The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-08-12
uws rop THE SUNDAY REPUBLIC.

WRITTEN o HI SUNDAY REPUBLIC.
Down near the foot OF Clark avenue, at
one Of the very low house numbers. count
inE up from the Mississippi River, lives lit
tie Ben.
His is not a home of luxury. 1t fs not
even a home Of moderate abundance. Nor
IL little Ben the only child on the premises.
In that neighborhood where children
abound little Ben Is only a mite of the
many. His parents are poor. and his little
brother and sisters share with him the
common poverty of their surroundings.
Little Ben's daddy is a ragman. and has
been one for a number of years. He is not
the ragman to whom they give little boys
and girls that do not mind. If any one
we're to offer a child to Ben's daddy 1t
wouldn't do any good. There are too many
children around Ben's home TO take in ar
uther-and just because it wouldn't mind
and be good.
Ben's daddy has a very sore hand. The
hand has been sore for a very long time.
and 1t makes 1t quite hard for Ben's daddy
to ply his trade Of ragman. One thumb is
gone from the hand and the rest Of it is
at present in a pretty bad way. Little Ben's
daddy doesn't know very much about medi-
cine OF SuIkeTy. Anu 50, csl "eth, "it liz
tied a rope around his wrist to keep the
soreness from going up into his arm until
he had time to go up to see the doctor. the
hand swelled all up and got black.
Two or three months ago little Ben had
the measles. They left him weak. Then he
had the pneumonia and that left him weak
er. And now little Fen has trouble with his
ear. There is a suppuration Of the inner
-L. -la.
The doctor says little Ben's ear drum is
destroyed.
Z Take it all together. with the ailments of
his little brothers and sisters. his daddy's
sore hand, little Ben's suppuration of the
timer ear and the poor circumstances of the
lower Clarke avenue abode. there's a peck
of trouble where Ben lives.
But. with all this trouble, there is still
one luxury of which the family Of the rag
man has been able to avail itself-the lux
ury OF the ST. Louis Polytechnic, with its eff
ficient corps of specialists and medical men.
And any other resident Of st. Louis can do
the same.
Take that rope off and come back mere
at 2 o'clock this afternoon" was what the
resident physician told Ben's daddy when
. he called at the polytechnic one day last
week.
The resident physician. Doctor William J.
Say, is the man all the patients who call
at the Polytechnic have TO interview first. He
listens to their woes and the recital of their
complaints. And then he enters their names
in n big book, In which. since Janpary /.
1910, have been entered more than thirteen
thousand names. The list of names will
likely exceed eighteen thousand by the time
Tho new wear rolls around.
And then, after he has listened to them,
the resident physician gives each patient a
card to be deposited in the pigeonholes Of a
cabinet. the ~pigeonholes being labeled with
certain ella Observation-Disclosures of the
Nervous System Diseases Of Children"
General Medicine etc. On the card is the
patients name. and when the specialist in
whose box it has been deposited comes out
from his operating or consultation room
and finds the card there. he calls out the
patients name and conducts him or her in
TO q private room.
Doctor George NJ. CORN one day last
week found little Ben's card In his box,
where the mother OF the child had slipped