condition of life. There are districts and places, as every- where else on earth, which particularly invite certain types of people and are correspond- ingly uninteresting to others. If your hobby is mining, it would probably not displease you to live in some high mountain town, like Crip- ple Creek or Leadville. In still newer " camps " the amenities of life are compara- tively few and one expects roughness and some coarseness of manner, with a corresponding laxity in laws and morals which marks the initial stages of these towns. True, such places mend their manners in time; perhaps, on the whole, in a wonderfully short time, for these communities have a way of establish- ing their own ideas of law and justice with a good deal of vigor. Many of the same characteristics appear, as well, in those open areas or thinly settled dis- tricts which are the natural camping-grounds of the cowboy. In neither of these would [96] SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS the theorist, the poet or the scholar be held in peculiar esteem or find congenial compan- ionship for his moods. These are the com- munities where the elemental man, with few if any " frills " of civilization, is the type. Sometimes it is even good for some of us who have been too delicately reared to get into contact for a while with these brusque types of manhood, provided we do not carry along any intimation, by word or manner, that we think ourselves superior beings. If we do, we are not unlikely to be very forcefully reminded of our own conceit and unpardon- able snobbishness. There is a straightfor- wardness and naturalness about these people which do not long tolerate sham or subter- fuge; even their vices are open and flagrant, for they no more approve a pretended moral- ity than a pretentious saintliness. You may hold any faith, creed, or politics without ques- tion; your religion and morality may be any- thing or nothing, and you are likely to be permitted freedom to preach and practise such [97] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST ideas as you hold, provided there is no con- straint or interference with another's equal privileges. The student of sociology will find much to interest him in these new communities. Here it is that mankind, cut loose from the con- ventional leading-strings of his former com- munal constraints, is set down, as it were, in the midst of nature's original impulses. Quite true, he brings into this new earth some of his established conceptions of things and morals, but unless these are firmly rooted in convic- tion they will somehow undergo transmuta- tions when separated from the unconscious but pervading and more compelling environ- ment of the older community. Even the smaller towns try to be up-to- date — electric lights, telephones,, and electric street cars being introduced just as soon as the population will at all warrant them. Everywhere there is a strongly manifested determination to " get ahead " in material advancement. " Rustling " is a term em- [98] SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS ployed to denote this spirit. It is borrowed from the word used to describe the habit of the bison to scrape or " rustle " beneath the snow for its food. Schools are opened almost as soon as the first stake of the new colony is driven, and the determination to make education the leading influence in the town's life has led to the school tax being among the first items of im- portance. ' Many small but efficient colleges are scat- tered throughout the West, where engineer- ing, mining, agriculture, the arts and sciences are taught, under competent faculties, at such low cost to the student body as to put higher education within the reach of practically every boy and girl who has the time and inclination for it. Co-education is the rule in these colleges, and a finer, happier, healthier and saner lot of young men and women cannot be found. They are not the pampered children of the wealthy, but come from the homes of the [99] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST sensible middle class, patriotic with the Ameri- can spirit, imbued with the determination born of an earnest and aspiring outlook upon life. The usual college fraternities and athletic sports, such as football, baseball, basketball and tennis, reflect the contemporaneous spirit of the larger Eastern colleges; but whatever his athletic ability no student is here permitted to forget that his real business in college is to prepare himself for efficient business or pro- fessional life in the world. A college in a Western town is perhaps the chief element of its pride, and the faculty of such a college, together with their wives, often constitute the most conservative nucleus of the best society. Wealth is not required to make you re- spected in the West, and your poverty will hardly debar you from respectable society, if you otherwise deserve it. Social functions are not made the occasions for displaying keen-edged rivalry and indulging envious comparisons, but are rather opportunities for [lOO] SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS exchanging the amenities in a spirit of loyalty. Women's clubs are many and vigorous. Among the men, too, the social principle seems much the same: there is a good- humored, philanthropic impulse observable, with a live-and-let-live motive in the air. Men's clubs are numerous and embrace athletic, social, political, scientific and secret societies. A public library is usually to be found, and churches representing many denominations. Christian Scientists are especially strong in some regions. Speculation, especially in mining stocks, is rife among all classes, to the sorrow of many; although with that peculiarly persistent trait to remember only the prosperous ones, men keep on (and women too) investing their not- to-be-spared savings in the ever glowing hope of " striking it rich." There are such things as real gold mines, with acknowledged out- put of tangible metal; but when their real value is known, the stock in that company is [lOl] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST pretty closely held by " insiders." Most of the mischief is done by reposing too much confidence in prospective mines, which either have no actual existence or else are given a supposititious value. The wild-cat schemes for deluding an innocent public, by these or similar methods, are deserving only of the severest condemnation. As an example of how somebody lost his money by over-credulity, I have in my posses- sion a certificate for five thousand shares of stock in one of these discredited ventures, which I bought, as a curiosity, for fifteen cents! I have often wondered how many hopeful individuals had owned that particu- lar certificate and how many dollars had been lost through it before I got it as worthless paper! Such perfidious schemes of beguiling the public as I am speaking of tend greatly to destroy confidence in the more worthy and legitimate business. It is principally the broker who profits by such sales of worthless [102] SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS stock, and hundreds of dishonest individuals, who are willing to pollute their hands in this way, very properly " go to the wall " within a few months. If you must speculate, study the question first. Western towns and cities are not all alike by any means : indeed, they vary greatly, not only in external, architectural appearance, but in their moral and ethical tone as well. All of them are still so young that the original forces which gave them birth are yet conspicuous in their society: by which I mean that the moral convictions and social status of the original settlers are yet, to an extent, dominat- ing influences in the ethical atmosphere of the towns. For example, a community whose origin has been in a mining camp will be complex- ioned by the classes that would naturally be attracted by that kind of life: likewise, towns which have been founded on agricultural in- terests, on fruit-growing, on sheep or cattle grazing, on manufacturing, or strictly as [103] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST health-resorts, will each and all hav^e their appropriate tone and difference. The results of local option are sometimes distinctly different, even in cities compara- tively near together. Thus Denver, one of the most beautiful as it is the most cosmopoli- tan city of the Rocky Mountain region, with a very assorted population of about one hun- dred and fifty thousand souls, maintains at the same time religious and charitable organi- zations of high character and open theaters on Sunday, beer gardens, and a notoriously unconcealed district of dives. Apparently there are all kinds of people in that city, and local option there appears to be lenient, not- withstanding the fact that there is an increas- ingly large element opposed to such wide license. Colorado Springs — only seventy-five miles from Denver — with a population of thirty thousand, an equally attractive city in its beautiful scenery and comfortable homes and churches, started originally by Philadelphians [104] SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS as a health-resort, Is still so dominated by its original conservative element that there is not a single liquor store in the place. These two cities are mentioned here merely as examples of widely differing local governments reflect- ing the majority voice of their peoples. Pueblo,' a city of about fifty thousand in- habitants, forty miles south of Colorado Springs, Is principally a manufacturing place, chiefly noted for its very large steel works. Besides Colorado Springs, the other towns of the region which may be considered as health resorts chiefly, and therefore the places to which the invalid Is more likely to be sent, are: Manitou, a pretty little town nestling beneath the foot of Pike's Peak, reached by trolley-car from Colorado Springs; Canyon City; and Boulder, thirty miles north of Den- ver. In New Mexico are Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and Santa Fe, each of the latter three being originally old Spanish towns. In Ari- zona are Phenix and Tucson. A general characteristic of all these health- [■05] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST resort towns is an almost entire freedom from manufacturing industries, with a correspond- ing absence of that type of population. But a concomitant condition is a necessarily lim- ited field for business, especially in the smaller places. Business is practically confined to the few professional men required, the several ofl^cers of local government, minor operators in real estate and insurance, some stock- brokers, perhaps a bank or two, an express company, and a few dealers in general mer- chandise and produce. If the town is suffi- ciently large there will also be waterworks, gas or electric light plants, and a street-car system. It will be seen that the occupations and opportunities for employment in the smaller health-resorts are not numerous. The people are apt to be quite distinctly of the leisure class, being there principally for health's sake. As to the modes of living in these towns, practically all the variety is afforded that we discussed in the general chapter on that sub- [io6] SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS ject,^ that is, there are hotels, boarding- houses, sanatoria, tents, etc. The reason for choosing to Hve in one par- ticular town rather than any other is some- times the individual's own preference or his desire for a change. It is more often the doctor's prescription for his patient, on ac- count of some physical condition of a place — its altitude, the quality of the atmosphere, or its springs — which he believes will benefit his patient. Yet, as a rule the distant physician can possess but a limited knowledge of these several local conditions, and the patient him- self must ascertain, after actual testing, how far that place seems to offer the desirable con- ditions for him. The cost of living as a rule is a little higher than it would be in your home city of the East, and, while the scale of living is not pre- tentious, it is good. The society in these small towns is often very good, being drawn, of course, from those 1 Chapter IV, "Where and How to Live." [107] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST classes that can afford to take an expensive journey and maintain themselves without work. The wealthy idle class is probably more conspicuous in distinctly health-resort towns than elsewhere, especially those of them designated as the " fast set " or " smart." This class is usually made up of wealthy in- viduals from the large cities of the East, who have come out for their health and, with noth- ing to do or not wishing to do anything of a useful nature, their chief aim seems to be to kill time and amuse themselves with fast liv- ing and scandals. Probably a higher rate of mortality obtains among these fast livers than in any other section of the population, as might be foreseen, if men and women espe- cially in need of physical upbuilding are heed- lessly to squander their remaining strength in dissipation. I think it will have to be admitted that the spirit of the West, taken broadly, is decidedly materialistic. This is not surprising when you reflect that the first object sought by [io8] SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS nearly everybody who has gone West has been a physical or material one. But its history in this respect is not unique, for it has been the history, with few exceptions, of the opening up of every new country. It takes a long time for purely ethical forces to get an equal hold with materialistic ones, and longer yet when those ethical forces are without their old-time backing of religious zeal; and, except spasmodically, there is little religious zeal discoverable in the West, al- though there are many churches. Yet always and everywhere there will be devout, earnest souls constituting definite forces for righteous- ness and civic purity. As a Western town grows, it exhibits much the same tendency to stratification of society that is seen in Eastern cities. So, although the newcomer is usually assured a hospitable welcome, it is always advisable for him to take with him two or three letters of introduc- tion from people of his own social standing, if this is possible. People ev^erywhere are [109] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST more or less clannish, and such a letter may wonderfully help the new arrival to get at once into congenial society. If you cannot ask for such letters, a letter from your pastor to one in the Western town, or a card of membership in the Young Men's Christian Association or any society or organization of which you happen to be a member, may be presented to the similar organization in the new town and be the means of directing your search for boarding-places, as well as afford- ing some sense of friendship. [no] IX THE LURE OF THE WEST It is, perhaps, characteristic of every small town or city of the Great West to do every- thing possible toward advancing itself into popular appreciation, especially the appreci- ation of " Eastern people," and with this end in view almost every town of even passable importance has its Chamber of Commerce busy in printing and distributing information, to the one end of gaining a desirable popu- lation. All this is not unnatural when you consider the vast areas out there yet to be utilized by man. It is also quite explainable that an enterprising spirit of progressive American- ism, kindled to renewed youth by the virgin freshness of boundless plains, the purity of the atmosphere, and perchance a far or nearer view of great mountain ranges lifting their [III] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST heads above the drifting clouds, should call aloud to the dwellers in the restricted city life of the Eastern marts to come into their land of corn and wine and become a part of it. True it is that after one has " emigrated " thence, and lived for years in that atmosphere of the Great West, certain indefinable changes take place in the constitutional habits of mind of the man. These changes are rather curi- ous, one of them being that, even though he afterward return to live in his former home city, it is no longer quite "home" to him; and this feeling, I believe, often exists whether his family and friends still reside there or not. A kind of restlessness, a sense of expansion, if you will, has silently crept into his soul, until even the great metropolitan cities of the Atlantic seaboard — cities which he formerly supposed contained everything worth while in life's existence — somehow have grown less interesting to him, less capti- vating in their hold upon his imagination. Five or ten years ago, when he was forced [112] THE LURE OF THE WEST by his breaking health to lay down his work, he would have given half his fortune could he have safely remained in his beloved New York; but the West has waved some mystic wand over him, and returning thence he feels that New York is no longer a Mecca for him : somehow its vital element seems gone, and he now sees it only as another place, one of many spots upon the earth where men are pursuing phantasies. What is the reason for this? Is the answer not to be found largely in this : that his later experiences, some of them discouraging enough doubtless, have, on the whole, broadened him? The great city, with its strenuous demands to keep pace or fall out, so engulfed all his energies and thought that he had little time to realize that there was a great natural world beyond its artificial portals. But once forced out beyond those all-containing walls of city provincialism, rebellious for a while against fate, which had suddenly deprived him of all [113] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST occupation and given him boundless leisure, the lure of his new environment stealthily crept over him. The unbroken silence of plains reaching eastward into the horizon, with the little city lying as a speck upon its bosom; the chasmed and rent mountain bul- wark, stretching as far as the eye can see; the pearly clouds floating around that nearest mountain peak, casting shadows on its rough sides and deep canons; the rosy glow of early morning, the deep blue of the zenith, the pur- ple velvet and the crimson, opal and orange glories of sunset-time — these are some of the voices of Nature which silently, daily, are stealing the man's heart away from his earlier allegiance, until the great city he left behind grows dim and yet more dim in its ever- retreating distance of time, while the fears, hopes and struggles of that former life come to seem to him like a vision of the past when, dreaming, he too chased the popular phan- tasms, only to waken in this far-off land and rtnd they were not, after all, vital to being! [i>4] THE NATURE OF THE DISEASE Although there are those who think the less a patient knows about his disease, the better, I can but believe that a reasonable amount of knowledge concerning it will, in the long run, be a safeguard to him. Therefore, without going into too minute an analysis, I venture to give him the most important particulars; for it is only by having some idea of the pathology that he can intelligently compre- hend the need of caution, in order neither to enter too early upon business nor to return too soon to a less favorable climate. The old idea, that " consumption " — now known as tuberculosis — is transmitted at birth or later develops as a direct inheritance, is practically exploded for most cases. Physi- cians have definitely ascertained that it is a [115] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST disease which is contracted through taking the tubercle germs, or bacilli, into the system cither by inhaling them (which is the usual way), or in milk. Therefore, when any indi- vidual contracts the disease, it is just as truly an accident which has happened to him as would be the breaking of his leg. But unfor- tunately, while ordinary precaution may save us from a visibly impending accident, the tubercle bacillus is invisible, except through a powerful microscope, where it appears in numbers like minute, straight rods or tiny hairs, suggesting a vegetable growth; and since it is practically everywhere, floating in the atmosphere, particularly in large cities, diffused in the very air we breathe, it is im- possible to prevent its inhalation. Our only safeguard against its destructive power is in being in perfect health, in which case, al- though the germs are inhaled, they are imme- diately destroyed by the potency of a healthy blood circulation. But let the general health or an organ — especially the lungs or throat — [ii6] THE NATURE OF THE DISEASE become weakened, and the inbreathed germs may effect a lodgment, start a local inflamma- tion of the tissue, begin to multiply, and — the accident has befallen us! Unfortunately it cannot be mended nearly as easily or as quickly as a broken leg. The earlier the accident is discovered and treated, the better, by far, for the patient. Next to " catching " the trouble, nothing is worse than delay. The attack being once fairly begun against the tissue, it means a hard fight lasting months, sometimes longer, before the ravages of the bacilli can be stopped. Germs of other diseases, like typhoid fever, diphtheria, etc., run their course through the human system and yield more or less effectu- ally to medicines, so that within a few weeks, unless the patient has succumbed, the system becomes purged of the germs and a speedy convalescence follows. But not so with the tubercle bacilli : no medicine nor antidote has yet been discovered which is capable of killing these without inflicting a worse injury on the [117] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST patient. It is hoped that the day will come when such an antidote shall be discovered, but it is not yet, the specious advertisements of quack doctors and nostrums to the contrary notwithstanding. Yet the disease can be cured, if taken in time. The only successful treatment so far known to medical science is to build up the human system through unlimited fresh air, sunshine, rest and nutrition. Given these, the patient's own constitution little by little van- quishes the intruder. All medicines have been found to be practically worthless, except in so far as they may be needed to treat some associated complaint.^ 'Dr. H. B. MooRH wrote: "When the disease is actuallv in progress, it seems to me almost criminal to keep the patient at home trying cough medicines, creosote, guaiacol. cod-liver oil, hypophosphites, etc., during that valuable time, often so short, when climatic treatment is really capable of rendering assistance in the struggle with the invading encmv. . . As regards ... a more or less prolonged residence in high altitudes, it is a serious error to give a patient going to Colorado on account of tuberculosis the idea that he is simply to go there for 'two or three months' or 'to spend the winter.' It is very rarely that expectation of this sort can lead to anything but disappointment." [ii8] THE NATURE OF THE DISEASE Thus assisted, Nature begins to manufac- ture an antitoxin in the blood corpuscles, to weaken the enemy, and also seeks to build up a wall-like structure within and about the already affected area, to close it off and hem it in so as to prevent its further spread to adjoining tissue. When this takes place the disease is arrested; that is, its ravages have ceased, for the time at least, and the patient is so far removed out of the danger zone. This condition may be brought about, under favorable circumstances, in from three to tw^elve months. The invalid meanwhile gains weight, a par- tial return of strength, and often shows de- cided improvement, so that gratifying reports of progress are sent home and the patient confidently expects to be there himself and again in the full swing of business and pleas- ure within the year. But here let him observe caution. The cavity-wall may not be thor- oughly solidified, and a change of residence to a less favorable climate, with a withdrawal [119] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST of the previously helpful influences, too often results in a fresh activity of the old enemy. Indeed, when a person has once shown a sensitiveness to infection it is very doubtful whether he can ever resume his old habits. A complete change in living and in occupation, if the former one has been sedentary, is often the one alternative if he would continue immune. It will be readily apprehended, from the foregoing explanation, that any unfavorable environment or influences are likely to retard the patient's progress. This bears directly upon the matter of seeking or accepting em- ployment, since when the individual enters into a contract to perform stated duties for an- other it is more than likely that such duties will Impose either an obligation to remain In- doors, and hence deprive him of so much fresh air and sunshine per day, or it may pull too heavily upon his strength and so consume, in work, a part of the vitality required to fight the Inward foe. [120] THE NATURE OF THE DISEASE Yet, on the other hand, a mental attitude of constant unrest, unhappiness, or apprehen- sion, such as may be induced by the knowledge that one's finances are inadequate for simple support without work, may be equally a hindrance to recovery. In such a case it be- comes an open question what to do. I do not mean to assert that it is invariably a menace to the invalid to engage in any employment during the first year : that question should be left to the local doctor in charge of the case. But no invalid should undertake work on his own advice. Possibly after a lapse of three to six months, if his symptoms have been con- tinuously favorable, his physician may give sanction to his engaging in some light employ- ment covering not more than two to four hours out of the day. Though you should subsequently live for many years in the West, there can be no time in it all of so great importance in its possibili- ties of placing you well on the road to health as the first year there ! Do not overlook this [I2I] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST fact and trifle with any element of advantage for your upbuilding which this first year might hold for you. There is such a thing, apparently, as a climate " wearing out " at last, in its curativ^e effect, although it may still sustain what has been accomplished; but during this first year it is new and fresh to your constitution and has a corresponding tonic eflect upon membranes and blood circulation : give it, then, every opportunity to do its best for you. Is there not greater danger of infection in those towns of the fTest zvhich are sanatoria for consumptives? This question is sometimes asked by timid people. It sounds reasonable enough, but the facts prove the negative. Dr. C. F. Gardiner, in his valuable little book, " The Care of the Consumptive," thoroughly discusses this question. From carefully compiled statistics, he finds that the average of the new cases contracted in the large Eastern cities is three to every thousand, per year. In Denver [122] THE NATURE OF THE DISEASE (1895) the rate was one to every three thou- sand, per year. In Colorado Springs there were but ten cases hi ten years, or a rate ot one in twenty thousand, per year. From which data he computes that " fifty to sixty develop the disease in the East to one case developed in Colorado Springs." Yet the whole proportion of consumptive people in these places is very much larger than in East- ern cities. Altitude, sunshine, and the pure, antiseptic air render germs almost innocuous.^ Pennsylvania, with a population of 6,302,- 000, has eight thousand four hundred new cases of tuberculosis in a year, the propor- tion being one to every seven hundred and fifty persons! 1 Dr. J. A. Hart, after practising twenty years in Colorado Springs, writes: "During my experience here 1 have had but one case of pulmonary tuberculosis occur in my own practice that 1 am positive originated in Colorado. ... I have yet to see a case of pulmonary tuberculosis in a child born in Colorado." [123] XI A CHAPTER ON DON'TS It Is advisable to collect under one heading the important things which the invalid should not forget regarding what he should do, since carelessness or ignorance of some of these has cost other health-seekers heavily : not that he should be forever thinking about himself — that were unwholesome — but just enough to be on guard against carelessness. Don't neglect to live up, fully, to your doc- tor's advice. If you haven't confidence in him, get another; but don't try to be your own physician. Don't go to a quack doctor unless you wish to squander money and, perhaps, make your- self a victim of ignorance or experiments. That stripe of quack doctor who offers to " cure " you for a stipulated sum of money, [124] A CHAPTER ON DON'TS paid down, is particularly to be avoided. If that style of treatment or such nostrums can cure your disease, why did you come so many miles from home when your local drug store would have supplied all the ingredients — less the pretense — for a few cents? There was a time when I personally investigated some of these pretensions, determined to find the truth, without prejuidice; but I never found even one individual among their alleged " cures " who could satisfactorily maintain the claim. If the most eminent and respectable physi- cians in the world, having knowledge of all the latest and tested methods, are unwilling to pump questionable or pernicious drugs into you, or strain the lung tissues by forced respi- ration, you would better beware of those ostracized ones who " know better." Don't join a gymnasium, run, swim, or take any other exercise beyond short walks, without a doctor's advice.^ ' Dr. B. p. Anderson says: " Much harm and even serious and fatal results attend many invalids . . . through [125] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST Don't practise deep breathing or enforced respiration too much: there is sometimes a question as to whether it doesn't interfere with the solidifying process, so important. This raises a question as to the indiscriminate use of inhalers. Don't do anything to tax your heart, to cause hard breathing, or to exhaust your strength. Don't use tobacco. If you must smoke, limit yourself to one cigar a day. Don't ride a bicycle or a horse without advice. Don't sit in a draught or ride in a wind, if overheated or even moist. To get a chill is dangerous: if you get one, go at once to the doctor. Don't wear damp clothing or wet shoes. The body should always be kept well pro- tected by suitable clothing, wool being best for all seasons. ignorance . . . as to the necessity of moderation in ex- ercises. . . . Incases . . . the importance of abso- lute rest and quiet is of the utmost necessity." [.26] A CHAPTER ON DON'TS Don't take cold plunge baths; but a cold sponge daily, with a warm or tepid tub bath twice weekly, upon retiring, are generally beneficial. Don't continue sitting out-of-doors after sundown: the drop in temperature is sudden and may chill. Don't eat or drink indigestible foods. If the stomach becomes disabled, it postpones cure. Don't permit constipation. Don't use whisky or other stimulants unless prescribed, or unless you have a chill or other exposure and cannot get a doctor : in that case, a tablespoonful of whisky in hot water, fol- lowed by four to eight grains of quinine, may prevent complications. To an invalid the most alarming thing is a hemorrhage: if one comes on, don't be frightened; keep cool and summon assistance, if you can do so without exertion. Dr. Gar- diner says: " By far the greater number of hemorrhages from the lungs are not danger- [127] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST ous to life, but on the contrary relieve some congested part of the lung." ^ The actual amount of blood so lost is often no more than from a nose-bleed or a pulled tooth. Do not talk. Your body should be half re- clining, propped up with pillows. Have the windows open : cool air, even to 40 de- grees, is beneficial. Keep cracked ice in the mouth. " Twenty drops of chlorodyne in a tablespoonful of cold water, as a dose. Pond's Extract is also said to be of service if the chlorodyne is not at hand." - " Put a poultice of flaxseed, three parts, and mus- tard, one part, on the body (over the right side from two inches below the nipple to the end of the ribs, and from the spine to the mid- dle of the body in front; put on warm)." '^ Lie still until a doctor arrives. Don't deprive yourself of sleep. Retire by 9 P.M. and remain in bed until 7 130 A.M., with window open top and bottom (no shade or ' "The Care of the Consumptive," bv Dr. C. I", GARtiiNtR. Mbid. Mbid/ [.28] A CHAPTER ON DONTS curtain to impede ventilation) in all weathers and seasons; for warmth depending upon plenty of bedclothes, pyjamas, and even a dressing-gown or bath-robe in addition, if necessary. Don't deprive yourself of nourishing food in ample quantity : it is absolutely necessary, particularly red meats and fat-producing kinds. One to four quarts of pure milk and two to six raw eggs daily should be taken in addition to regular meals. Be careful about habits of cleanliness, espe- cially with reference to your expectoration; otherwise you not only endanger others, but may re-infect yourself, as well. It is careless- ness in regard to this one matter that is caus- ing mischief in the world by starting new cases of tuberculosis. The invalid owes it to his fellow man that no further contagion be spread to others by reason of his carelessness or indifference. Never, no matter what the excuse ( for ex- ample, to avoid being conspicuous) swallow [129] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST anything which rises in your throat, as doing so may be to carry the germs directly into your stomach and intestines; and if they get a hold there your condition becomes very grave. Cleanse thoroughly mouth and lips (and mustache and beard) several times a day with soap or a disinfectant. Wash out your mouth with an antiseptic before eating. Never permit any expectoration to drop upon any sidewalk or footpath or within any building or upon clothing or furnishings, bed- ding, curtain, carpet or the like. If it has accidentally done so, first remove it with a bit of soft (toilet) paper, to be immediately burned, and then wash the spot with a ten per cent, solution of carbolic acid. All ex- pectoration within doors should be into a proper receptacle containing water and some drops of carbolic acid; and when necessary out-of-doors, should be as far as possible from a public walk or playground, and where the direct sun can reach it. Direct sunshine in [130] A CHAPTER ON DONTS high altitudes kills the bacilli after a few hours of exposure. It is better to carry a number of squares of cheesecloth or Japanese paper napkins, to re- ceive the expectoration, placing them tempor- arily within an oilskin or rubber bag, and burning them upon reaching home. Wash the bag frequently with a disinfectant. Never use a handkerchief in this way without burn- ing it immediately. Infected handkerchiefs are among the easiest means of spreading the contagion to others. Never cough while in proximity to another person, without holding a handkerchief up to your mouth. It is better that the invalid should occupy a bed by himself and should avoid kissing — at least while the trouble is still active. If these rules are strictly followed, there is no reason why the invalid should be a menace to anybody, even to one in the closest companionship; but in proportion as he [131] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST neglects these necessary precautions he does become a menace, and when such neglect is continuous and in open violation of his knowl- edge on the subject, he properly forfeits the sympathy and consideration of other people and makes himself an object to be shunned. [132; APPENDIX A FEW STATISTICS Colorado — The State is a high table-land, 4,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level, and has mineral, agricultural, timber, and grazing re- sources in abundance. Fruit-growing is an important industry. Its gold and silver mines are among the richest in the world; coal mines are also important. The Rocky Mountain chain passes about centrally through the State from north to south, and many of its loftiest peaks are in- cluded between the boundaries. The climate includes all the range of tem- peratures known in the United States. (See Chapter III, " Climatic Conditions.") Its population (539,700) is 80 per cent. American-born, being largely drawn from the Eastern States. [133] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST Its many educational Institutions are of a high order. Among the more important are: The University of Colorado, at Boulder; the Agricultural College, at Fort Collins; the School of Mines, at Golden; Colorado Col- lege, at Colorado Springs. It has eight towns of over 4,000 inhabi- tants, of which Denver (the capital) has 133,859 Pueblo 28,157 Colorado Springs 21,085 Leadville 12,455 Cripple Creek 10,097 according to the census of 1900. Of course a considerable percentage must now be added. The hot sulphur springs of Middle Park and Wagon-Wheel Gap, and the iron and soda springs of Manitou, Canyon City, Glen- wood Springs and Idaho Springs are famous. There are modern sanatoria at Denver, Colorado Springs, Manitou, Pueblo, and Boulder. [134] APPENDIX New Mexico — A high table-land, its aver- age altitude being similar to that of Colorado. Cattle and sheep raising are the principal industries, but it also has silver mines. There is little general business. The population is chiefly of mixed Spanish origin, but with increasing numbers from the Eastern States. Of the total population in 1900 (195,310) it was estimated that 61 per cent, could not speak English. The first explorers were the Spanish in- vaders: Cabeca de Vaca, 1536; Coronado, 1540; Juan de Onate (who conquered the native Indian inhabitants) 1598. It was part of the territory involved in the war with Mexico, and was ceded to the United States by that country in 1846. Its commercial prosperity began soon after, with the opening up of the once famous overland route known as the " Santa Fe Trail." Santa Fe, founded in 1616, the second oldest city on the continent, is the capital. The principal cities are : [135] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST Santa Fe, population (census 1900) . . .5,603 Albuquerque, " " " ...6,238 Las Vegas, " " " ...3,552 The State University is at Albuquerque; the Normal University is at Las Vegas. Albuquerque, 5,000 feet altitude, computed population in 1905, 12,000, has street-cars, waterworks, a sewage system, good hotels, a theater, twelve churches, and a modern sana- torium. There is a large sanatorium. The Monte- zuma, at Las Vegas Hot Springs for mem- bers of fraternal orders. This was formerly a fine hotel and is beautifully situated. Its hot mud baths are famous. The United States Government Sanatoria for army and navy men, are at Fort Bayard and Fort Stanton. Santa Fe has two sana- toria. Santa Fe also possesses the Territorial Library of Spanish and Mexican archives, 1 62 1 to 1846; an asylum for deaf mutes, a [136] APPENDIX United States Indian School and military reservation. Arizona — A table-land, its name being the Spanish word signifying " dry belt." The population is given in the census for 1900 as 122,900, of which 26,400 were Indians, mostly Navajos. The territory has silver and rich copper mines. The soil is generally very barren and non-productive. In a total area of 113,020 square miles, only 100 are under water. Practically all of the productive land (about 2.7 per cent, of the whole area) is along the Gila River, in the southern part. The territory is traversed by two railroads: the Santa Fe through the northern portion, and the Southern Pacific through the southern part. The northern half of the territory, in which is the noted Grand Caiion of the Colorado, is a broken, arid table-land, averaging 5,000 feet in altitude, with intermittent mountains. [137] GAINING HEALTH IN THE WEST The southern half falls rapidly away In alti- tude, to nearly sea level. This land was first explored by Europeans in 1540, when Vasquez de Coronado led thither a Spanish expedition. Ruins of aque- ducts, fortifications and cities attest a once powerful prehistoric race, of which the poor Moqui Indians and their sun-baked clay vil- lages remain as forlorn reminders. The principal cities are: Phenix (the capital), population .... 2,700 Tucson 5' 100 Prescott 2,700 Jerome 2,500 these figures being taken from the census ol 1900. The Territorial University is at Tucson (1891). There are Territorial Normal Schools at I'empe and Magstaft. Nori;. — Quotations in the preceding pages attributed to Drs. J. A. Hart, S. E. Solly, B. P. Anderson, W. H. Swan. H. B. Moore and C. F. Gardiner, are taken from a little book entitled "High Altitudes for Invalids," published by the APPENDIX Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Springs, Colorado. They are from reports of addresses delivered by these physicians, who in some cases refer to their own contributions to medical periodicjals and books. The author does not regard it as essential to record the exact source of these quotations as the facts stated are generally accepted by the medical profession. [139] "It 'is easily the best boolc ot its kind yet written in America ' ' says The Literary Digest of MORAL EDUCATION by Edward Howard Griggs A discussion of the whole problem of moral education : its aim in relation to our society and all the means through which that aim can be attained. The book contains a complete bibliography with annotations, and index, and has been adopted as a text in normal schools and colleges and for study by clubs and reading circles. Descriptive circulars and notable com- ments may be had upon application to the publisher. Cloth, net S1.60; postage 12 cents At all booksellers or of B. W. 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