The La Fayette Dispensary
in connection with the tuskegee normal and industrial institute,
Tuskegee, Ala.
Dr. Halle T. Johnson, in charge.
Tuskegee is a retired little town, situated 40 miles east of Mont-
gomery. It is a typical Southern town, with the court house in the
centre, a few stores on the main street, and cows lazily browsing on
the sidewalks. The natural beauty is marked; gentle sloping hills
covered with grass, tall pines, stately oaks, and an abundance of
flowers which bloom at all seasons of the year, making the air
fragrant with their perfume.
In such an Eden as this are found many suffering with diseases
brought on by non-observance of the laws of health; for this is a
portion of the South known as the "Black Belt," and black it is, not
only with people of this despised hue, but black with disease and
death.
In the vicinity of our school are hundreds in need of medical
attention. Children with tubercular tendencies, sore eyes, various
skin troubles, and in a pitiable condition generally. Women with
faces bearing the marks of pain upon them; faces which testify but
too plainly that life is a burden with such diseases bodies. In the
miserable log-cabins which are dotted here and there over the coun-
try, will often be found a fever-tossed patient, with flushed face and
bounding pulse, suffering in every fibre, but entirely without any
medical aid either in the way of nurse or doctor, parents or friends,
totally ignorant of their condition. Among them the most abject
poverty, the blindest ignorance and the deepest apathy prevail.
There is often the most stolid indifference as to the fate of the sick.
This condition is to be largely attributed to the fact that medical
attention, as a rule, is beyond the reach of but a few. The doctors
charge $2.00 per mile for a visit, and this does not include the
medicine.
106
