HORRORS OF SILENCE

Feilding Star, Volume 8, Issue 2478, 23 July 1931, Page 7

HORRORS OF SILENCE

KX-SOFDiFFXS j:ndl Li ax cjo NO WOKO FOIL IS MONTHS Krnest George Blair, of Alelbon rne, is alive to-day because of what is probably the most amazing silence in the world. For eighteen months be lay in hospital without speaking a word. From war disabilities Mr. Flair developed tuberculosis of the throat. After treatment at Caulfield Hospital Mr. Flair was sen; to the -McLeod Sanatorium, where many exsol.'liers ai\» now spending the last of their days. 11 is wife was told there was little hope for recovery. Ful there was one small elianee. He was to give up smoking an'l not to talk for IS months—and he did it. Thy days and nights of enforced silence were horrors. At times Air. Blair could have screamed, for, before this, he was a confirmed smoker. His vocal chords were diseased, but to-day lie lias a clean bill of health. **The silence was horrible. I could not sleep, blit l stuck Jt. M said Air. Flair the other day. *’l used to write that I was going to live and my mates around me told me that 1 was an optimist.” Mr. Flair admitted itliat sometimes he would have to leave tlie ward, so great was the temptation to argue with either patients. The doctors who treated Air. Flair say that lie must have nerves of steel. Others in the* sanatorium who were ordered complete silence • broke down under the strain and died.