ago, when I began to feel chilly at night and restless after retiring.
Occasionally this would be varied by a soreness of the muscles and
cramps in my arms and legs. I thought, as most people would think, that
it was only a cold and so paid as little attention to it as possible.
Shortly after this I noticed a peculiar catarrhal trouble and my throat
also became inflamed. As if this were not variety enough I felt sharp
pains in my chest, and a constant tendency to headache."

"Why didn't you take the matter in hand and check it right where it
was?"

"Why doesn't everybody do so? Simply because they think it is only some
trifling and passing disorder. These troubles did not come all at once
and I thought it unmanly to heed them. I have found, though, that every
physical neglect must be paid for and with large interest. Men can not
draw drafts on their constitution without honoring them sometime. These
minor symptoms I have described, grew until they were giants of agony. I
became more nervous; had a strange fluttering of the heart, an inability
to draw a long breath and an occasional numbness that was terribly
suggestive of paralysis. How I could have been so blind as not to
understand what this meant I can not imagine."

"And did you do nothing?"

"Yes, I traveled. In the spring of 1879 I went to Kansas and Colorado,
and while in Denver, I was attacked with a mysterious hemorrage of the
urinary organs and lost twenty pounds of flesh in three weeks. One day
after my return I was taken with a terrible chill and at once advanced
to a very severe attack of pneumonia. My left lung soon entirely filled
with water and my legs and body became twice their natural size. I was
obliged to sit upright in bed for several weeks in the midst of the
severest agony, with my arms over my head, and constant fear of
suffocation."

"And did you still make no attempt to save yourself?"

"Yes, I made frantic efforts. I tried everything that seemed to offer
the least prospect of relief. I called a council of doctors and had them
make an exhaustive chemical and microscopical examination of my
condition. Five of the best physicians of Syracuse and several from
another city said I must die!

"It seemed as though their assertion was true for my feet became cold,
my mouth parched, my eyes wore a fixed glassy stare, my body was covered
with a cold, clammy death sweat, and I read my fate in the anxious
expressions of my family and friends."