To Those Accustomed To The Close Heat Of
Eastern Rooms The California House In The Winter Seems Depressingly
Chilly.
I know of few things more pitiful than the annual migration of hopeless
consumptives which formerly took place to Los Angeles, Pasadena, and San
Diego.
The Pullman cars in the winter used to be full of sick people,
banished from the East by physicians who do not know what else to do
with their incurable patients. They went to the large hotels of Los
Angeles or Pasadena, to pay a rate they cannot afford. They shivered in
half-warmed rooms; took cold after cold; their symptoms grew alarming;
their money wasted away; and finally, in utter despair, they were
hurried back homeward, perhaps to die on board the train. Or it may be
that they choose cheap lodging-houses, at prices more nearly within
their reach. Here, again, they suffer for want of home food, home
comforts, and home warmth, and the end is just the same. People
hopelessly ill should remain with their friends; even California has no
health to give to those who cannot earn it, in part at least, by their
own exertions.
It is true that the "one-lunged people" form a considerable part of the
population of Southern California. It is also true that no part of our
Union has a more enlightened or more enterprising population, and that
many of these men and women are now as robust and vigorous as one could
desire. But this happy change is possible only to those in the first
stages of the disease.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 20 of 23
Words from 5024 to 5288
of 5818
