The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-09-02
GOOD WORK BEGUN.
Ambulances and Bath Houses for
the Worlds Fair City.
Society Women Concerning Themselves
In the Interests of the Peopie-Improv-
Ing Conditions on the Water Front
- The Memorial Coins.
Especial Chicago Correspondence

brought to the county hospital in a
wounded condition fully one-half lit
orally bleed to death.
1t is a broad and alarming statement,
but the physician claimed to be famil-
lar with the facts, and backed up his
assertion with reasons. In most cases
of accidents with which the police have
TO deal blood flows freely and the most
important thing in giving immediate
temporary relief is to stop the hem
orrhage. Instead of that in most cases
the first to handle an injured person
are some police officers who have not
the slightest idea how to proceed, and
if they had the idea, have not the
means wherewith to carry it out. So
far from relieving an injured person
they will frequently compel him to
climb into the patrol wagon and there
often make him SIT up on the hard
seats. Then follows a ride, sometimes
of miles over rough pavements and on
a vehicle not at all built with view
to comfort, and by the time the county
! hospital is reached the sufferer has lost
so much blood that he is too weak to
undergo an operation or any of the
other things necessary to put him in
the way of recovery.
a beginning has been made towards
remedying this evil and giving Chicago
| what no city ought to be without,
namely, an ambulance relief service.
| "A handsome ambulance wagon has
been constructed which is quite pre-
tentious looking arrangement. 1t
| has a handsome black top; the body of
! the wagon has panels in red and blue
and bearing the words: ''Patrol, Po-
| lice Department" Inside there is sus-
| pended in straps a stretcher with a
! spiral spring at either end, preventing
any very serious jolting or swaying in
| either direction.
This ambulance is a great improve
| ment. But there is no relief corps of
/ trained men to go with it. And what
( is one wagon for city of one million,
| five hundred thousand inhabitants and
| covering one hundred and seventy-fve
! square miles of territory? But it is all
coming. The beginning has been
made, which is always the most difficult;
the rest will follow. For the worlds
| fair there will be an extensive relief
and ambulance service organized.
This will be confined to the worlds
fair grounds, but it is hoped it will
form the nucleus of similar service
for the city of Chicago.
This reminds me again of the old
saying that one has t. go away from
home to hear the news 1t was through
a Vienna paper that 1 learned that an
emissary has been sent TO Europe by
the boards of health of the state of Hi
nois and the city of Chicago for the
purpose of studying the sanitary pro-
visions of the principal cities with
view of adopting the best among them
for Chicago. Among other things this
emissary-Dr. Lewis was his name,
thinll--studied the life saving and re-
lief corps of Vienna, which has served
as a model for many other cities
The ambulance for the city of Chi
cago is the work of few women. Not
in the sense that the wagon was built
by female labor, but the municipal
authorities were induced by the reso-
lutte efforts of few women to make
this provision for injured persons. 1t
is one of those matters in which all
men like to see women engaged, wheth-
er they are believers in what is called
womens rights or not.
! use the word women purposelv. |
don't like the word ladies. OF course
the women who did this work are la-
dies. But, above all, they are women.
1t always seems to me that if woman
tries TO be Il woman she has enough
work to fill her life comfortably. even
As man has enough to do if he lust
simply tries to be a man. This in ex-
PLANTATION OF the use of the word women
when speaking of the persons referred
TO, some of whom belong to the best
society of Chicago
Another noteworthy achievement by
these women has only lately been
brought about. They have secured one
free bathing place for boys.
1t may appear strange to people not |
accustomed 20 Chicago to be told that |
with a water front of twenty-four
miles and the finest sheet of fresh |
water imagina bic there has never been /
bathhouse or any bathing along the |
shore of Lake Michigan. There is |
slight modification required for this (
statement. There used TO be a couple !
of shanties at the foot of Illinois and |
Indiana streets where you could bathe, |
but very few people knew of them and /
they were away beyond the ordinary |
walks of citizens. To say that there |
has been no bathing is also not quite |
correct. There was always more or /
less-generally less-but it was always 4
by stealth. Boys who went in did so |
at the risk of being arrested, for there 4
is n city ordinance prohibiting bathing I
along the water front. And why? Be /
cause somebody's modesty might be /
shocked. That is the only reason. And /
for that reason thousands upon thou |
sands of boys and mel, and girls, too, |
for that matter, were prevented from |
seeking refuge from the heat of sum /
mer and the fumes and dirt of the city (
in the cooling and cleansing waters OF /
Lake Michigan.
1t is not only question of comfort. /
If we ever get plenty of public baths | 1
am firmly convinced the death rate /
will diminish and epidemic or cpl |
demic diseases will find much /
more limited field of operation in this
city. for cleanliness is the greatest
conservator of health next to rational .
food.
From this point of view the women
above referred 10 are entitled to the
everlasting gratitude of the people of
Chicago. They have at last succeeded
in obtaining permission from the city
TO establish public bathing place for
boys at the foot of Chicago avenue. 1t
is time. There remains good deal of
prudishness among some people who