The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-09-24

young and old, were hurried to q com"ns,
grave, almost as soon az life left them, IL NOT
was no security, riches no guarantee, beauty
no protection.
You saluted an acquaintance in the morn;nox
you met his funeral in the evening. Yon,
transacted business with q friend now. in lou
neighbor called to have a friendly chat: IA "A
ed your threshold, when his blackensd fsoa
writhing in paroxysms of agony, gives Won TO-
horrible intelligence that the plague has seized
him. poor man looks with pride ON his
beautiful child to-day, to- morrow he laws y
little corpse on the hideous cholera cart ana
soen the frightful contortions of his stalwayt
frame prove that he is in deadly grapple with
the fierce pestilence. AS this dismal disease
spreads, the minds of some become so hardened
that compassion for the wretched victims gave
place to an instinct for MISREPRESENTATION, which
dying parents, husbands to fly from plague
stricken wives and mothers to shudder as thew
bent over the cradles of their sick ming
babes!
No sooner had the plague appeared, than the
rohbishop presented himself at the convent.
on behalf of his suffering flock. The Sisters
knelt to receive his blessing, and then rose up
and made the cholera hospital their home No
words can describe the zeal of the Fouudress
Ever at the side of the dying, abe seemed 0like
an angel mid the vapors of DEATH" whispering
viously refused TO be oomforted. She would
| allow no one to be buried till she had assured
herself by. personal inspection that life was
really extinct, would she allow the nurses
to cover the faces of those supposed to be dead
| till stated time had elapsed. These were
necessary precautions. which probably saved
thousands from tate more dreadful than even
death by cholera. For in such violent dis
ease exhaustion, produced by intense suffer.
| ing, might occasion q temporary cessation of
respiration, and give the appearance of death,
which, however, can occur only when "some
organ, absolutely essential to existence, is ire
parably destroyed"
She was very severe with nurses who neg
] lected the sick, or seemed in too great a hurry
| to get rid of the dead nor did she spare some
physicians, who, undsmsyed by the horrors of
the dreadful crisis, thought only of the honor
and who, in their srdor for experimenting,
seemed to forget that their patients were hu-
man beings.
Brandy, laudanum and heating applications
| were the ordinary remedies, and the tired,
| sleepy nurses sometimes evinced propensity
| to solace themselves with the first but they
soon perceived that they could not be guilty
of the least intemperance with impuuity. For
a while the deaths averaged sic hundred day,
| and many OF the patients had to be instructed
in the first rudiments of Christianity: 1t was
| sometimes difficult to rouse them from the
| stupor or lethargy which followed violent
| cramps; but the Foundress and her associates
were indefatigable. They determined to save
the sonls if not the lives of the sick, and no
sooner had they instructed patient than the
| sacraments We're administered. Rev. Father
Carroll never left the hospital till the last YES
1
Catholic clergy We'd with each other in assist
ing the sick.
The presence of the Sisters was of great
assistance to the medical staff. The populacs
! (like the citizens of Paris in the same year,,
under general impression that the doctors
murdered all who died, at first not only refused
they watched the sick who were being carried
| to the hospital and after having robbed the
cholera carts of their miserable freight, broke
| them and hung the fragments into the Liffey.
! Even the venerable Archbishop and clergy
could not prevail on them to send their sick to
| the hospital. When, however, the poor terri
and administering the prescriptions Of the
| physicians they became satisfied, and in little
while their frenzy was entirely Gained.
Protestant patients crowded to the Sisters
and most of them, after waiting vainly for
| visit from their own minister, begged to be in
structed in the Catholic faith. While Catholic
| clergy lived in the crowded wards, other clergy
| could not be induced to set foot in them.
Indeed, if the ministers were self.sacrificing
enough to desire to fulfil their obligations to
| the dying, their wives were generally ready to
/ MAINTAIN that the marriage VOWS were more
| binding than the ordination vows, and the
| theology of the ladies invariably prevailed.
Once, indeed, when the season was far ad-
vanced, clergyman passed through the broad
corridors, and called aloud to inq uire friend
of his, who was sen. in some days ago, was
still alive. nurse politely requested him to
come and see, but sudden panic seized him,
and he fed for his life. The nurse, who had q
wonderful facility for speaking unnecessarily,
was painfully candid in expressing her private
opinion of the poor minister's zeal. Raising
her voice to the squealing key, as he hurriedly
receded, she gave MIN, to the great amusement
of all within hearing, very uncompimentary
lecture, of which only the echo reached him.,
Patients, just escaped from the jaws OF death,
stretched out their heads with ears erect, 10
hear the one-sided argument, aud GONZALES
cents tottered to the doors with similar intent.
| The physicians could not preserve their gravity
and laughter was heard for the first time IN inc
dismal cholera hospital.
From Dean Gaffney's Memoir of the Found
ress, we make the following extract, relative
to her labors in the cholera hospital: " Bat IN
the hospitals, where the cry of the infant was
| wildly mingled with the means of its expiring
mother: where the stout, strong man made
the iron bedstead on which he lay tremble, aS
his wrthing frame quivered in the feaEf ii
its most terrific form, pointed to the purple
features, clay GOLD limbs and whispering &C.
cents of crowded victims, and laughed TO scoIn
the subtlest skill of the physioisn-there, IN
the very sanctuary of disease, what desperate
devotedness would ventures Even there was
the Sister of Mercy, and not only to enter, D9S