The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 26
717 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
some twenty miles away--a long journey before the days of
automobiles. Bugbee financed a chicken farm, and the venture
certainly lifted the curse of monotony from Ocie's life; but
it can scarcely have lightened her labor, nor does it appear to
have increased her fortune. Yet she was still hopeful when her
letters turned to the tragic theme of her brother's illness.
I have no recollection of the beginning of Bugbee's sickness.
I remember him as a robust-looking man about five feet eight
inches in height and weighing perhaps a hundred and sixty
pounds. I find from his friend Blount's letters that several
years before his death Blount was sending him prescriptions
for chronic bronchitis - evidently Bugbee's own diagnosis. Per-
haps this was the beginning of tuberculosis.
During the winter of 1900-1901 his condition was serious
enough to cause him to take a month off and spend it at Junction.
Extracts from his letters afford a rather vivid picture of this
disappointing vacation. He left Austin on February 18, traveling
by train to Llano and thence by stage to Mason and Junction.
The stage from Llano, in contrast with the traditional literary
coach and four, he described as "the plainest, measliest
little old two-seated hack I ever saw. There were two trunks
behind and that made it necessary to push the seats forward.
I was to sit with the driver. It was impossible to sit looking
straight in front for the space was so limited, so I screwed
around and wedged myself in sideways and rode on my toes.
That's the way I started for a 36-mile drive to Mason." He spent
the night at Mason, which he described as "the quietest, sun-
shiniest place I ever saw." The stage from Mason to Junction
was frailer and more dilapidated than the vehicle in which he
had begun his journey, but the driver was accommodating and
stopped occasionally to permit his passenger to shoot quail.
Any benefit that he might have derived from the visit to
Junction was counteracted by the program of vigorous exercise
which was then considered suitable treatment for tuberculosis.
Most of his days went in hunting, fishing, horseback riding,
tramping, and in inspecting irrigation projects for his friend,
T. U. Taylor, who was compiling a report for the United States
Geological Survey - this was probably the only use that he
ever made of that course in plane surveying on which he made
a grade of 100 in his sophomore year. He returned to Austin26
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946, periodical, 1946; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146056/m1/34/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.