Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1902-10-17
COMMUNICATED.
"I.LANOS ESTACADOS"


"LLANOS ESTACADOS"
The passing of an experience of te
days as patient in the Alexandria Hos
pital is prolific of suggestions which
may prove helpful to some and perhaps
interesting to many readers of the Gazette.
To all lovers of classical story lowering
about the border-land of the imaginative.
Llanos Estacados -"The Staked Plains, "
is certainly charming. Our friend Bish-
op Brown of South Carolina has recently
drawn vivid portrature of "The Staked
Plains" and eloquently inforced the
necessitv of those who are made misera-
BILE by the ghosts of doubts which perpetu-
ally haunt their day-dreams and disturb
their night slumbers, to hasten at once
to "The Staked Plains" where every
thingis mapped out so distinctly that
1.-THE wayfaring man tho a fool need
not err therein" Our present pur-
pose is simply to take the striking SYM
bolism and make the application not to
those who are troubled with mental
difficulties, but who are afflicted with
bodily infrmities to which "man is born
as the sparks fly upward.
Well, to begin. Contrary to all pre-
vious experience, we had recently pre-
monitions of coming trouble sufficiently
convincing to warrant us in calling to
our aid the services of physl-
clan. Esculapius Purvis being our
next door neighbor, and of high
reputation in the art of healing was
summoned in all haste. Full of the
enthusiasm of his profession, and with
countenance as grave as the Bethel
Cemetery, he declared with all authority
that we must betake ourselves at once to
"The Staked Plains" for life was in
the balance, and call that man hast
will he give for his life" The COM
mand almost took our breath away,
for we were not aware that we were in
so sad a plight, but disease is treacherous
as well as cowardly, and it runs while
it smites. Well, concluding that 'to
obey is better than sacrifice" and
remembering the words of the poet.
''He who fights and runs away, may
live to fight another day." we hied away
to 'eThe Staked Plains" and immedi-
atelv discovered that we had not ar
rived there one hour too soon. Now,
Esculapius Purvis is one of the house
hold Penates at "The Staked Plains, "
and held in high esteem by the guides
of that admirably conducted place.
And when we said in our haste, because
he had not knocked out the demon OF
pain by single blow in the first round
on the solar plexus, that we ''put salt In
his porridge," they all exclaimed with
one consent that Esculapius Purvis was
call right" and did not need any salt in
his porridge. Meanwhile we have not
the least doubt but the guides would
make like declaration in regard to the
other household penates who in their
turn serve this abode Of science. But
they were not in evidence in our case.
Doubtless they were on board some
other Brooklyn, to change the figure,
pounding away at some other Christie
pher Colon.
We always had warm side in our
heart for the Alexandria Hospital. We
had heard of its excellent staff of physi-
clans. of it's accomplished matron, of its
trained nurses. But the half had never
been told us. And they know how to do
the trick. Everything in order, and at
the right time. The food just right,
just. t.enough, so dainty, so appetite-pro-
voking. Night and day attention is nm
wearied. Food and medicine admins
tered by the deft fingers of the trained
danes, Had we the power of canoniza-
ton we would place the prefix before the
name of our day nurse and call her St.
John. Certainly she reminded us of the
"beloved disciple.'' How cheerily our
night nurses, Misses Robins and Deboe,
pointed out which was the aqua pura
and the other mixture which nobody
could tell but the pharmacist who can
translate the physicians latin formula.
And Matron Adamson-nothing can es-
cape her watchful eye. While we found
her up-to-date in her knowledge of ap-
piled science, thoroughly equipped foI
the duties of her arduous position, solid
on the temperance question, and fully
hconvinced that the Scotchman should not
take his whisky digito longo, yet her
hvuper-calvanism was not up to the
orthodox standard. After taking up our
already taut theological belt another
hole or two, and interlarding our logic
with clippings from the Geneva school,
and quotations from the Greek through
which produced the Athanasian creed,
she would not say that she believed that
"hell was paved with infant skulls"
But, oh. doesn't she know her business
though ''The Staked Plains" is for
tunate in having such niatron as the
present incumbent. :,
But somebody will say, "You could
not have been very ill and write in this
fippant style" Be not too hasty, kind
reader. Look at human nature philo-
sophically. Remember that our emotions
are so closely allied that they pas;
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