The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-05
A PUBLIC NELL
Receiving Hospital is a
Necessity.
PenriI4ss Pa tents Now Without A.
sisyanCe Many Barred and
Thrown Upon Charity.

There Is crying neeu OF receiving
hospital for Honolulu. and recent de-
velopments in regard to the inability
of many people TO obtain medical SER
vice. outside the native Hawaiians who
are provided for at the Queens Hos
pital. show that charity or public re-
ceiving hospital should be provided by
the local government, and steps taken
to bring the matter before the Legis-
lature With accidents happening not
only in the congested portions of the
growing city, but in the remote sec
lions as well, with rapidly increasing
population making Honolulu a modern
city in every respect, there is greater
need than ever for a hospital where
patients can be received in emergen
cies. and, if necessary, given medical
attention free. At the Queens Hos
pital HawaiianS are received and. cared
tor at the expense of the institution,
but no others are received without
paying. There are hundreds of strang
ers here with constant additions from
the plantations of discharged laborers
of them who are without sufficient
means be taken sick or meet with an
accident where can they be taken TO
and cared for indefinitely until recov
cred without expense TO the sufferer?
As an instance of the state of affairs,
a prominent physician of Honolulu
stated that one night at one o'clock he
was aroused by an expressman who
stated he had a sick man in his wagon
and did not know what to do with him,
as he had called at the Queens Hos
pital and the man was refused admit
lance. Those in charge had stated as
Il reason for their refusal that there
was no room for him. The physician
went out to the wagon and found the
fever; he had been brought from Molo-
kai, and at midnight in Honolulu, ex-
posed TO the dews and cool of the night
had not found where to lay his fevered
ed about the tossing and grOaning man
was his wife and family of little ones,
all hungry and wild-eyed and helpless
in their want and needs, for they had
little money. The picture of distress,
due TO the lack of hospital where the
man could have been sheltered, GER
tainly brings out a dark spot in the
boosted civilization of Honolulu The
physician cared for the family that
night, and at the end of three OF four
days, through the efforts of the asso-
ciated charities, he was finally taken
into the hospital.
Doctor Alvarez of this city has also
had the necessity for q public hospital
brought very forcibly to him by reason
of some Spanish plantation laborers
being thrust upon him for medical at
tention. He is keeping them until they
are strong enough to work. One young
Spaniard, who was brought to the Ha
waiian Islands on the Victoria from
Madeira and Spanish ports, has been
with him for nearly two weeks; he is
an educated man having matriculated
at the University of Salamanca, taking
the bachelor degree of that institution.
Previous to coming to Honolulu he
worked on a Maui plantation; he was
weak in his legs, entirely unused to ag-
ricultural work, and before long was a
fir subject for the plantation hospital;
instead of putting him there, his con-
tract was called for, and later return
ed to him with cancellation of contract
marked thereon ''by mutual consent"
He had little money and came to Ho-
nolulu as a deck passenger, and is now
on Doctor Alvarez hands, having been
directed to him as a countryman of his
He was a very sick man upon arrival
and is yet in a low state. The sewer
contractors could not afford to give
him work as he was not strong enough.
Through persistent medical treatment
Doctor Alvarez has been able to afford
the man great relief, but he says he
should have been in the hospital from
the beginning.
An old man, a Spaniard, nearly sixty
years of age is also under medical
treatment and being cared for at the
Doctors house. He, too, was planta
ton laborer in Kau, Hawaii, and was
good worker. One day he was in
small pit in a cane field when three
Japs in mischievous mood hurled
large stone upon him breaking his
shoulder and rendering him uncon-
scious. He was found some three
hours afterward. He, however, was
given no medical attention and was
taken into a Portuguese family which
cared for him for four weeks. The
plantation gave him no attention, and
he came to Honolulu via Hilo, abso-
lutely penniless, and still in a bad way