The age-herald., 1900-06-03

no one to distract my thoughts, looked around me while I tainted The room was like a prison cell upholstered, but white washed, and the operating table, sitting in the middle of it, made me uncomfortable. 1 noted the straps at the side to hold the victim down in case he struggled, and the long gutters along the edges for the escape of the blood that followed the knife had a realism about them that did not greatly add to my cheerfulness.
 Nobody had appeared yet, and when I had begun to get nervous and become possessed of a desire to get out and run , away, I was cheered by footstep at the door and an attendant came in and took his stand by the table. He had nothing to say to me, and as he stood there in his
 long white apron, he reminded me so
 strongly of a butcher that couldn't think
 of anything else. Presently another came
 in and took his stand by the side of the first one, and when I had looked at them for about five minutes I lost control of myself, and rising from my cot I cursed
 them up and down and drove them out,
 at the same time asking to see the surgeon in charge. To add to my general discom-
 fort of mind, child undergoing some kind of an operation in the next room was cry ing piteously. My demand for the surgeon brought him instantly and as soon as he saw the condition I was in he read the
 riot act to a lot of blundering nurses and dtleIludHtS anu lldu IUe sent DdCk to Iuy room to wait until he was ready for me. When they came again and I was once more on the cot in the operating room they asked me if I preferred to take the anaesthetic on the cot and be placed on the table, or take it after I was on the table, and chose the latter and stretched myself out for the straps. That wasn't a pleasant sort of thing either, and as felt the thongs tighten my limbs I would have given good deal more than 10 per cent of my salary to have got out into the sunshine with clear track ahead of me. The final question was asked me after the last buckle was tongued, if was willing for the operation to take place | and it seemed to me that I was lying when said l did, but I guess I wasn't
 'The first thing I remembered was the crying of the baby in the next room, and thinking about what my son would do when he grew to be a man. This was about noon. The next consciousness followed the morn- ing after, and ! heard a doctor say to a nurse, He's all right Then it all came back to me slowly, and I began to ask questions, for my mind was blurred, and l didn't know just wht had happened My head was aching as if 1t would split, and
 l was bandaged until I was like a mummy and could hardly move. They didn't let me talk much and din't want to after the first attempts, but I did want the head to
 stop aching. There was no pain from the
 knife cut and I didn't really know I had
 been cut, but the doctor told me every
 thing had gone off right with the operation,
 and all had to do now was to get over
 1t, which I am sure I was willing enough
 to do.
 'I dozed along that day and night,
 and the next morning the doctor was on
 hand, and bit anxious He asked me
 how I felt. and I told him it seemed as
 If had swollen up inside. He said that
 that was the only danger, but if I would
 undergo another operation they could fix
 that all right. I told him I was willing
 to do anything but I didn't want any more
 cutting He said it would not be cutting,
 but burning along the back as a counter
 irritant to the disturbances inside, which
 might begin forming pus and kill me after
 all. don't know just how the burning was
 effected, but I know it hurt good deal
 worse than anything else I had yet ex-
 perienced, although it was only skin
 deep. But then real good burn doesn't
 have to go clean through a man to make
 itself felt However, that was finished and
 was left to rest and the next morning
 felt considerably better with the sense
 of internal swelling gone, and in two
 weeks I was able to sit up, and to take
 a look at the knife cut in my side which
 was nine inches long, and seemed big
 enough to me to drive a freight train
 through.
 q improved somewhat slowly. because the
 thing had gone too far before the surgeon
 got at me- but in less than a month had
 notified my wife where was and what was
 the matter and all about 1t, and six weeks
 later I came home and in due time l was
 well, and haven't been troubled with any
 old appendicitis since, nor will I ever be,
 thank God. The entire cost of the whole
 thing, up to the time I left the hospital,
 was about $500, and there is no $500 on earth
 that would rather have and have appen-
 dicitis. If you don't believe me. try appen-
 dicitis once"