The San Francisco call., 1896-07-08
FEMALE SAMARITANS.
Remains of a Chinese Left Five
Days in a Room With
the Sick.
PATIENTS WHO ARE STARVING
Strong Words of Condemnation for
the Inaction of the Board of
Health.

There is at present existing in China
town in three of the so-called Chinese
Hospitals" a condition of affairs that
could hardly be coniured by the most
powerful imagination. These chambers
of death and isease are located of Pacific
street, between Stockton and Dupont.
The alley leading to them is narrow and
filthy, and the odor arising from decayed
animal and vegetable matter is something
sickening. Forty different odors struggle
at once for the undivided attention of the
oifactory nerves. and each seems to stand
as good chance as its fellows.
Near the end of the alley three doors
are visible. Each of them represents the
entrance to a hospital" One is under
the supervision of the Kwong Chow Com
pany; the next, of the Hop Wah, and the
last of the Men Yung Company.
The condition OF the first, as viewed last
evening by CALL reporter in company
with two ladies, one teacher in Chinese
Mission school and the other a private
tutor of the sons of wealthy Chinese. may
be briefly stated as follows:
After entering the door it was found
necessary to proceed through narrow
passaeeway filled with tin cans, bottles
and foul-smelling rags. This narrow
passageway led into small room. In it
were three small cots, each of which had
an occupant. The only lamp in the room
was q small affair filled with Chinese nut
oil-the kind used by opium smokers.
The first Chinese lay upon one blanket
and was covered by a sheet infested with
vermin. His hollow cheeks and listless
mien told only too well the disease with
which he is affected-dread. inexorable
consumption.
On another cot lay a Chinaman
whose only pillow was a bundle of
rags tied together with q bundle of cord
age. A part of his body was covered with
tattered overcoat. He frequently
moaned as if in pain.
What is the matter, JohnT' SYM
pathizingly queried one of the women. A
thin, bony arm was thrust from under the
coat and feebly grasped long cherry
wood pipe. But there was no response.
The physical wreck was evidently in the
lasI stage of starvation. WeaKened bv his
habit Of opium-sinoking, he had been
forced to seek this vile hole, and then with
no food to assuaee the pangs of hunger,
had slowly wasted away until only skel-
eton remained.
why" snapped one of the ladies in
dignantly, "we brought these poor crea-
lures food when we discovered their con-
dition and left it with them. And we had
hardly left the place when Chinese tramps
entered and themselves ate everything in
l.. i
we discovered It and we had to remain
with them and see them eat the food to
make sure it was not gobbled UP by
Others"
Crossing the narrow apartment she acts
the light of the lantern on another Chi
nese. He was more comfortably provided
for than the others, inasmuch as the
blanket over his body left no part unpro-
tected.
How are you to-night?" she asked.
'Feel bettah now," said the fellow, with
a smile.
lady continued, ''he was nearly starved.
We have gradually fed him into fair con-
dition, but he is still badly afflicted with
rheumatism. The Chinese companies
that run these dens are rich and could
easily provide for their ailing fellow-coun-
trymen, were they so inclined. By threat
ening to expose them we prevailed upon
them to whilewash part of the room. 1t
was something awful to see it before
that"
1t was learned from the Chinese that
they are obliged to get up from their beds
and cook their own food each day; that is,
when there is any to cook. An instance
was mentioned OF one Chinaman who got
up and cooked his food one day and died
the next.
These two women, with no assistance at
all, have been for weeks endeavoring to
alleviate the pain and suffering of these
poor wretches, but they have been greatly
Handicapped by their sex and the opposi-
tion of the Chinese companies.
Where the passageway emerged into the
room stood a board laid across two tres
ties. This was the slab for corpSes. The
ladies state that when they came down
last Monday the slab was occupied. The
sick Chinese said it had been there two
days. They at once made complaint to
the companies, but when they returned on
Wednesday it was still there.
During these five days the body bad
bloated ana putrefied until they could not
bear to enter. And all the time these
three sick Chinese occupied the same
apartment Thursday the corpse had dis
appeared.
a door leads from the passageway into
another room. This door is kept locked.
In it are keptthe bones of Chinese, dug I'D
some time after burial, to be shipped to
China in accordance with the Chinese su-
perstition and there inferred
The hospitals" of the other two COM
panies are occupied by Chinese suffering
from various malignant diseases. One of
them hasa cancerous growth which might
with proper medical attendance be safely
removed. II the man remains amid his
present environments he is certainly
doomed. The sad suffering expression
with which he greeted these female Sa-
maritans was pltiful.
One of the men is almost blind and
totally unable TO help himself in any way
I'VE have repeatedly notified the Board
OF Health OF the condition of these poor,
suffering wretches,' said one of the ladies,
land yet they have not taken step to
alleviate their misery. II was only last
Wednesday that l telepnoned Health
Officer Lovelace about the matter, and be
has done absolutely nothing. We might
as well have no Board of Health