Smyrna times., 1890-05-21
Hounded all his Life.
THE ELEPHANT MAN" STUNNED BY
EVERY ONE BECAUSE OF HIS DE-
FORNITY-A STORY OF CRUEL
SADNESS.

SADNESS.
We can remember no invented tai,
says London Speaker, that speaks sC
to the heart at once of the cruelty O.
life and the beauty of human compas
sion, as the true story close this week
by sentence in the newspapers, an.
nouncing that Joseph Merrick, the
elephant man" was dead. Imagine
a human soul clothed in a body so un.
speakably frightful that, seeing it.
men turned sick with loathing, and
women tainted; 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
III dark corners like a hunted beast.
Imagine him driven by starvation to
accept shOwman's offer and be ex-
nlOlted 10 the most brutal of audiences
that commonly enough shrieked and
run pell-mell from the tent as soon as
the curtain Was drawn.
Early in 1886 Mr.. Frederick Treves
Que of the surgeons of the London Hos
pital, found Messick in penny show,
in a room of the Whitechapel road.
erouching behind an old curtain and
trying to warm himself over a brick
that was heated by gas jet. Mr..
Treves went up to him not only with.
out fear or loathing, but with SYM
/ pathy. For the first time in his life of
"A years Merrick heard a kind word
and was spoken to like a mau. The
effect was curious. 1t made him
afraid at first He shrank as an or
binary man would from something un-
canny. Then as he began to realize
the truth, he broke into sobs of graft.
tude. Days and even weeks passed
however, before he recovered from the
shock of hearing compassionate
word
The police prohibited his show on
the ground Of public decency. So he
went to Belgium, here again the DO
lice interfered, and where an agent de.
camped with his money. Merrick was
left destitute nnd starving in the
streets Of a foreign town, where the
Ignorant mob thought him a fiend.
He came back to London-how, no
one quite knows. At every station
and landing place crowds dogged him.
Steamers refused to have him on
board. But he came back to London.
because in London, lived the only man
who had ever given him a kind word.
lie made his way to the London Hos
pital, found Mr.. Treves, who had him
lodged for a time in an attic in the
hospital, and determined to fnd a per
manent shelter for him.
But now it was found that no insti-
tuition would receive him. The Royal
Hospital for Incurahles aud the Brit
ish Home for Incurables alike de.
clined to take him in unless sufficient
funds were forthcoming to pay for his
maintenance for life. lie himself beg
ged that be might be placed in the
blind hospital. 1t is hard to match the
pathOs in this plea
Then in November, 1886, Mr.. Carr.
Comm, the chairman Of the London
Hospital wrote the Times, asking help
for this case, and the British public
responded. A room was built for Mer.
rick on the ground floor in a remote
wing Oft hospital, and there, sur
rounded with books, flowers, and a
hundred tokens of the kindness that is |
really quick in the public heart. he
has lived until this last week.
He had found many friends-tbe |
Prince and Princess of Wales. Mr..
Gladstone, Mrs. Kendall and others.
To Mrs. Kendall is due the happy sup- |
gestion that Merrick should be taken /
to see the Christmas pantomime at /
Drury Lane. She engaged the roval |
box she had him brought to the the
atre, and took every precaution that
no strange eye should see him, Hid. |
den from the house behind the cur
tains of the box, the elephant man" /
tasted an hour or two of intoxicating
happiness. It was all real to him
the fairies, the splendor and the lew
els.
Merrick, in spite Of his hideous ex-
terror and terrible experiences, was in
his way a gentle sentimentalist. and
gushed forth at times, under the happy
conditions of his life at the hospital. in
verse modelled on the hymns of DR..
Watts, in which he gave utterance to
feelings of gratitude, the sincereity of
which none ever questioned. It was
a tender heart that was beating be.
meath mask more hideous than that
of OrsOn. Above all, it was a heart
that was filled with love for the man
who was literally his saviour, who
first spoke kindly to him, who rescued
him from a fate a thousand times worse
than death, and to the end was both
his doctor aud his friend. Recently il
was only Mr.. Treves who could thor
Oughly understand the poor creatures
MANNED utterances and to Mr.. Treyes
be clunR to the last with the wistful
trust and affection of a dumb ami
NAL.
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 trust secret Of life, or even
4 half Of it.
The two days session of Delaware