May Farinholt Jones

“ In every place that I go some one is talking and writing about how to prevent tuberculosis, the "great white plague," as Oliver Wendell Holmes called it—the terrible disease that has killed so many people—more than all the wars of the world. Seventy-five to ninety per cent. of all the money I bring is used in the community in which I am sold. ”

“ Children who have colds and sore throats can not play. So he says, "Wrap up warm, come out into the fresh air." Let the pure frosty air get into your lungs, and sweep out old disease germs that may have hidden there. Come with me to the pond. The ice is thick and smooth. Put on your skates and let us go skimming over the ice. You will feel the warm red blood, made clean and pure by the frosty air, tingling all over your body. I tell you, Jack Frost is a good friend.
Jack Frost often hurts the poor, pinching too hard their fingers and toes. ”

“ Reason Number One is because the tobacco habit is a dirty habit. Are the lips of the smoking boy nice and clean for mother to kiss? What about his hands? Isn't he ashamed of that yellow stain that won't come off? How much cleaner the streets, and cars, and railway stations would be if nobody used tobacco! ”

“ But with all this great work and the work of their great men, we sometimes catch folks napping. We catch our greatest enemy, the white blood-cells, when they are without their fighting clothes on, and then we get busy. ”

“ Little boys and girls need things to make them strong just as the little plants do. They need simple, pure food to make strong bone and muscle, [10] pure water to drink, and to bathe their bodies with; fresh air to breathe; and sunshine to give color to their cheeks and sparkle to their eyes. If the little folks do not have the things that Mother Nature intended for them, they will grow thin and twisted like the little sick plant. Their cheeks will grow pale and their eyes will look dull and heavy and lose their sparkle. They will not want to romp and play as all healthy children do. ”

“ When mother feeds little baby brother she gives him nice warm, sweet milk, because that is the food that he needs to make him grow big and strong. Mother Nature knows that the little babies and the little calves and pigs need this fresh warm milk, so she prepares it all ready for them.
When we plant seed in the ground, the soft, warm dark earth furnishes food for the little seed, until its leaves and stems are above the ground. Its little roots run down into the moist, mellow soil and drink up the food Mother Nature has there for it. ”

“ You need some fuel that will make you plump [4] and round and healthy looking, so you must put into your engine fruits, nuts, a little candy, and a lot of vegetables. You need to eat things that have color, such as: tomatoes, lettuce, greens, and beets,—not because they look pretty, but because they have iron in them and help to make your engine strong.
You must remember that you eat food for three reasons: to make you grow, keep warm, and able to work. You must be careful that you do not eat too much of any one kind of food, but remember to eat a little of many kinds. ”

“ Mother said that if no one disturbed them they would eat germs and all sorts of little water plants for about two weeks, growing all the time. At the end of that time, each one would curl himself into a cocoon, like a ball, called a pupa. After about four days of rest and growing in this cocoon, the case would break and out would come a thing with wings, a full-grown mosquito. It would stand on its case or cocoon, dry its wings in the sun, and then fly away to begin life as a mosquito. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Not many years ago, a very clever man found out that the mosquito carried malaria, for, without her, the germs could never get into our blood.
Mother says that the way for us to stop malaria is for us to kill all the mosquitoes, and the best way to kill them off is to do so when they are little "wiggle-tails" or "wigglers." She says the best way of all, though, is never to have any standing water around where the mosquito can lay her eggs. ”

“ Did you ever think of the little Eskimo boys and girls in their cold country? They wear clothes made of skins and furs. They live in snow houses, but they manage to keep warm. The little Eskimo children are used to the cold, for Jack Frost plays his pranks all the year round in the land of the long, long nights.
They have great sport going here and there on their snow-shoes, and in their sleds drawn by their faithful dogs.
In our own Northland, Jack is a very frisky fellow. He touches the lakes and rivers with his magic wand and covers them with ice. ”

“ In the meantime we are playing a game of 'catch me if you can.' Sometimes we get on pencils or sticks of candy. Then again we roll and turn somersaults on a nice red apple and are passed from one mouth to another by over-polite children.
"Sometimes, some of my children swim in the milk or travel on a fly's foot.
"I don't like sunshine at all. I dote on dark places where the wind does not blow.
"I like poor people better than rich ones, because the poor have not money enough to buy good food, fresh air, and rest, the weapons the rich use to fight us with. ”

“ As he crawled over the baby's bottle and its little mouth, he left some of the germs there and he left some in the milk pitcher also. It was careless of the mother to give her baby milk that was not covered. The mother did not know she was giving the baby milk in which there were these little plants, or germs, which cause typhoid fever. [18]
You have learned that the house-fly carries the seed, or germs, of typhoid. These germs, or seed, will grow and multiply in the body. So you should never leave food uncovered where a fly can get to it. ”

“ King Henry had nothing to do with the drinking on board the White Ship. He was not even there, and did not know about it. But it caused him to lose his boy and girl, both in one night.
In our days, too, it makes more trouble than any one can possibly imagine. Although the wreck of the White Ship happened nearly eight hundred years ago, it was not by any means the first accident brought on by alcohol. Drink has always done these things. It has always made men's heads dull and their hands unsteady. It has caused them to be hurt and to lose their lives. ”

“ We can know the mosquito that carries malaria because she looks as if she is trying to stand on her head when she lights on anything. It seems queer that the female mosquito is the only one which poisons us with malaria. Perhaps the male mosquito cannot bite, because he has so many feathery plumes on his bill. ”

“ Reason Number Two is because tobacco injures a boy's body. It hurts his heart, causing it to beat too fast for a while and afterwards making it weak and tired. It hurts his lungs, for when he draws the smoke in he carries the poisonous nicotine to the tender and delicate air-cells. We must talk more about that at another time. It hurts his stomach and gives him indigestion, and no one knows how bad that is until he has had it for himself.
Reason Number Three is because tobacco harms a boy's mind. Boys who don't smoke make better grades than those who do. ”

“ The child can appreciate only those hygienic facts which can be applied in every-day living: he has no interest in health as an end in itself. Furthermore, that instruction in hygiene which is given as an end in itself, and which does not reach beyond the school-room in its influence, is a failure. Therefore, that instruction in hygiene which is in line with the child's interest is also the instruction which is most effective. ”

“ Now this coal or wood or gasoline, when it is used in an engine to make it work, is called fuel. Would we put rotten or green wood into the engine? [2] No. We must always put in the kind of thing that will burn best, and make the most heat and do the most work.
Let us see how this wood or coal we call fuel makes the engine work. First, we must burn the fuel. Second, when the fuel burns, it heats the water in the boiler. Third, the water changes into steam, and this steam gives the engine the power to work. ”

“ You look pale because your blood is not red enough.
"Boys and girls have blood in their bodies. You have seen it when you cut your finger. The more you run and play, the more blood you will have and the redder it will be. This good red blood is what makes you strong; you must eat plenty of good food and play out in the open air with the other boys. Keep your body clean, and get your mother to let you walk to school each morning with Arthur. Now run along to play, and I am sure you will soon feel better, and after a few days you will be as strong as Arthur and the other boys."
QUESTIONS ”

“ 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. ”

“ Now we see how an engine is made to move and do work, such as hauling great trains of cars, and pulling great ships across the wide ocean. But we must remember that the engine will not do this work unless there is a man near-by to put the fuel into the engine. ”

“ These little germs always get into places that are not kept clean, and when they get into the mouth they go to work, like so many little carpenters, with pick and drill, and pick away the [60] outer covering of the tooth and then the tooth decays, and this causes toothache.
We all want to have pretty white teeth like Ned's, do we not? When we are little we must take care of the teeth, and if they begin to decay we must have them filled or treated by the dentist. Let us look at our teeth and see who has the prettiest and the best ones. Has every one a toothbrush? We must each have one. ”

“ When, at last, he reached land he told how the young prince and his sister had been drowned, and also a hundred and forty noble youths and girls, and the Captain and the fifty rowers, and everyone else on board except himself—all because of wine.
What a dangerous drink this alcohol is, and how many accidents it has caused! It sends the [92] brain to sleep so that it cannot do its work, and when that is the case we never know what dreadful thing may happen next.
When anything puts the brain to sleep, we call it narcotic. Alcohol is a narcotic poison. ”

“ When you have grown to be a man you will have thirty-two teeth. You will have more grinders in your mouth when you are a man than you have now. The jaw teeth are called grinders, because they grind the food you put into your mouth, just as the big mill stones grind the corn into meal down at Grandpa's mill.
You wear clothes to keep your bodies warm, so the teeth need some covering to keep out the cold. The enamel, a hard outer covering on the teeth, keeps them from feeling the cold. Down in the middle of the tooth is a place for the nerves of the tooth. ”

“ Dearie me, why cannot we get air at the bottom of the pond as well as at the top.
"My heart was beating with fear as I still heard the footsteps, and presently I could hear voices. A voice said, 'Where are all the members of this brigade?' What could it mean? What is a brigade? Someone cried out, 'Here we come to give him the oil.' Looking up I saw a number of girls and boys, 'The Mosquito Brigade,' they called themselves. They laughed and talked as if they were a gay crowd. ”

“ Where did the little fly say he was hatched? It is in such places as this—in stables and other filthy places—that all flies are hatched and raised. They all like good things to eat. Flies can smell a good thing to eat a long way off; so they soon find their way to the kitchen and dining-room. On their way to the kitchen, they often stop by the out-houses and gather on their feet and legs a lot of dirt and germs. ”

“ The little boats come to Lung Station and load up with oxygen about three times every minute, so you see how fast they travel. This freight is the thing that paints our cheeks a rosy color and gives us good health.
When each little boat has unloaded its cargo in the far countries, the little cell men load them with a return cargo, which is made up of waste matter (carbon dioxide) . This cargo is carried back to the Lung Station, and unloaded there. It is breathed out into the air, through the air tubes. ”