The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-05-05
IN THE HOSPITAL.
A PATIENT TELLS WHAT HE SAW OF
A BAD CASE.
First the Surgeon and Then the Priest
Coaxed by the Nurse-A Broken
Hearted Wife Returning
Vitality - The End.
New York SunI

was heard. Inc cot nearest the door was all
ready, as usual. The sheets were turned
down. The swing-doors were hooked back
A young man, apparently lowering between
life and death, pale and insensible, was
brought in on the stretcher and deposited on
the cot. The surgeons came in with the
stretcher. As George the male assistant
of the ward, passed down the aisle he wbis-
pered: Kun over. Bad case. Hurt inside.
| have forgotten to mention one of the most
indispensable djuncts Of the ward. 1t was
q large screen. 1t was covered with brown
cambria, and looked not unlike a large
clothes-horse. : When extended and encirling
the foot of a cot with its wings along the
sides of the bed, it afforded privacy for three
around the newcomers bed. For some min
utes nothing could be heard beyond few
whispered remarks of the surgeons.
At last a very faint moan was heard The
man was not dead, but the voice was sc
weak and thin that what he said was not in
teIligibIe. A little later the voice seemed to
regain strength, The means would increase
in volume, and articulate words were heard.
Then the voice would die away altogether.
After six or eight minutes one of the sur
geons thought he heard the sufferer whisper
the word priest. A priest was sent for.
The head surgeon of the hospital could not
be found. The ward surgeon tried in vain TO
learn from the patient his name and address.
Not long afterward a priest entered. He had
a whispered conversation with the am
bulance and ward surgeons in the
aisle, and then went behind the screen.
George and Dolly the nurse came out,
leaving the sufferer alone with the priest.
The priest quickly learned the mans name
and address. When the priest came out a
messenger was sent for the Eman's wife. A
Lot
cifix on a pedestal and two candlesticks with
wax condles. George and Dolly assisted the
priest to improvise an altar out of the locker
near the sufferers cot. The lighted candles
were set upon it. and the priest began to ad-
minister the last rites of the Catholic church.
l caught a pax vobiscum once, and heard
him pronounce the last syllable "coom," as
though he had imbibed his Latin at Douai or
some other French institute l caught the
shadow on the wall thrown there by the can
dies on the altar-of
"The waving of the hands that blessed
At last the chief surgeon came in He
went at once to the bedside of the sufferer.
There were groans from behind the screen.
After apparently satisfying himself as to
the extent of the injuries the surgeon put
questions to the injured man, and little by
little learned the particulars of the accident.
The man was q hack driver He had had a
row in the street with the driver of a cart,
and had been knocked from his box and run
over.
"Were you tight3'
a low eyes"
He was the only patient who had ever adj
mitted it.
The chief surgeon then left the ward. The
doctors, as they went out, looked very
serious. One of them shrugged his shoulders
in answer to an observation by the ambu-
lance surgeon. 1t BODIED badly for the pa
tent. Dolly was told to keep hot water in
flannel covered tin cans to his feet back
heart and stomach-he was getting cold
and to give him some stimulant every ten or
fifteen minutes in small doses. The hot water
applications were easy enough-the man
couldn't help himself-but getting the stimu-
liant into him was evidently no easy matter
We could hear at times what was going on
behind the screen. Dolly was evidently on
her knees at the bedside "Come now,
johnny; that's right. There, lay your head
on my arm. That's better. Now, Johnny,
just open your mouth ever so little. Only
one little teaspoon. TIN do you good. 1t
viii, really. Come, Johnny, there's good
boy, Just for your Wifes sake. She'll be
here right away. Come, just for my sake,
Johnny. Come, open your mouth ever so
little"
The words or the endearing tones pre-
vailed. In half an hour a young man and
two women, one about so and one quite
young, both with heads bowed and muffied
in shawls came in. They were the mother,
wife and brother of the man on the cot. All
went behind the screen. The brother staid
there only a few seconds, leaving the two
women inside. The patient had evidently
returned to insensibility. In all my life l
never heard such terribly heart-broken APP
peais: 30, Johnny, Johnny, speak to mel
One word, darling! Don't you know me?
o. Johnny, my own JOHNNY"
The voiGe, broken as it was, was evil
IDENTIFY the wife's. The appeals met with no
response. The whole scene was as distinct
as though no screen existed. The mother
came out weeping, leaving the wife alone
with her husband. The poor creature broke
down in a despairing appeal: 20, my God,
help mel" 1t was about IL p. m. The in
mates of the ward had been sitting up in
their cots in their anxiety to learn what was
going on. When they heard the bereaved
wife's means they buried their faces in their
pillows.
The mother went behind the screen and
brcasnt the wife out As they passed out of
the ward l caught glimpse of the wife's
face. 1 shall not soon forget it. She was
young woman. Her face was the picture of
hopeless misery and resignation. l had seen
that face before, where or when 1 could not
at that moment recall 1t came back to me
that night in my dreams. 1t was the face of
a "Dolorosa" of Murillo's which had kept me
spelibound in Madrid many years ago.
A half an hour or so after his wife's de-
parture Johnny began to show signs of re-
turning vitality, due probably TO Dolly's APP
plications of the hot-water tins and to the
stirnulants which she administered His
voice increased in strength. He yelled loud
enough to be heard in the next block water
cisteTn" water cistern!" He had mistaken
Dolly for Sister of Mercy. He meant to
use the words, "Water, sister"
went to sleep after this. When I woke,
an hour and a half afterward, l turned to
the end cot. The gas was turned low. The
screen had been removed. The cot was
ready for the next occupant While l was
meditating on death, life, rum, grief, folly.
love and a thousand other ideas that the
episode had awakened in my mind, an attend
ant came through the ward. asked, pointing
TO the empty cot at the end OF the ward: rs
that DOOR fellow dead!'
"Dead.7 he answered. IF you heard him
for brandy and water, and saw him doinS
his prettiest to wriggle himself out of his
you'd think he was about the
liveliest corpse you ever saw. Between him
and another Jim jam fellow that thew
brought in late we have got a picnic down
there, We had to cart him dow, stairs or
not one of you could have slept a wink, o.
he's all hunky!'
Rum, Romanism and Rebellion"