The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-24

decisions, in cases of life and death,
that are often, to say the least, re-
markable. Instances where the am
bulance surgeon declines to take a
case on the ground that it is ''just a
drunk" and where the man dies of
fractured skull, are of almost weekly
occurrence. In justice to the hospitals
it is only fair to say that the symp-
toms of alcoholic coma and of fracture
at the base of the brain are almost ex-
actly similar, and that some degree of
alcoholism aften accompanies this
kind of injury. But it would be hard
to find excuse for the Williamsburg
Hospital surgeon who declined to take
a sick and homeless girl into his am
bulance on the ground that she had
"only a slight attack of gastritis";
still harder in the case of a st. Cath
crimes Hospital surgeon, who was
called four hours later and gave the
verdict nothing the matter for when
the girl finally reached a haven in St.
Mary's Hospital she was dying of
typhoid pneumonia. A Brooklyn Hos
pital, only a short time ago, left a
woman patient lying for three hours
in a cold hallway of the building be-
cause there was no cot ready for her
in the wards. When the cot was ready
it was too late; the woman and her
baby died that night. Roosevelt Hos
pital supposed to be one of the finest
institutions in the city, recently had
hurry call from a policeman who
had found a poor woman very i'll in
tenement. For an hour and a half
the policeman stood by; then he sent
around to find out what was wrong.
Nothing was wrong the hospital au-
thoritieS assured him. The motorman
of the new automobile ambulance and
the surgeon on duty were at supper,
that was all. There was righteous in
dignation at the hospital when the
policeman ventured to suggest that
the patient was more important than
the supper. In the course of two hours
they got the patient-too late as usual,
These are not isolated cases. Similar
instances are of weekly occurrence.
Yet nothing is done. The city helps
to support these hospitals, but has no
hand in the management. Some day
a grand jury will take up one OF these
cases and there will be charges of
criminal negligence and a wild howl
from the extremely respectable MEM
bers of society who run the institu-
tions, and undoubtedly ii will hurt
their feelings, but it will have an i'm
proving effect upon vital statistics.
However the Bowery may have de-
Perforated since the days when We'll
land Strong sang I'm Never Go There
ANY More" II is still the backwater
into which drifts the strangest wreck
age OF human kind. One OF the most
noted of its quieter characters died last
week. Capt. William Baker padded
the hoof" along one track too many.
A trolley car hit him and he died a
few days later. after seventy years OF
wandering. For the last five years he
has been notable chiefly as president
OF the Hobo Club. an organization pur-
porting 10 be made up OF hobOs, which
II IN not. It's members are mainly beg
gars, song peddlers, dabsters az odd
jobs, and outworn practitioners OF va
rious bowery arts, who would feel lost
II they ever found themselves more
than ten blocks distant from that busy
thor0ughfare. The real hOb0s despise
them, because they work when they
get chance. But the Hobo club en-
joys Itself IN ~ quarters behind the
little saloon in Mulberry street and
"a hen any member falls behind in his
dues ~ two cents q day, there are
many candidates waiting 20 lake he
place among fhf nifty % which mem.
Dernhip ~ limited capt Baker waa
fhe Organizer nnd the leading spirit ~
thf ofKani1aNQn. Every evening b.
could bf fogne in the little low cell.
tnNfa fo0m. maiofQf0uF ~ haN tobacco
anq siaAs bees, fpotlessiy noaf in his