The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-12-10
HOSPITAL SORROWS.
a Surgeon Tells 81 Few of Life's Sad Ex.
perfenees.


Queer things happen here almost every
day. - remarked sleek young surgeon at
tached to the Boston City Hospital
"Well, ! suppose SO, assented the re-
porter. you must have all sorts of peo-
pie with ali sorts of complaints to lool,
after
81 don't mean that so much as you
think, reflectively argued the fair isciple
of Esculapius, as he earnestly picked his
teeth; what had particularly in mind
was, that great hospitals are always i'm
mense sepulchres where lie buried i'm
portant secrets and curious life histories. y
Now, look here, " nervously calculated
the reporter, IF you're going to spring
any Mrs. Soutllworth Hidden Hand,
Haunted House, death and gloom ghost
gags on Inc guess it's about time | went
down town and reported TO the city edi-
tor
Don't get excited, my friend; you re in
no danger. don't believe in ghosts, and
| can usually cut off an arm or leg with
out tremor, but I'll OWN that when see,
day after day, poor devils dying all around
me whom nobody knows or cares for, and
am satisfied in my mind that they have
loving friends somewhere who would only
be too glad to do for them if they
knew their whereabouts, it brings cut all
the latent melanchola in my disposition
and | get the blues.
You don't mean TO say that you come
in contact with many cases as sad as yeu
have pictured p
'Indeed, | do mean it. Since | have
been house doetor here there's many IN
unfortunate fellow been carried through
our doors ON a stretcher who never spoke
after he got here. Yon see its this way:
Young men. and old men also, for that
matter, living all through New Eng
land, come to Boston and give way to the
allurements of the city. They drink and
oitentimes are drugged by the giiouls who
are eternally lying in wait for this class of
fellows. Then the stealthy stroke of
knife. a silent rap on the head with a sand
bag Or a dexterous push that lands the
poor victim in the black and chilly waters
OF the harbor, finishes the work. The pa
tients who are sent here by the police in
an unconscious condition very seldom haye
any papers or memorandnms about their
persons by which they can be identified.
The night Lawk ks rob them thoroughly be-
fore they leave them. Thus it is that
hundreds of persons VINO are yearly re-
ported as .mysteriously disappeared are in
fact lying i'll the Potter's field, and their
relatives and friends will never hear Of
them until Gabriel blows his trumpet.
''The mayor of a tariying young West
ern city was brought here one night. He
was dellrious and raved terribly for more
than a week Nobody knew whe he was.
He was well dressed, but all his papers
were gone, and had relegated him in my
mind to the long lists of unknowns. when,
happening TO be in newspaper Office one
day, picked up Western exchange, and
the first thing my eyes lit upon was cut
of the mayor of the town, who, the paper
stated, was a defaulter, and had left for
parts unknown. The picture in the paper
was of the face of my delicious unknown
patient. communicated with the proper
authorities, and when the man recovered
he was returned to his own city. He was
never prosecuted, however, AS the matter
was settled up. He had cpme to Boston
after decamping, went to drinking hard,
and his sickness was the result of delirium
tremens and pernicious drug which had
been given him at a Portland street dive,
where he was robbed.