The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1889-08-18

to lose his leg and that another had but
few days to live. 1t is only by raking an
interest In ones fellow sufferers that hos
pfta1 life can be made endnrable. would
have persisted of loneliness I'm private
room, aud was told by the superintend-
ent that no one who had ever been in
ward could be induced to take private
room.
You see,v said he to me, ''you get well
all the quicker when you've got some
thing to think of beside your own trouble.
II you are in room by yourself you get
to brooding over your misfortune and tbe
progress of recovery is greatly retarded"
There were not many members of the
Four Hundred in our ward: in fact, there
were chiefly mechanics or laborers of
some sort; but they were all good-natured
thing, bore their snfferings With
out complaint, 1 judged from
my own observation that the Ital-
ians made the most fuss and the negroes
the Least. There were plenty Of Irishmen
there, OF course, and remember them as
the most sociabie and cheerful OF pa
tients. One of these, who was the life of
the party, had been, they told me-. at
deaths door three weeks before and Still
carried in his breast q bullet which had
been lodged there by his brother in the
course of an argument on religious mat
ters. One man, whom remember very
well, occupied the bed directly opposite
mine and spent most of his time reading
the Bible, q copy of which is placed on
every table. AS this man had been q
hanson cab driver, q ticket Speculation
and q policeman, and had followed other
callings not conducive to advanced re-
ligious thought, supposed that he read
the Bible because he mad nothing else to
read, SO / called to him one day and
offered him some novels that had been
sent him
"Much obliged to you, !" he replied, 'but
I've got hold of a better book than that.
I've often heard of the Bible before, but
! never read it till now, and | tell you that
some OF these stories are blamed interest
ing"
Another patient of a religious turn of
mind constituted himself the choir mas
ter of the ward and used to appear every
Sunday morning with little stack of
hymn books which he dealt out to the
patients. Then he would give out the
humber of hymn and Lead the singing in
Il clear tenor voice, the rest of US Joining
in with more fefyor than harmony /
was given to understand that we sang
louder than any other ward in the
hospital
There was young German, not more
than twenty years of age, who interested
me good deal, though 4 never spoke to
him. He was suffering from abeesses on
the side, brought on by oyerwork at a
sewing iudcnlu6. he was very pdt9 ana
weak and failed yisibly from day to day
l used to lie in bed and wonder how
much longer he would live, for he was
worn to mere shadow and was so feeble
that he eonld eat nothing but soup, which
he took through glass tube. One Sun
day morning, while the surgeons We're
making their round, / heard tins young
fellow, whose bed was near mine,
breathing very heavily, and On
looking at him saw that change was
coming over his face. One Of the nurses
stepped over to him and then summoned
screen had been placed about his bed
and we could hear nothing but the low
voices of the doctor and nurse who stood
beside him, and the heavy breathing