The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-21
The Patients Are All Boys" and
They Love Company.
WITH INMATES OF BUENA VISTA
A Weakness for Pie-The Labor of
Mrs. Hughes Names for
NurseS-Home Longing

written for the Saturday Advartiser.)
Companies of the First New York
Volunteers have left us, and as ship
after ship has sailed out of the harbOr
bearing hOmeward the boys who have
dwelt in our midst there has been a
feeling OF thankfulness. The familiar
alohas have carried heartfelt God
speed for the boys were off TO home
and safety, off 10 where the yawning
jaws of hospital no longer threatened
TO close upon them. The Military Hos
pital on King street is closed and the
past few months with its weight of
sympathetic interest in the soldier boy
is changed into the happier present
with pictures of his welcome home.
But there are still one hundred and
twenty-five sick soldier boys in Homo
lulu. In one big ward, both long and
broad, are the boys who are left behind.
The boys who are going on the 24th,
the boys who hope to go on the oath,
and the boys who know they are not
we'll enough TO harbor thoughts of
home just yet. And they are all to-
gether at the Military Hospital ON Nuu-
anu avenue. If there is anything in
the adage: Misery loves company
surely it might be exemplified at the
Buena Vista Hospital.
There is every kind of boy, from those
OF whom a fond mother would plead;
boys will be boys right through the
gamut of boy characters. And each
one of those boys, different though
1nI n
now; they all long for company" 1T
relieves the monotony," they declare,
And so they welcome a visitor with a
fiattering warmth.
Sit down" says one boy, as he mo-
tons you to a seat at the foot Of his
bed, 'Ah, now you look as though you
were going to stay. Do you belong to
the Red Cross, or did you just come
by chance? Well, as long as you are
here it doesn't matter how you came.
Don't hurry of, begs another, sit is
so nice to see you. Will you come soon
again? Never mind bringing us any
thing; only just come"
Only Just GOMEZ That is the SEN
timent of these boys away from home
| They long for a sight of some one from
the outside world.
They have another sentiment in
common-the volunteer. There is not
one Of them who will ever be a vOlun-
| teer again. Much has been said anent
the regular and the volunteer. Mater
| ial for volumes is awaiting the en-
qlurer at the Buena Vista Hospital
Would they enlist again? Yes, if THEN
| country needed them, but-not as {
| volunteer.
| There is still another sentiment il
common among these boys-PIE! Pie
| has laid a number of them low There
are some who are afraid of it; thert
are others who would brave death fol
| it. There was one boy who did. He
was convaIescent and progressing fav.
Orably on a safe diet. But the diet was
too safe to be satisfactory to the hear
or the stomach-of a boy. SO he
made, as he expressed it, "a sneak fOl
pie At a Chinaman's across the
street he bought one of fair size anC
of a taste, the unholy joy of which is
known only to forbidden fruit. He had
a relapse and raved of pie. They
pulled him through and he said that
pie was no joke They felt that he
had profited by the hard lesson; and he
| had.
But the boy in the next bed only saw
the relapse; he had not been the suf-
ferer, so he too patronized the China
man across the street. They pulled
| him through. too: and the boys say
that this is a good thing for the pie
business. Boys will be boys, and
the others-those afraid of pie-havs
relapses on pineapples, or other eat
ables equally dangerous to a typhoid
| cOnvaleScent. A lieutenant in the En-
gineer Corps, whose life was dispaireC
of, but who was saved through the de-
voted nursing of a young wife who
followed him TO Honolulu, has just haC
a relapse from eating canned corn
How he got it is one of the mysterie:
lpuZzling the Buena Vista Hospital. !
Typhoid convalescent is so hungry tina
future sickness fades into insignif
Iicance when there is the present TEN
ptatiOn of a fayOrite dish.
There was one patient who did no
plead for forbidden dishes. \ dOcile
quiet, accomplishing, satisfied youn;
fellow. His nurse wondered why hi
mouth was so often black about tn
lips and tongue, but he was desperatel
i'll and she put it down to bad phas
of typhoid. When he died plugs Of to
baccO were discovered under his mat
tress. He had chewed himself into
peaceful end. The ruling passiO
= strong in death
But it is not every case that has
relapse. There was young Riley:
gOOd-lOOking. frank-faced, dark-eye
boy of whom his companions say
Riley has the gift of CAB" His Wa
a hopeless case" the doctors ha
given him up; around him was tn
screen which told the story of an Ell
bling life: poor Riley was beyond ic
sponges; there was no remedy left ur
tried and every remedy had failed.
When Riley dies We will change tn
beds on his side of the room" 'Whe
Riley dies there is a malaria patient I
be moved into Ward B.. when Rile
dies was the pivot upon whic
hinged every event in his ward.
But Riley lived to tell the tale an
TO laugh and joke over the Rifle
pivot"