Keep-Well Stories for Little Folks

PART I

Mary, did you and Tom see the poor, sick woman on the cars when we were going to visit grandmother last week? Did you see how pale and thin and feeble she looked? Did you hear her coughing so often that it seemed to hurt her whole body?

How sorry we felt when we knew she was so sick. Don't you remember that Uncle John, who is a doctor, told us that she had consumption. Uncle John talked of the poor lady and of the dreadful disease which she has. He called it by two other names, tuberculosis and the "Great White Plague."

I'll tell you just what he told me, for Uncle John said that even little children should know about this disease and that they could help to prevent it.

He said that a very small plant, so small that we cannot see it with our naked eyes, causes this terrible sickness from which so many, both old and young, die. These plants are so small that a thousand of them could be put on a pin head and still not crowd each other there. These little plants are like tiny rods and are always found in the saliva or spit of a person who has consumption. When Uncle John wants to see them he uses a very powerful magnifying glass called a microscope. You have seen this microscope in Uncle John's office.

Long years ago, a great German doctor tried to find out why so many persons, young people and little children, died of this terrible disease. Finally, after long years of study, he found that these tiny plants are the cause of all this disease and sorrow. He also found that these plants are different from the plants in our gardens, for they grow best in dark, damp places where there are warmth and the kind of soil suited to them.

These plants never blossom, but they grow and make more plants of the same kind.

When father wants to grow more cotton he plants cotton seed, does he not? He always sees that the ground or soil is well prepared for the seed.

Our bodies are the soil or ground, and these little rod-like plants are the seed of consumption. Persons who have delicate bodies and who live in damp, dark places, and who do not eat good food furnish the best kind of soil on which these plants will grow. They grow and make more tuberculosis seed just as the cotton grows and makes more cotton seed. Strong, healthy bodies are poor seed ground for consumption seed. They do not grow well but shrink up and die just as cotton seed would if they were planted on stony ground instead of nice mellow earth.

You have seen some plants that you were told not to handle or taste because they were poisonous. Well, these little tuberculosis plants that I am telling you about are more poisonous than the plants that you can see.

If they get on cups from which you drink, and into your milk or any other food, they may get into your bodies. If you think, I am sure that you will remember some of your friends who have consumption.

You remember, Mary, you told me of your little friend, Lucy Stevens, who has been ill a long time, and who is quite lame. She has to use crutches to walk with because her hip is diseased. Uncle John says this is because she has tuberculosis of the hip joint. It is strange, but often after these little plants or seed get into the body, they may travel to any part of it, and set up house-keeping for themselves in a gland or a joint. They usually find their way to the weakest part of our bodies.

PART II

Uncle John says that the only cure for consumption is plenty of fresh air, good food, and the proper amount of rest. He says that patent medicines are fakes and do much harm.

You can, each of you, do a great deal to prevent these plants or seeds from getting into your bodies and into the bodies of others by following these simple rules:

1. Remember that fresh air and sunshine are necessary to good health.

2. Remember that cold or damp air will not do harm if the body is kept warm.

3. Breathe through the nose only. Avoid dark, crowded, dusty, or damp rooms. Breathe deep.

4. Hold shoulders up.

5. Use your own individual drinking cup.

6. Remember that consumption is spread by careless spitting. Do not spit on the floor of rooms, halls, or cars.

7. Keep clean and bathe frequently, at least twice a week.

8. Always wash your hands before eating.

9. Brush your teeth after each meal.

10. Never put money, pencils, pens, or anything that another person has handled, in your mouth.

11. Do not bite off fruit that other people have bitten.

12. Do not kiss babies or sick persons.

QUESTIONS

1. What do you call the little plants that cause tuberculosis or consumption? How big are these plants or germs?

2. What part of garden plants are these germs like? Why do you think so?

3. Big plants in the garden get their food from the water in the soil. I wonder if any of you can tell me where these little germ-plants get their food? When we see persons with consumption we know that these little germ-plants are growing on the cells of their lungs. This causes their lung cells and the tissue that binds them together to decay. Then these people have to cough and spit this decayed matter up. Every bit of it is often filled with these little germ-plants, or seed of consumption.

4. Then what should be done with this spit to keep any one else from taking the disease?

5. Germs are often carried in little particles of dust. How may we keep from getting germs in this way?

6. How else may these little plants get into our bodies?

7. Can you think of another way by which we might get these plants into our bodies? (From milk.) What insect may carry the germs from the sick-room to our dining-room table?

8. What did Uncle John say was the only cure for consumption or tuberculosis?

9. What can each of us do to prevent these plants from getting into our bodies, and to prevent them from growing if they should happen to get into our bodies?

IT IS TIME THAT YOU SHOULD STOP

"Whenever you spit, whenever you sneeze, Whenever your rugs you beat, When you scatter dust with a feather broom, And shake it on the street, Where rubbish you pile upon the road, When ash barrels have no top You're poisoning the air for somebody's lungs, And it is time that you should stop.

--Selected.

A TRUE STORY

In a little city near the great Mississippi River, lived two boys who were the very best of friends. Every day they played together and had a fine time. Life was as pleasant as a summer day to the little fellows. One of the boys was named Oliver. He had a rich father who gave him everything he wanted. The other little boy was Arthur. His father was dead, but he had a gentle little mother who was as good as she could be. Arthur's mother had to work very hard to make enough money to buy food and clothes for her little boy and herself. Little Arthur knew this, and he often said when he got big he would make enough money for them both, so that the dear mother would not have to work so hard.

When the two boys were six years old, they started to school. They were very happy and proud when the day to go came. Every morning Oliver's mother would put his fine clothes on him and give him some money to pay his way on the street car. After he got to the school he would not play games with the boys for he was afraid he would soil his clothes. He stood around and watched the other boys romp and play.

Arthur's mother could not give him the ten cents for car-fare to and from school, so he walked to school every morning. He would eat his breakfast early and start out for school in the cool morning air. As he walked along whistling, his cheeks would get rosy and red and he would run and jump; he was a happy little boy. He felt as if he would never get tired. And all the time he would be thinking of the time when he would be a big boy and ready to help to care for the little mother.

When he got to school he would join the other little boys in their play, for his clothes were good and strong and not too fine to romp and play in.

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