The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-06-23
MaudIin TWaddle.

| Maudlin TWaddle.
| The yellow fever was at its worst in Memphis
when an unprepossessing man, coarse of feature
and SCARED of face came to the Relief Committee
and asked employ ment a nurse. The doctors
scanned the common clothes and hard face and
said mo. you would not do" Try me-" was
the plea. IF don't suit you need not pay
me-" what is your manner" the physician que
ried. John" John what?' Never mind the
rest. Call me John" With secret misglvings the
homely man was sent out. Never was nurse so
faithful. so helpful so patient! Over the beds Of
the dying the plain face was wondrous kind. and
the steely eyes softened. Johns ministrations
brought physical relief and spiritual comfort. II
cannot understand God" he said. but l know
Christ WE'LL" For few hours after wages were
paid John was missing. Fearing some evil deed,
watch sent. The follower John look fur
lively about in the darkness. then thrust his
wages deep down in the corner of the street relief
box.
The plague had abated when John sickened and
died. Then the secret of his life revealed
his body bore the livid brand of covct.
Greater love hath no man than his."-Prison
Light
According to the Light the proper course
for a convict when released, is to rush into
the midst of an epidemic, nurse the sick
month, give away his wages. smile sweetly
and then die.
If this is the case we had better all 60 up
in body to the hospital and die now.
When man has struggled day after day
for years to pay off the debt he owes to the
state and gets back his life and liberty once
more. he will not hold it so lightly as to go
unacclimated into a pest stricken city and
adopt the role of "JOhn;" and if the zebra
that edits the Light were any judge of hui
man nature, he would know this without
being told. One who has passed through
an epidemic will smile at the idea of the
doctors scanning Johns clothes. Men
who have not undreSSed or lain down for a
wink of sleep for weeks; who are only en-
abed to keep on their feet by drinking
great draughtS of brandy, and who walk
with heavy tread and bOodshOt. sleepless
eyes from one death bed to another, don't
stop to ''Scan" a nurse at a time when
nurses are so scarce that horses and mules
would be accepted if they could hold
spoon or give mustard bath.
1t is also hard to understand how John"
could administer spiritual comfort" to
yellow fever patients when they were in
delirOuS condition. their temperature kick
ing about at LOG. 1t is not the less remark
able that John" should have put his earn
ings into street relief box" much as he
would have dropped letter into a mail
box. at time when banks were pillaged
and stores broken open in broad daylight
by the starving wretcheS who could not get
out OF the city because OF the shot gun
quarantine. and who could do nothing in
side as all the factories had shut down. 1t
is also deserving of mention that the ''livid
brand of convict should have been dis
covered on the corpse of man who died
from the effects of a disease which discolOrs
the body with dark blOtches before death
sets in; and this, too. when BalZac tells us in
'Pere GOrot' that it is only by striking
convict sharply on the shoulder that the
brand can be brought out for moment in
faint characters.
Then, too, the Memphis papers would
have had something to say Of John" At
the junction of the two most prominent car
rage drives in Elmwood cemetery is a
nameless marble shaft. AT it's summit
hOvers life size angel, holding in its hand
crown, and on the base are chiselled the
simple words. ''She died for u.s." Beneath
it rests the ashes of one who, before the
fever came, was not recognized as a good
citizen of Memphis. But when the yellow
the Reaper were heard she sent all of her
old associates away from danger. and
throwing open her doors to the Howard AS
ISOLATION became another Florence Nightin-
gale. Husbands and fathers who had often
frOwned as they passed her lighted win
dOws on the way home to loved ones. had
never thought to cross her Threshold; but
when those loved ones were far away in
the mountains they were nursed back to
life in those glded halls or borne silently
out of them TO that dreamleSS sleep that
kisses down their eyelids still. She died.
but-''nOn omnis mOriar"'-she did not
wholly die. Heating and Mathes and the
"Old man of the AvaIanche" kept her men,
DRY alive: and they would have done as
much for John. THE Prison Trusty.
"Faint heart never won fair lady," or
conquered difficulties. or achieved glory;
but insOlent assumption is more cOntempti-
BILE than lack OF moral courage. Be deter
mined, fearless. energetic--nOt impudent.
Stick up for your own rights with all your
SOul and with all vOnr STRENGTH hut never