The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-12
A sORROWFUL LIFE.
The Story of the Elephant Man.


We can remember no invented tale that
| speaks so to the heart at once of the cruelty
of life, and the beauty of human compass
ion, as the true story closed this week by
| sentence in the newspapers, announcing that
Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man." was
dead.
| Imagine human soul clothed in a body
| SO uuspeakably frightful that. seeing it,
men turned sick with loathing, and women
tainted; a being who had TO be conveyed
| from place to place in secret; who hardly
dared to venture abroad even by night;
who, finding his fellow creatures ran from
| him, grew terrified by the terror he created,
and shuddered in dark corners like hunted
beast Imagine him driven by starvation
to accept a showman's offer and be ex-
hihited to the most brutal of audiences, that
commonly enough shrieked and ran pell-
| nell from the tent as soon as the curtain
was drawn.
Early in 1886, Mr. Frederick Treves, one
of the rrgeons of the London hospital.
found Merrick in penny show, in room
| Off the White Chapel road, crouching
behind an old curtain and trying to warm
himself over brick that was heated by a
gas jet. Mr.. Treves went up to him not
only without fear or loathing, but with
sympathy. For the first time in his life of
twenty-four years Merrick heard a kind
word, and was spoken to like a man. The
effect was curious. 1t made him afraid at
| first. He shrank as an ordinary man
would from something uncanny. Then, as
| he began to realize the truth, he broke into
sobs of gratitude. Days and even weeks
passed. however, before he recovered from
the shock of hearing a compassionate word.
The police prohibited his show on the
! ground of public decency. So he went to
| Belgium, where again the police interfered,
ana where an agent decamped with his
money. Merrick was left destitute and
| starving in the streets of foreign town,
| where the ignorant mob thought him q
fiend.
He came back to London-how, no one
quite knows. At every station and landing
place crowds logged him. Steamers re-
| fused to have him on board. But he came
to London, because in London lived the
only man who had ever given him kind
| word. He made his way to London hos
pital, found Mr.. Treves, who had him
lodged for time in ali attic IN the hospital,
and determined to find permanent shelter
for him.
But now it was found that no institution
would receive him. The Royal hospital for
incurables and the British Home for In
curables alike declined to take him in IN
| less sufficient funds were forthcoming to
| pay for his maintenance for life He him
self begged that he might be placed In a
| blind hospital 1t is hard to match the
pathos of this plea.
Then in November, 1886, Carr Comm,
chairman of the London Hospital, wrote to
the Times, asking help for this case, and
| the British public responded. A room was
| built for Merrick on the ground floor in a
remote wing of the hospital, and there,
| surrounded with books, flowers, and a hua-
| dred tokens Of the kindness that is really
| quick in the public heart, he has lived until
| this last week.
| He had found many friends-~the Prince
and Princess of Wales, Mr.. Gladstone, Mrs
Kendall, and others. To Mrs. Kendall is
due the happy suggestion that Merrick
should be taken to see the Christmas panto-
| mime at Drury Lane. She engaged the
royal box; she had him brought to the
theater, and took every precauton that no
strange eye should see him. Hidden from
the house, behind the curtains OF the box,
the Elephant Man" tasted an hour or two
of Intoxicating happiness. 1t was all real
to him--the fairies, the splendor, and the
jewels
Merrick, in spite of his hideous exterior
and terrible experiences, was in his way a
gentle sentimsntalist, and gushed forth at
times, under the happy conditions of his
| life at the hospital, In verse modelled on the
hymns OF DIR. Watts, in which he gave ut
terance TO feelings of gratitude, ths sincerity
of which none ever questioned. 1t was a
tender heart that was beating beneath a
mask more hideous than that of Orson.
Above all. it was heart that was filled
with love for the man who was literally his
savior, who first spoke kindly to him, who
rescued him from fate a thousand times
worse than death, and to the end was both
his doctor and his friend. Recently it was
only Mr.. Treves who could thoroughly
understand the poor creatures manned
utterances; and to Mr.. Treves he chung TO
the last with the wistful trust and affection
of dumb animal
1t is difficult to speak of this mans case
without emotion. But luckily it is harder
still to hear of it and believe that the
"struggle-for-lifers" have grasped the true
secret of life, or even half of it.