About eleven years ago I was suffering with what the doctors called pneumonia and bronchitis contracted as they said through a severe cold, and had been confined to my bed some thirteen or fourteen weeks without any sign of relief or indications of improving; they said, as one of my lungs had not cleared out as it should and had become solid with a deposit so that I could not use it and as the other one was very weak, there was no hope for me. I could not get well, and it was useless for me to doctor further, simply for my folks to make it pleasant for me, humor me, etc., as I would not be with them long. To make matters still worse hemorrhage of the lungs set in and the doctors then said that the first pleasant day I must be sent South to try and see what the climate would do for me, so my mother took me South. We first went to New Orleans, but did not remain there long as we were told it was too damp, etc., so we went to Pass Christian, Miss., about fifty-five miles out of New Orleans, on the coast.
For a time I seemed to improve a little and would go out for a little walk when it was pleasant, but was forbidden to go out evenings and rainy days, or when it was cold. To make a long story short I remained there until June, as I was forbidden to come North before then, as the doctors said I could not possibly pull through the damp spring in Chicago.
Upon my return home my old claims returned again and my doctors said as the climate of the South had failed and that I could not possibly pull through a Chicago winter the only chance I had was to go to California for the winter as the California climate was far better than that of the South; so I packed up and started for California.
