The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-09-10
CHINESE HOSPITALS.
THE TATTLER.

If ever surroundings were conducive to
il!-health. or n prolongation OF disease,
those OF Chinese hospital are certainly
meant to be productive OF continued
revenue to the owner. For, be 10 remem-
beroi. the Chinese hospital is u private
institution run by the undertaker. lie
Is always on the safe side. III the patient
keeps alive be gets money tor caring for
aim. III mis- friends tire of paying for his
Keep no is placed In the chamber OF
tranquility and starved to death. After
ne dies tho undertaken. that Pooh Bah
who has three offices only, buries him and
makes money out of him To the last.
Imagine u room apJut 10 feet wide and
feet long. filled with the odds and ends
of n junk shop. Let this room be so dark
that 1t takes two candles To make light.
and so filled with the malodorous smells
that are usually met with in Chinatown
dens that n strong man hesitatos before
he enters and Rasps for breath after he
gets insiae. Place half "A doZen hunks
around the walls and cadron in which
some witches broth is boiling in the
corner. Have two Cinnamon to each
bunk in all stages of disease and in all
stages of filthiness Let the walls te so
full Of rat holes that the three cats which
make themselves at nome on the hunks
with the sick Cinnamon are insufficient
to watch them all. Imagine this oil and
you may have some slight conception of
what the interior OF "a Chinese hospital
looks like. III your imag gination IL very
vivid. and If you have seen Chinese opium
dens you viii get pretty close TO the real
thiDg-othcrwise you Will miss It, 1t Is
almost beyond Imagination.
But the front room In elysium in COM
parison to that other. just back, through
"a dark hall. There are grades Of darkness,
the scientists tell U.S. and the grades may
he found in these Chinese hos spitals.
Some darkness can be seem some can be
felt. That In the back room of this in
ferno can be felt palpably. In fact, il is
present TO all the human senses at once.
1t can be tasted. 1t can be heard. IL
can be seen. IL can be felt. That IL oan
be smelled goes without saying.
You stand just within the opening
which by courtesy is called door. and
yoI hoar breathing. rs IL some ono were
exhausted after a long run. You are not
mistaken. lt is a man breathing heavily
in his race with death. He is still
alive, and you wonder why. Cropping
your way you reach some stationary
object and light a match. It just gives
enough light To enable you to see u
candle on n boDoh and you light that
T1en you feel that an electric arc light
would scarcely be sufficient to enable you
to pierce that Stygian darkness.
lt Is well perhaps that you have an
obscurcd vision. /. is possible that II
YOU would SEQ all that is In the room at
once you, too, would be "a sick man. 1t
l. "a noisome den where vermin abound
where rats make their home; where tie
living and the dead humanity lie side by
sidc-the one waiting for its coffin anu
the other for the cessation OF the struy gle
for breath.
Tbis is part Of the Chinese hospitals II
is also part of the undertaking estab-
lishment This is the "cham Der of tran
guilty, and II one couldn't be tranquil
here he W uld TO restless in his grave. It's
the graves next door San Francisco
ChrcniClo.