Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-02-25
ONE TOUCH OF SENTIMENT.
The Efforts of the Poor to Save Their Dead
From q Potter's Field Burial.

The Efforts of the Poor to Save Their Dead
From q Potter's Field Burial.
From the New York Sun.
When a person dies in any Of the hospitals
belonging to the city il is the duty Of the off,
cials to notify such of his friends as they know
Of, and to wait at least twenty-four hours be-
fore making any disposition Of the body. II
the friends do not call one Of the various med
ical institutions may get it. or it may be in
TERED in potter's field. Naturally, the hospital
officials are anxious to have the body disposed
Of as soon as possible, but sometimes this desire
is frustrated.
On recent afternoon a coupls called at the
reception room Of Bellevue Hospital and in
quircd about q man who had died there on the
previous night. Both were young, and a re-
sembance in features suggested that they were
brother and sister. He was cripple one leg
being shorter than the other. and looked
sickly. He very poorly dressed as was
also the sister. She was older than he and her
face was scanned with lines that told of priva-
ton. She did the talking for both.
HE was our father" she said in a tired
voice, referring to the dead man, 'and We want
to know how we can get the body
The orderly suppressed sigh as he replied:
"Ill give you the death certificate" he said.
''if you are sure you will take the body away
"les, we will take il, J." said the woman.
Her brother opened his mouth as il to say
something, but she nudged him so hard with
and made him shut his teeth very suddenly.
The orderly looked very dubious, but he Sc
cured the certificate and gave il to the woman
"lou must take the body away by tomorrow"
he said firmly. but not unkindly.
Il WILL" she said, and walked out. followed
by her brother, who looked mvstified
"Why did you insist upon her removing the
body at once, asked the reporter, who had
overheard the conversation.
Because we have a good deal Of trouble
with cases of this kind" replied the orderly.
Il don't believe these people will remove the
body. Not that they don't want to, but they
are too poor to buryit In all likelihood they
will go around among their neighbors, and
perhaps to the alderman and assembyman of
their district. and try to raise enough money to
pay the funeral expenses. Perhaps they will
succeed, but the chances are they won't. You
see, their neighbors are likely to be no richer
than they are, and while they might be willing
enough to help them. it's probable they won't
be able to. As for the politicians they have o
good many calls on their charity. you know.
ut frequently happens that the relatives Of
poor people who die here come and get the
certificates, promising to remove the bodies,
and then never come back. They are unable
to raise the funeral expenses and are afraid to
come back. The worst part of it is that they
keep the certificates, which requires us to make
out duplicates and go through a lot Of red tape
to explain why duplicates were necessary
Some Of these cases are very sad. The rela-
tives know when they get the certificates that
it will be practically impossible for them to use
them, but they hope for some stroke of luck to
enable them to raise the money. l have fire.
quently been surprised at the feeling shown by
people against allowing the city to bury their
relatives. Men and women who are usually in
different to sentiment, and whose lives are
most wretched and hardened, will 20 to any
lengths to keep the bodies Of friends and rela-
tives from potters field and the medical COL
leges. They have a special horror Of the latter
''Some Of the relatives don't deserve SO much
sympathy. They are young toughs and get the
certificates to display to their friends Il 10
mere vanity with them. They usually know,
too, that they cause u trouble, and they rather
enjoy that"