l kill only a few hundred people a
year in the United States instead of 150,000 every year, as it does
now.

People and governments are giving great sums of money, not only to
cure the people who now have consumption, but to do something towards
stopping the disease by keeping things so clean and people so strong
that no one will ever have it. Even little children can help to fight
and kill this "Great White Plague," and I'll tell you how.

We know that, when people have consumption in their lungs, what they
cough and spit out of their mouths and blow out of their noses (we
call it _sputum_) has the germs, or seeds, of the disease in it. So,
to keep other people from catching the disease, they must hold
something before the face when they cough, and they must catch the
sputum in paper (newspapers or paper napkins are very good for this)
and burn it, for burning kills the germs. Then, too, they must not
kiss other people on the mouth, and others must not kiss them. They
must use their own drinking-cups, and never lend or borrow a cup. You
see, you can look out for these things, yourselves. When grown people
kiss you, just turn your cheek to them, instead of your mouth. Your
cheek will not carry anything to your windpipe and lungs. And be sure
to carry your own drinking-cup, or, better still, make the one for
which you already have the pattern, every time you need one.

[Illustration: HIS OWN CUP AND TOWEL]

This sounds easy enough; and it is, too. But sometimes people don't
know when they have this "plague," and of course they do not feel that
they must be careful. What is to be done, then?

If people won't take care of themselves, then the government has to
make health laws to protect them, and the health officers have to see
that the laws are obeyed. In many of the states and cities, laws have
been made so that nobody is allowed to spit on the sidewalk or in the
cars or in any other public place; and common drinking-cups are
forbidden at all park fountains and at the water-coolers in schools
and trains and stations and other public places.

You ought to know about these things, because, as I have just said,
other sicknesses, too, are carried about in the nose and mouth.
_Grippe_, _pneumonia_ or lung fever, and what we call _colds_ are
caught in exactly the same way. We used to think we caught them by
being chilled; but we are much more likely to take them by being shut
up in a hot, stuffy room with other peo