The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-03-21
"a MODERN JOB"
For Whom Troubles Have Multiplied With
Terrible Swiftness.

81 here goes man who we'll might be
called modern job" remarked City
Physician Pudor, few days ago, as he
pointed to man just leaving his office.
The PRESS man looked at the man,
and the signs of care anxiety and suffer-
ing SO painfully evi dent in his pale,
strained features, were all that we've
needed to demonstrate what the physi-
cian meant by his remark. This is the
mans story:
Last July the man came to Portland
to live, from Maine town. and brought
his family with him. 1t was large
family too; the man. his wife and four
children. They went to live at the ex-
treme end OF the city. and the husband
secured work as helper in iron oon-
struotion work.
For few brief weeks things went
along quite smoothly; the husband man
aging to earn enough money to keep his
wife and brood of little ones comfortable.
The wife, although a woman of very
feeble health, practically an invalid, kept
up. bravely doing her part in the strug
gle to keep the home running. The
weeks Of comparative smoothness were
but too brief, however. and then began a
series of sorrows and trials that have
seemingly leaped over each other in their
eagerness to do their part of the cruel
work that made of his little home home
Of suffering and made the father man
"old before his time.''
First, the son, a bright little fellow
ten years old, fell and fractured his arm
very badly. The arm was set and healed
steadily and slowly under the care of the
physician and the watchful nursing Of
tine mother. The lad was almost we'll
when the strain of this extra care told on
the already feeble frame of the mother,
and she was taken with bad hemorrhages
from the lungs, and went to her bed
very sick woman.
The husband kept bravely at work.
hurrying home from his labors at night
to look after the wants of the little ones
and minister to the comfort of the sick
wife, but it soon came his turn, worn
out with his exertions, and the next time
the doctor visited the house 1t was to
convey him to the Greedy Hospital. where
for long, long weeks he lay with brain
tossed and frame racked by the raging of
typhoid fever.
Necessity is An Underwriting master,
and often makes us seem strong when
we are really weak. The main stay and
prop Of that family being removed The
wife and mother rose from her bed of
pain to try and take her husbands place.
Then the Oldest daughter, about II
years old married a young fellow, per-
haps 10 and brought him to share the
Meanwhile the father had recovered and
was off once more to work for his family.
Then, just as the clouds seemed to be
lifting IA little came a terrible blow to the
family. With cruel swiftness without
warning, there crept in to the house the
horror that the nature of such a disease
and Quarantine" meant to them. 1t
seized one of the smallest children FIRST
then two more, then the remaining two
One of this children died, but the other
four recovered after long Illness. Then
the disease attacked the husband of the
daughter, but he survived. Only
three in that whole family escaped its
ravages. Then the mother, worn out
with Watching and anxiety, was seized
with typhoid fever and was too feeble
to rally.
"Do you WONDER said the city ply
sician, when he had ended his sad nara
tive, "that this man has grown old be-
fore his time? Has he not earned the
right to be called a modern Job?"