The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-13

lips, the angry, jealous nght that snone
in his eyes. When she attended the
funeral-for she had really learned to
care for the patient little suffered-she
recalled it all. The slender figure in the
casket was robed in a straight, simple
gown of white, and there were white
roses in the wasted hands.
The husband seemed to read the
question in the nurses eyes, and he
burst forth in a perfect passion OF
grief:
1T stood between us for years-that
stage business. She'd never died II
she'd left it alone, and 1 couldn't bear
to see her in that f1nery. She loved it
better nor she did me. and I hate 1t.
There amt no use in living!"
Now 1t may be that the nurse was
overworlxei and exhausted, but she de-
clares that on the very same night the
white-robei figure walked beside her
in the ward and looked into her face
with accusing eyes. Again and again
the vision appeared until, in spite of
her discrimination to shake off the
idea, she went to the superintendent,
told the story, and was transferred to
another ward. And this is another
ghost that walks for the benefit of
timd 'probs.''
1t was an Irish woman who gained
the soubriquet of BLACK Biddy'' by
reason of her dread of being put out
of the world before her time through
the unkindly offices of the black bot
tie" The latter is supposed by the
lower classes to be kept in stock at all
charity hospitals for the sole purpose
of Fastening the end of incurables, and
no amount of reasoning can convince
them that it is a myth.
Biddy was suffering from cancer,
and in spite of intense agony never
lost her desire to live. She watched
with unceasing vigilance every drop of
medicine that was poured out for her.
always suspicious that it came from
| the dreaded black bottle. She even sus-
pected her food and finally grew so
weak that a malt tonic was ordered.
| The dose was measured into a wine
glass at a time behind the screen that
| surrounded her cot, but unfortunately
she happened to spy the nurse carry
ing the tonic back to the medicine
closet. 1t was in a dark-colored bot
tie.
Instantly the ward resounded with
profanity-and BiCdy was an expert in
| this line. Straight up in bed she sat,
| cursing the nurse and her black bottle
| until the cords of her hands and neck
| stood out like sinews of an athlete.
| Back from her grave she promised to
| come to haunt her
| Befofe the nurse could quell the dis
order which prevailed in the ward and
soothe the enraged Biddy, the unusual
exertion did it's work. A hemorrhage
set in and Biddy died, the victim of
her own fury. But nothing could con-
vince the other patients that the cause
| OF her death was natural. To this day
! newcomers in the ward hear the tale
and watch for the coming. of Biddy at
midnight. And nine out of ten will in
| sist that they have seen her dogging
the steps of nurses and warning them
to beware the black bottle.
At a local sanitarium for the insane
was started a CHASTITY tale which saw
its end at a similar institution in New
| York. At the first named the rates are
su1hciently high to assure the friends
of private patients that the in
stitution is admirably conducted. But
a scandal suddenly arose when it was
learned that patient lying at deaths
door had been fatally injured by an
| attendant. Just before his death the
| PATIENTS reason was restored, and.
raising himself in bed, he cursed the
attendant and vowed he would haunt
| him.
| The nurse was relieved from duty
and the matter quickly hushed up
On securing a position in New York
he was. placed in charge of a ward
containing six patients, presumably
mild, and harmless.
| Just on the stroke of IL, one night.
some unseen influence seemed to stir
| the manics and they became unman-
| ageable. In the struggle that fol-
| lowed the attendant was struck over
the head with a chair, and the blow.
which eventually proved fatal, land
ed in the exact spot where but a
few months before the patient in the
| sanitarium had been struck
The dying man insisted that seven
men instead of six had set upon him.
and that the one who struck the blow
| was the man he had killed
The physicians in attendance thought
him delirious. But when they inves-
tigated the fellows past record, more
than one was inclined to set aside the
! theory of delirium.
While the average female trained
nurse looks upon her profession with
| a most business-like eye cupid some
times enters into her computations. A
pretty girl often finds the hospital
ward but a vestibule to matrimony.
| Some five years ago decidedly pref
| ty young woman took course of
| training at a private sanitarium, and
in due time developed into a fairly
efficient but not particularly gifted
nurse. To this hospital was brought
Tie SUI OL d wealthy ldIIllly 10 De
operated upon for appendicitis. The
operation was pronounced successful
and his convalescence was auspic-
iously inaugurated. In a few days he
began to view with favor the pretty
young woman who ministered to his
needs. In ten days his convalescence
and his Irritation were both progress
ing finely, when, without any warn
ing, unfavorable symptoms set in
and he died within a few hours.
His pretty nurse was completely de-
moralized and had to be sent on
vacation. Her agitation was attri-
buted to affection for the young man,
for the entire staff had marked the
progress of the love affair. But on
her return she developed horror of the
institution and handed in her resig-
nation. Before finally leaving, she
asked for an interview with it's head,
and confessed the cause of her pa
fully for relief from the liquid diet
enforced by the physicians that rer
common sense had yielded to her de-
sire to please him and she had sur
reptitiously given him a piece of
strawberry shortcake.
In the interests of the hospital the
matter naturally was never made
public even among the nurses. Moth
ing more was heard of the girl until
the Spanish war broke out, when she
was among the first to offer her SER
vices. Later came word that through
her very devotion to her work she
had contracted typhoid malaria and