The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-16
ACTION RATIFIED.
C0uncilApprOVes Establishment
of Detention Hospital.
Selection Of Fourth Avenue
Hotel Will Stand.
PROTESTS UNHEEDED.
DR.. Peers Explains Troubles Of
Board of Health.
Says There Must Be a Place For
Afflicted Homeless.

The detention hospital for homeless
chickenpox patients will continue to be
at the Fourth Avenue hotel, notwith-
standing the protests of residents of
that part of the city. It will remain
there for the simple reason that there
is no other place obtainable for it.
Property owners and rental agents will
not rent any other building to the city
under any consideration to be used as
a. chickenpox hospital
The matter came up before the city
council in two different forms last
evening. One was a recommendation of
the board of health that a detention
hospital be established, and the other
was a protest against establishing the
hospital in the Fourth Avenue hotel.
signed by ISL residents of the Second
ward. There was also a protest against
keeping chickenpox patients at sos
Chandler street.
Mayor Drew requested the presence
of City Physician Peers and DR.. Ag-
mes Mckee Wallace, of the city board
of health, when these matters were
considered in order to state the posi-
ton of the board of health.
When the two protests were read DR..
Peers said:
when the board of health appeared
before the council some time ago to
consider what should be done in re-
gard to this epidemic the council told
us to do what we thought was right,
so long as we did not establish a pest
houSe-we were not given permission
to do that. We have been acting in &c
cordance with this permission. Wher-
ever we thought a family would obey
the quarantine regulations we have not
kept guards over them all the time, but
when we thought people would violate
the quarantine we have kept both day
and night guards over them all the
time.
This has done for people who were
taken with the disease in their homes,
but it did not provide for those who
We're taken sick in boarding houses or
hotels or in the streets. Something had
to be done with that class of people.
We had no pest house or hospital where
we could send them. We searched the
city over and went to the places where
they had the disease, and asked that
we be allowed to bring in others who
had it, agreeing that the city should
pay well for it, but we could not find
anyone who would take them in.
1.-Two weeks ago I received notice
that man was down with the cpl
demic in the back part of a commits
sion house in the city. The next day
a man in a boarding house on Tenth
avenue was taken down. There were
80 or 40 people accommodated by the
boarding house, and it would have
worked a great hardship on them to
have been Quarantined. Mr.. PattiSon
and myself spent two days in hunting
over the city trying to find a place to
take these men. Towards evening OF
the second day we came to Blind
Joes' house at sos Chandler street.
Joes wife and his boy and girl were
just coming down with the disease, and
he agreed to let US bring the men
there. 1t was a story and a half
house, the upstairs was not finished,
and it wasn't the sort of a place for
sick people, but there was absolutely
nothing else to be done, SO we took
them there.
1.-The next day my telephone began
to ring, and this is about what I
heard: What do you mean by estab
fishing a pest house down here in my
neighbornood. You needn't think just
because I am a labOring man you can
impose on me. 1 won't stand it'll
see what can be done about this thing,
and I'll have it stopped Z went down
and talked to the men, but itdid no
good. Why don't you establish a pest
house?' they said.
1.-THE Fourth Avenue hotel was in
fected and it is also isolated. 1t was
already furnished, and the mayor and
secured it for the purpose of taking
homeless people there who could not be
left in the streets and whom the city
had to provide for. The next day the
State Journal published the fact, and
the trouble began again. The prin-
cipal trouble was that men who do
that the hospital would turn people up
some other street and 1t would injure
their business.
LAS for establishing pest house out
side of the city limits, dent believe
the city has any right to do it. The
people on the outside of the city can
kick as we'll as those inside, and be-
Iieve the city has to care for its sick
inside the limits.
I'VE removed two persons from
Blind Joe's' place. but there was one
who was too sick to move, and he is
still there.
1.-THE Fourth Avenue hotel can be
used with perfect safety. The author1-
ties all say that if there is twelve feet
of open space it is sufficient to kill all
germs, and there is no building closer
than 60 feet to the hotel. On the east
and north there are open streets, on
the west the nearest building is a coal
office, 125 feet away, and on the south
there is no building clear across the
width of the block. 1t would be diff
cult to find a better place in the city
for the purpose. 1t IS already IN
fected, and is also furnished 1t seemed
to us to be a very oppOrtune place to
take those who had to be taken some
where 1t is not a pest house-a pest
house is a place where every case IS
taken in time of an epidemic. We do
not want to establish a pest house, but
only want a place to take those who
have no homes to go to- There would
not be many people there If a hospital
was established on the outskirts of the
city and a man should become very
sick before being taken there what
effect do you suppose it would have on
him to haul him two or three miles IN
an ambulance over a rough road?
Councilman Morgan spoke very en-
phaticalIy against allowing the Fourth
Avenue hotel to be used as a hospital.
He wanted a pest house established and
every ehickenpox patient taken to it,
by force if necessary He argued that
many people come into the city over
| the Santa Fe tracks on Fourth street.
Nand having the hospital there might
spread the disease
THE city owns ten acres of ground
mile or two out east here somewhere,
and why cans pest mouse be built out
there q" asked Mr.. Morgan.
IF Mr. Morgan had ever been out
there and seen that place. said Mayor