The Diseased Rich at Baden-Baden

The Diseased Rich at Baden-Baden

1901

A great deal of grandeur always makes me homesick. It isn't envy. I don't want to be a princess and have the bother of winding a horn for my outriders when I want to run to the drug store for postage stamps, but pomp depresses me.

Everybody was strange, foreign languages were pelting me from the rear, noiseless flunkies were carrying pampered lap dogs with crests on their nasty little embroidered blankets, fat old women with epilepsy and gouty old men with scrofula, representing the aristocracy at its best, were being half carried to and from tables, and the degeneracy of noble Europe was being borne in upon my soul with a sickening force.

The purple twilight was turning black on the distant hills, and the silent stars were slowly coming into view. Clean, health giving Baden-Baden. In the valley of the Oos, with its beauty and its pure air, was holding out her arms to all the disease and filth that degenerate riches produce. — Lillian Bell in Woman's Home Companion.

Girl Suffers Tuberculosis; Dark Clouds, Rays of Hope

Minnesota, 1929

DARK CLOUDS CAN'T SHUT OUT RAYS OF HOPE

Elna Anderson, Local Albert Lea Girl, Suffering From Tuberculosis in Minneapolis General Hospital.

Many of Albert Lea know Miss Elna Anderson formerly of this city, but now confined at the General hospital in Minneapolis suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs.

Miss Anderson spent a year in Glen Lake sanatorium. When discharged she returned to Albert Lea, but in her ambition to make her own way in the world, she over taxed her physical self and the disease returned. On her way back to Glen Lake she became so weak that she got no farther than Minneapolis. She hopes in the near future to be able to get back to the sanatorium.

Those of us who are well and comfortable, but are always grumbling over our lot, should feel mighty cheap when learning of the hard lot this girl has had to endure all through her life — and with very little of an encouraging nature to look forward to.

Miss Anderson has never had much to make her happy. Broken in health and without financial means she has kept a stiff upper lip — always smiling away her tears — catching sight of the smallest ray of sunshine that happens to fall her way. Right now she is very sick, weak and thin — but in spite of all this, she hasn't given up hopes. In a letter this week to a girl friend in Albert Lea she says: "I could write a book on some of the sad things I have seen here. Some day I will tell you all about them."

The following little poem composed by Miss Anderson was enclosed in the letter:

SPRINGTIME

When fierce winds blow
—and way up high
The gray clouds float
Across the sky.

When flowers bloom,
—and birdies sing,
We're happy, cause
It's truly spring.

In Winter time,
When cold winds blow,
The streets are filled
With ice and snow.

We long for sunshine
—and the rain.
We long to wander,
down the lanes.

The winds, the rain,
—and flowers say:
"It won't be long,
Spring's on the way."

—The Evening Tribune, Albert Lea, MN, March 25, 1929, page 5.

Notes Around Town – Motion Pictures, Fobs, and Fish

Stevens Point, Wisconsin, May 29, 1907

A. W. Carle, proprietor and manager of the Ideal theatre, will give the usual program of moving pictures, illustrated songs and musical numbers on Sunday afternoons and evenings.

Benjamin Sias, of Sparta, who won the district declamatory contest in this city a couple of weeks ago, was named the best speaker at the state contest, held in Madison, last Friday evening.

Chas. U. Conlisk left for the Sacred Heart Sanitarium, Milwaukee, Monday morning, to take a course of treatment, he not having been feeling well of late. He will no doubt return in a short time fully recuperated.

The latest fad! Gold plated signet Normal and High school fobs. Call and see them at French, Campbell & Co.

The machine shop of F. A. Sustins, on North Third street, was entered through a window Friday night and a number of valuable tools stolen. A bar was pryed off a window after a pane of glass had been broken.

Mrs. E. I. Tozier, who resides just west of the city in the town of Linwood, has been afflicted with blood clots in the veins and tissues for the past few years, and will leave next week for the Sacred Heart Sanitarium, Milwaukee, to remain some weeks under the care of the able physicians and nurses there.

J. W. Moxon and son, Arnold, returned Monday morning on train No. 1 from Gills Landing, where they had spent Saturday night and part of Sunday on the Wolf river, catching bass. No bass offered to take their bait, but a huge rock sturgeon, weighing 47½ pounds was secured by Arnold. His father assisted in landing the big fish.

Judge Murat has ordered Willie Koslowski, of Junction City, to be committed to the Boys' Industrial school at Waukesha. The boy refused to obey his parents and was given into Sheriff Guyant's charge, Thursday, he being taken to that institution thereafter.

Jack Carkeek, who in years gone by was one of the best known wrestlers in this country, but who has spent the past few years across the ocean, has been renewing acquaintances in this city for a few days.

Geo. L. Rogers and John Martini left here Tuesday morning for Mt. Clemens, Mich., to remain about three weeks and enjoy the health-giving baths of that resort. Both gentlemen have been troubled with rheumatism for some time.

Rev. Russell Wilber, archdeacon of Fond du Lac, conducted services in the Episcopal church here Sunday morning and evening. The visiting clergyman made a fine impression, he being a speaker of unusual ability, with a pleasing manner and a convincing form of expression.

—The Gazette, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, May 29, 1907