The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-05-09
INCURABLE.
By 1, ZANGwILL.


copyright, 1906 by the Authorl
Cast off among the dead, like the slain that
lie in the grave whom thou rememberest no
more and they are cut off from thy hand
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark
places, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard
upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all
thy waves. Thou hast put Lime acquaintance
far from me- thou hast made me an abcmina.
ton unto them. l am shut up, and cannot
come forth. Mine eye wasteth away by reason
Of affection. l have called daily upon thee, o
Lordi l have spread forth my hands unto
thce.-Eighty eighth Psalm.
There was restless air about the
refuge. In few minutes the friends OF
the patients would be admitted The in
curables would hear the latest gossip Of
the Ghetto, for the world was still very
much with these abortive lives, avid of
sensations, Jewish to the end. 1t was
All unpretentious institution-two cor
ner houses knocked together-near the
east lung of London, supported mainly
by the poor ut penny week, and
scarcely recognized by the rich, so that
paraplegia and vertigo and rachitis and
dozen other hopeless diseases knocked
hopelessly at its narrow portals But it
was q model institution all the same,
and the patients lacked for nothing ex-
cept freedom from pain. There was even
miniature synagogue for their spirit
ual needs, with the women's compart-
ment religiously rallied off from the
mems, as if these grotesque ruins of sex
might still distract each others devo-
TONS
Yet the rabbis knew human nature.
The sprightly hydrocephalous paralytic,
Leah, had had the chair she inhabited
carried down into the mems sitting
room to beguile the moments and was
smiling fascinatingly upon the deaf
blind man who had the Braille Bible at
his fingers ends and read on as stolidly
as st. Anthony Mad Mo had strolled
vaouously into the ladies' ward and,
Indifferent to the pretty, white aproned
Christian nurses, was lettering by the
side of q weird, Ratchet faced cripple,
with stiletto shaped nose supporting
big spectacles. Like most of the pa
tients, she was up and dressed. Only a
few of the white pallets ranged along
the walls were occupied.
Leah says she'd be quite happy if
she could walk like you, said Mad Mo
in complimentary tones "She always
says Milly walks so beautiful She says
you can walk the whole length of the
garden" Milly, huddled in her chair,
smiled miserably.
YOU re crying again, Rachel" pro-
tested dark eyed, bright faced dwarf
in excellent English as she touched her
| f,,a 20 xx-itL II,
the blues again. Why, that page is all
blistered."
mo; l feel so NICE" said the sad
eyed Russian in her quaint, musical ac-
cent. "You sail not tink cry because
am not happy. When / read sad things
like my life-den only am happy.
The dwarf gave short laugh that
made her pendent earrings oscillate. 81
thought you were brooding over your
love affairs" she said.
"Mep' cried Rachel 81 lost toe
young my leg to be in love. No; it is
Psalm lxxxviii that l brood over. I am
, afflicted and ready to die from youth
} up. Yes; l was only girl when had
to go to Konigsberg to find doctor to
3 cut off my leg. Lover and friend hast
thou put far from me, and mine ac-
quaintance into darkness.
Her face shone ecstatic.
Hush, whispered the dwarf, with
warning nudge and slight nod in the
direction of neighboring water bed on
which pale, rigid, middle aged WON
an lay with shut, sleepless eyes,
"S'e cannot understand Englis, " said
the Russian girl proudly.
Don't be so sure. Look how the
nurses here have picked up Yiddishp'
Rachel shook her head inoredulously.
"Sarah is Polls woman" she said.
"For years dey are in England, and dey
learn noding."
''Ich bin krankl krank! krankH'
suddenly moaned shriveled Polish
, grandmother, as if to corroborate the
girls contention. She was squattine
monkeylike on her bed, every now anC
again murmuring her querulous burden
of sickness and jabbering at the nurses
to shut all the windows. Fresh air SHE
objected to as vehemently, as if it were
butter or some other heterodox dainty.
Hard upon her grooming came blood
curdling screams from the room above
sounds that reminded the visitor he wa
not in Barnum show; that the mon
strosities were genuine. Pretty Sister
) Margaret-not yet ndurated-thrillet
with pity as before her inner vision
rosa the ashen perspirinp faca IF tn.