The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-12-08
MUVE IL.
The Salvation Army Hospital
Is Too Close
To the Residences of Citizens
and Should Go.
A MORE SEQUESTERED
Site Would Be Better For the
Institution.
Story of SpitewOrk That Spites
Only Innocent People.
A MORE SEQUESTERED

Nothing has yet been done to rid the
people near the Salvation Army hos
pital of the nuisance. Unless some de-
cisive steps are taken by the city au-
thorities the hospital will not be moved
to a more isolated location as it should
be.
The location of the Salvation Army
hospital is Indirectly the result of spite.
Spite House" might not be an inappro-
pirate name for the institution. 1t is
unusual to have a hospital located but
a few feet from residences and in one
of the best residence portions of the city
and it would never have been placed
there if H. D. BoOge had not had trouble
with mortgage company.
A few years ago Mr.. BoOge was one
of TOpeka'S rich men. 1t would require
at least six figures to express the value
of his holdings. 1t was while at the
zenith of his prosperity that he built
his family mansion near the corner of
Sixth and Clay streets. 1t was a large
ana rOOmy house and just the kind of
home for man with plenty of money.
Mr.. Booge left his old home which faced
on Sixth street and moved into his man
sion.
Then came financial reverses, just as
they came to hundreds of others, and it
was necessary to mortgage the home.
Things got worse instead of better and
Mr.. BOoge finally found that all his
wealth had taken unto itself wings. The
crash came while he was out of the
state and he returned to Topeka to try
to start anew. He still lived in the big
house on Clay street where everything
was just as he wanted it. Finally the
mortgage company began to demand
payment Mr.. BOOge could not pay and
foreclosure proceedings were commenced
and the owner of the mansion found
himself compelled to abandon it and
move into the old house just back of it.
There was no barn with the old home
which Mr.. Booge saved from the wreck
and he made proposition to the mort
gage company to rent the barn which
was on the lots with the lost home
The company refused to have any deal
lngs with him. Then Mr.. BOOge found
a means OF revenge. He bought lumber
and hired carpenter and built shed
stable Hush with the sidewalk on the
Clay street end of his lot and but a few
feet from the front door of the home
which he lost on the mortgage.
This made the conditions such that
no one cared to rent the big house. It
stood vacant for a long time and then
the loan company found a way to even
up matters. A proposition from the
salvation Army to rent the Booge house
for a hospital was received at a low
rent. To start a hospital in the house
adjoining the old BOoge homestead was
not very pleasant thing for the man
who owned the house and the trouble
some stable and so the proposition of
the Salvation Army was accepted.
Mr.. Booge has been punished, but in
playing even" with him the company
has made it uncomfortable for many in
nocent property owners. A man who
owned his property in the neighborhood
could not move away and he has been
compelled to submit to the outrage
A physician who lives not far from
the hospital said in speaking of the
controversy that has arisen: 1.-THE peo-
pie have good reason to complain
known of my own knowledge that alb
sorbent cotton which had been used was
thrown into the alley and allowed to
blow into peoples yards where children
were at play. No one knows what dis
ease may have been communicated bv
this means
My family had been a regular con-
tr1butor to the hospital until one day
when paid visit to the institution
found it in such a filthy condition that
l was disguised and ordered the CON
trIbut1Ons from my household to cease
"A hospital should not be located in
a th1ckIy. settled community. That
would ne no place for it if it was kent
up properly. know that women have
been kept there who screamed all night
and made it impossible for the peOple
living near the place to sleep. 1t is time
that something be done"
The city board of health has been
instructed to make an investigation and
report, and it is hoped that Mr.. Booge
and the mortgage company will declare
a truce and allow the hospital to be
taken to better location. Mr. Booge
certainly will.
Eli G. Foster, principal of Harrison
school, who owns and resides in the
property adjoining the hospital on the
south and has a family of small chill
dren, says that he has been on the
point of abandoning his home and NOV
ing into some other portion of the city.