The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-07-30
FOR THE POOR SICK.
Noble Unsectarian Work
of St. Francis Hos
pital.
THE POOR SUPPORT IT TOO
How Contributions Are Raised for
it-Pathetic Scenes in the
Wards - Church
Notes.
THE POOR SUPPORT IT TOO

There is a certain breathlessness about
the very word +" Hospital" You seem TO
hear the quick roll of ambulance wheels,
the i~nsistant clang of the bell. the sudden
| jolt and stop, where the street is black
with people who have sprung up from
nowhere. and where you know by the
policeman's helmet in the thick Of the
press that down on the stone at his feet
is the cause of all this excitement,
strangely quiet with all his Importance,
lying very still, bruised. bleeding. You
remember how they told you he was go
ing to ST. Francis Hospital, and how
you shuddered and thought that what
began in such tragedy, could not hope to
be other than tragic to the end.
st. Francis's Hospital means q great
| deal more than a sweet faced sister with
a basket going from door TO door to ask
| you charity for the sick poor. 1t means
more thar a black wagon with st. Fran
cis's name ON the side stopping before the
door of butcher, baker and candlest1ck
maker. 1t means more than ninety per,
| cent. Of the population of Jersey City
have n idea-one of the broadcast and
most far reaching charities that we could
| have, and one of the few points on which
Jersey City has a right to Cherish q
proper pride. In 1870 1t was a small in
6rmary OF a few beds; now, having out
grown its former quarters, it occupies a
perfectly constructed and appointed
situated on Hamilton square aud
with oyer 260 beds. Tho best way to
judge of the extent of its work
Is TO go over the building on
a 'busy day" under charge of a sister, or
if that be too much or an undertaking.
take a paper trip, now. Sister meets
you in one of the little reception rooms
on the first floor. which you nave reached
by passing the waiting rooms, where, II
il be the hour for a physicians visit,
there will be q motley crowd of appli-
cal IL, sll very much out OF repair, nurs-
ing broken heads or bandaged ing r.,
II answering the rapid questions OF a
| keen-eyed medical man. You are to go
to the top floor first by way of the ele-
| vator. the same elevator that took poor
John Doe from the ambulance to the ward
| above. not so long ago, and will
take many more Johns OH the same sor
rowful journey. Arrived at the top, you
look through smaller rooms. all positively
| redolent with cleanliness, with windows
that look out owe the PARK, to where the
| bay lies like a bit OF looking glass. Some
of these windows have a queer. cage-like
attachment, so that you cannot reach the
| sash. aud Sister tells You they are for
| those who develop dementia, or some
times delirium tremens, and must be
| guarded. A step down the corridor. and
you plunge into the thick OF the
is the red n white tiled
! floor, cleaner than wax ever thought of
being, the glass jars and tubing on a
| high shelf, the dome that lets in a flood
of light directly upon the rubber-covered
table in the center, with its single rubber
cushion. At one side is 4 tall ouk cabi-
net. and as Sister opens the drawers, and
you see tier after tier of shining steel in
strumeniS, some delicate as filaments, all
FURNISHED to the last degree of brilliancy,
you begin to be "won to III eyei-iucreas-
ing confidence In the merciless mercv OF
surgery, the cruel Kindness that stabs to
heal"
THE ACCIDENT WARD.
When you go down to the next floor.
you see that for all the room upstairs
looks as if it was never used, it is no
such thing. For you are now in the acct
dent ward for men, aud there is a poor fell
low who knows quite we'll what hat
room upstairs is like. A day or two ago
he was brought here with a fractured
skull and an arm torn off below the ell
bow. Now he is lying with the pathetic
stump arranged by his side, and a great
white bandage swathing his head. II it
be visiI ors' day you will see the wards
crowded with friends, and it will make
you rather more grateful for your W
sOnnd body when you see a roomful of men
with nowhere near enough arms co go
around, some or crutches. some peerinc
out from mummy-like ~bandages, all re-
ceiviug bits of Information from mother,
sister or wife about the outside world,
and munchiug the bit of fruit that is the
usual offering. You ask Sister what there
is In life for a man with his right arm
gone, and she says. "Ah, poor things, its
little they can do" with an Infinite pity
In her voice.
The woman's ward on the same feor is
full of casualty cases, hardly a bed to
spare. In fact the proportion or accident
cases in the hospital is very large. The
railroad men come here. switchmen with
limbs torn away, brakemen pitifuily
crushed. victims of accidents, MANNED aud
mafred. just now there have been many
cases of prostration from the heat, and
the ambulance is kept busy.
The medical cases are on the next floor,
where you will see the two long wards,
several smaller wards almost square In
shape aud "A number of private rooms,
arranged for one or two p~Htients. Those
private rooms, which are found on every
floor, are a special feature, as they repre-
sent the only part of the hospital from
WHICH any revenue Is OOtalueQ. Iney are
furnished III the most exquisite taste, airy,
light and as spotlessly, s~pecklessly clean
as every other part of the Institution.
The fee is moderate and varies with size
and location.
A REMARKABLE CURE.
If you shonld step into theicourt below,
and look up the side of the building, you
would recall what youehad heard about
the hanging gardens of Babylon, and
wonder whether they wee here. But it
is only the, piazzasa formed by the broad
fire escape landing where srne' patients
sit and breathe the fresh air winene YER,
they can lsave the wards. Itswas on one
of these that I saw Mrs MafgRtet Mo
CHM. of Grand street. who deserves 70
be mentioned as one OF the mosU4semArk-
able caseslon record at, tile sHospltaf.3asOn |
week ago last Thursday she watsiadinittef
suffering from an aggravated case of
locljaw. SO serious that her body was |
perfectly rigid. her throat constrfcted |
aud her hands bent anti. stiffened ltke-4
claws. 1t was impo ssibIe to bend her
joints, and the attendants stood her erect
when it was necessary to force liquid
food between her teeth. A week later
she could walk, talk aud eat and now
seems on the rosd to sueedy aud COM
plete recovery. Mrs. McGinn Is 4 pretty,
fair Injured little w0mau,S whose puIlld