GENERAL DISCOMFORT — MURDER OF DOW. 
99 
lots. They came in April, and in order to provide for the winter 
store, they thought first of all it was necessary to get the seed 
into the ground, they living meanwhile in tents. All their ener¬ 
gies, forgetful of present necessities, seemed to be directed to their 
future good. Health and valuable lives were sacrificed thereby. 
There was no saw-mill, and whatever houses they made at last 
w r ere of logs and “ shakes.” There were very few springs in the 
vicinity, consequently they drank of the river water, which is slow 
and sluggish, and, when the dry season came, was covered with a 
green substance found upon all stagnant water, although good 
water could be obtained by digging twenty-five feet, as one or two 
wells proved. 
With sickness of body came heart-sickness, and a yearning for 
pleasant New England homes ; and most of those who lived 
through such discouragements either went to other settlements 
or returned. 
At Osawattomie, situated near the junction of the Potawattomie 
and Osage, in a pleasant, though rather low country, fever has 
burned up the blood of many, leaving wan cheeks and livid lips 
Yet, every one is free to acknowledge that no country has a purer 
atmosphere, or more healthful climate. In cases of sickness in 
Lawrence, they have, so far as I know, been owing to some gross 
outrage of the physical laws of our being, some unwarranted over¬ 
exertion of energies either mental or physical; a knowledge of 
such undue effort being confessed to by the individual, with the 
expectation that sickness would follow. 
The climate, or the country, should bear no part of the blame. 
It is a question whether, in the necessary exposures of our new 
homes, the never-ceasing labors incident to such a situation, we 
are as guilty as those who court sickness in the states, by rash 
violation of the laws which govern us. 
The cholera raged for a time upon the Wakarusa, for which 
drinking of the stagnant water in the river’s bed, the result of an 
unprecedented drouth of ten months, and in many cases a sad 
want of personal cleanliness, was the prolific cause. About the 
same time, a gentleman near the same region walked into Law¬ 
rence in the heat of the day, with perspiration starting from every 
