The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-03-05

7
she learned the lesson so many have to
learn from the stern schooling of trial
(but few from stroke so CHASTITY and
sharp as hers) that existence could be
cherished. strengthened and fed without
| the aid of JOY"
She did her daily duties, interested her
self in the interests of those about her.
! Then at last, when her parents died, she
Joined nursing sisterhood and worked
in a London hospital.
vi.
1t was the summer of 1888. Ismail had
reigned and been deposed. Arabi's re-
bellion had been crushed and England
was occupying Egypt. She had a hard
TASK TO bring order into chaos, and now
her reforms were thrown back by vio-
lent epidemic of cholera. Since Devil and
| Vera plighted their troth to each other
new Cairo had arisen and boulevards and
wide streets had taken the place of the
groves OF palms and sycamores. But the
huge houses were deserted. The long
colonnades, usually crowded with loung-
ers. dining, or smoking, or gambling,
were empty. The cafe were tenantlesS,
save where solitary waiter covered be-
hind his bar expecting, not customers, but
grim death. Fires were lighted in the
streets and rolled volumes Of smoke over
the town. The dirge-like chants of the
native mourners hurrying their kins-
folk to the cemeteries were almost the
| only sounds audible.
The English had established hospital
for wounded soldiers shortly after the
| war, and call had been made for ex-
| perienced nurses. Vera had answered
the call, and was now once more in Cairo.
! She could not account for the eagerness
| with which fhe read the summons to go
| out at once. Half an hour after seeing the
appeal she sent telegram to offer herself
as candidate, and now pale, gray
=, IL
| Gus girl of thirty years ago as Constance
is from Beatrice, she moved about the
| little hospital which was crowded with
cholera patients, doing her duty accu-
rately and sympathetically from long
| training, hut with feeling of the dream
! mess OF all the surroundings, and an eX-
| pectatlon OF being drawn ever nearer and
nearer to an end that combined to make
| her begin every day with q sort of awe.
But no weird imagination bad fashioned,
and no nightmare vision foreshown, any
! end so dreadful as that which came.
Several English doctors had arrived in
| Cairo to study the epidemic and to treat
the patients. Their attention was
called naturally to the general state
| of sanitary science or nescience in Egypt,
and they had full powers to examine and
report. Among these was a certain DR..
| MARYLAND, who belonged to the London
! hospital where Vera had nursed. He
/ OAs
thinking she was looking over-worked,
| he told her to come at once for drive
with him. They hurried through the
! deserted streets, baking in the hot,
| pestilence-laden air, and, hoping for
! taste Of purer and cooler breath, turned
| Oft toward Abba-iyeh.
| They got clear of the houses. and at last
were fairly in the desert.
do you know what that red building
| is ?" asked MARYLAND.
NO. said Vera ~ have never been
here before, but we can ask that gentle
man. de is an army chaplain, just come
from burying some poor fellow in the
desert"
| They stopped the clergyman, and
learned that the building was an Arab lu-
matte asylum.
II should like to see it,' said Mark
land. 'We viii try and get I'M
They drove up to the gate, which was
shut, but not barred. The porter refused
admission at first. but gave way when he
! saw MARYLAND meant to get in. Then it
| turned out that there were at that mo-
ment an English doctor and high Off
cial compelling the place to disclose it's
secrets. They met MARYLAND and the
| sister III the first corridor
MARYLAND, thank God you have come!
Sir Charles and have just found some
| thing which seems too CHASTITY to be true.
| This place is hell.'
! And it was. In another moment they
! heard from above yells, shriezs and
| laughter, and, pushing aside few quak-
/ ing warderS, went up stairs and entered
| the largest of the wards. There were
lines of half-naked men sitting on their
| bedsteads, some chained, all filthy, dis
| eased and half starved. The stencil was
| loathsoIne, the air fetid. The doctor in
| quired through an Arab interpreter who
! had accompanied Sir Charles some par
| ticulars of the cases, but little was known.
| The patients had all been brought into
the palace five years ago from an asylum
at Bulak now disused. Up to that time
the place had been called the Gem Palace,
and had been occupied by royal Princess
who was now dead. The interpreter
spoke of her with lowered voice and
look around as if he half expected she
would punish him for mentioning her
name. Sir Charles asked if they saw all
the inmates. mo; there was another
| room.o
They crossed and found opposite the
mems ward a similar room containing
about forty women. Here again were
chains, nakedness and dirt. Then came
a courtyard where the less violent pa
tients herded. A sheikh, repeating hun
| dreds of times over one verse from the
Koran, sat in the midst of his circle of
wondering worshipperS, while hideous
swollen-headed boy gibbered and moved
at him. A deformed man twisted and
writhed along on the ground, fancying
himself snake. A huge negro chained
to a tree kept up all day loud, monoto-
nous roar. Again Sir Charles asked if he
| had seen ALL
! Eyes; all but the man below"
Take us to him."
! They went down to the basement story
and passed through several large rooms.
| Many of them showed on the walls
patches of gold and painting, and were
furnished with diyans covered with ma
genta satin once splendid, but now
moldy and tattered. Some of the palace
| furniture had been left to rot in the mad
/ house. AT last they reached a barred
dungeon-eell. The key at first was not
to be found, but after much delay the
special warder, one-eyed Soudanese,
was hunted up and forced to unlock the
door. The room was very high, lighted
| by grated aperture close to the ceiling.
Through this streamed a struggling raw
of the afterglow which was then suffnsing
the Red Mountain with a magic light.
The ray fell on a mans face, very hag-
gard and thin and nearly hidden by an
! overgrowth of white beard and lnustache.
His body was clothed in ragged silk
dressing gown, and he lay on a native
bedstead OF palm twigs. A red leather
cushion from one of the palace diyans
was placed under his head. There were
| staples and rings in the walls to which
chains had been affixed, and the red
marks of letters showed on bis wrists
| and ankles.
''It is a dead man." said Sir Charles.
The doctors felt the pulse.
'sNo-not yet. Send for some wine.D
81 have flask with some brandy.u
The sister had followed them in and
aDproached the bed She hent over II ord