Crayon marks were everywhere.[2] In some places it was one color; in
others another; in many, a crazy pattern of red, blue, and green.
[2] For this ingenious example of the crayon marks I am indebted to
Dr. Charles V. Chapin, Health Officer of Providence, Rhode Island, and
a distinguished epidemiologist.
“And if I carried it out,” said the doctor, “your faces would all be as
bad.”
“I don’t care!” murmured Betty to Susan Nipper; “I _will_ kiss you even
if you do turn green.”
“But you mustn’t kiss Charley,” interposed Dr. Strong. “If you’ve had
enough rehearsal, we’ll go and make our call right after luncheon.”
Entering the sick-room, the three visitors stood a little abashed and
strange. Their hearty, rough-and-tumble brother looked strangely drawn
and brighteyed.
“Hello, kids!” said he, airily. “Make yourselves at home.”
Bettykin was the first to break the ice. “Did it hurt, Charley?” she
asked, remembering her own experience with adenoids.
“Nope,” said the convalescent. “Only thing that hurts is being kept in
bed when I want to be up and around. What’s new?”
Much was new, there in the room, and the children took it in,
wide-eyed. Although it was early May, the windows were screened. All
the hangings and curtains had been taken out of the room, which looked
bare and bright. On the door of the bathroom was a huge roller-towel of
soft, cloth-like paper, perforated in lengths so as to be easily
detachable, and below it a scrap-basket, with a sign: “Throw Paper
Towels in Here to be Burned after Using.” Between the two windows was a
larger sign:—
Keep your Fingers Away from Your Mouth and Nose.
Don’t Handle Utensils Lying About.
Don’t Open an Unscreened Window.
After Touching Anything which may have been Contaminated Wash Your
Hands at Once.
Use the Paper Towels; They’re the Only Safe Kind.
One Dollar Reward to Any One Discovering a Fly in the Room.
Wash Your Hands Immediately After Leaving the Room.
Keep Outside the Dead-line.
PENALTIES
For First Violation of Rules—Offender Reads to Patient One Hour. Second
Violation—Banishment for Balance of Day.
“The dead-line is that thing, I suppose,” said Junkum, pointing to a
tape stretched upon standards around the bed at a distance of a yard.
“Is it a game?” questioned the hopeful Bettina. “No, Bettykin. It’s a
germ-cage. No germs can get out of that unless they’re carried out by
somebody or something. And, in that case, they’re boiled to death on
the gas-stove outside.”
At this moment Charley called for a drink of water. After he had
emptied the glass, his mother took it out and dropped it into the
disinfecting hot bath. Then she washed her hands, dried them on a strip
of the paper towel and dropped that in the basket.
“I see,” said Julia, the observant. “Nothing gets any scarlet fever on
it except what Charley touches. And everything he touches has to be
washed as soon as it comes out of the dead-line.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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