Evening journal., 1897-10-28
$ CHINESE HOSPITALS.
Black Holes Where Patients Are
Killed Instead of Cured.
They Are said 90 BE Private Institu-
tions Run by NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
thing Horrible 10
Witness.

II ever surroundings were conducive
TO I'll health. or a prolongation OF dis
ease, those of a Chinese hospital are GER
tainly meant to be productive Of con-
tinued revenue TO the owner. For, be it
remembered, the Chinese hospital is
private institution run by the under
taker, He Is always on the safe side. If
the patient keeps alive he gets money
for caring for him. If his friends tire
Of paying for his l0eep he is placed IN
the Chamber of Tranquility" and
starved to death. After he dies the
undertaken, that Pooh Bah who has
three offices only, buries him and makes
money out of him to the last.
Imagine q room about ten feet wide
and 10 feet long, filled with the odds and
ends of junk shop. Let this room be
so dark that It takes two candles 10
make light, and so flied with the malo-
dorous smells that are usually met with
In Chinatown dens that strong man
hcsitates before he enters and gasps for
breath after he gets inside. Place half
dozen hunks around the walls and
cauldron 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.
Letthe walls be so fun of rat holes that
the three cats which make themselves at
home on the bunlss with the sick China
men are insufficient to watch them all.
Imagine all this and you may have
some slight conception OF whit the in
terror of Chinese hospital looks like.
If your imagination is very vivid. and
if you have seen Chinese opium dens,
you will get pretty close TO the real
thing-otherwise you will miss 1t. tits
almost beyond imagination.
But the frontroom IS Elysium in com
parison to that other, just back, through
dark hall. There are grades Of dark
ness. the scientists tell us, and these
grades may be found in these Chinese
hospitals. Some darkness can be seen;
some can be felt. Thatin the back room
of this inferno can be felt pnlpably. In
fact, it is present to all the human
senses at once.
1t can be tasted 1t can be heard.
1t can BE seen. 1t cam be felt. That 1t
can be smelled goes without saying.
You stand just within the opening.
which by courtesy IS called door, and
you hear breathing, as if some one were
exhausted after long run. You are
not mistaken. 1t is a man breathing
heavily IN Ills race with death. lie is
Still alive. and you wonder why. Crop
ing your way you reach some stationary
object and light a match. 1t gives Jus.
enough light to enable You to see a
candle on bench and you light that.
Then you feel thatan electric arc light
would scarcely be sufficient to enable
you 10 pierce that.Stygian darkness.
IL is well, perhaps, that you have an
obscured vision. 1t is possible that II
you could see all thatis in the room at
once you too, would be n sick mar. II
is a noisome den where vermin abound;
where rats malle.their home; where the
living and the dead humanity lie side by
side-the one waiting for its coffin and
the other for the cessation of the strug
gle for breath.
This is part OF the Chinese hospital
1t is also part of the undertaking es
tnblishment. This Is the chamber o.
tranquility" and If one couldn't b,
tranquil here lie would be restless IN hi
grave. It's thegrave's next door.-Sai
Francisco Chronicle.