The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-01-09
AT PEST HOUSE.
What a Visit to the Prescribed
Place Disclosed.
Building Is Substantial and Not
Uncomfortable.
THE FIRST PATIENT.
w. H. Damn, of AtchisOn, Is
Installed in the House.
Fast Work Done to Get the
Building Ready.
THE FIRST PATIENT.

in the way of sensations. You're not
afraid of course not.
Thursday afternoon a State Journal
reporter took a whirl at the pest house.
He went right into the sick wards,
hirted with the smallpox germs, gossip
ed with the inmates, engaged accom-
modations for some future date. and
came back to town. He is still at lib
erty but the health officers are said to
be on his trail.
That all happened Thursday. Today
that same reporter would not repeat the
trip for a years salary all paid in a
bunch. Another man is in possession
Of the place, and he can have it all his
own way. for his name is Damn. and
he's got the diminutiVe pox-
It seems quite appropriate that the
first man to move into the new pest
house should bear the picturesque
name of Damn, W. H. Damn. Yes
terday the new pest house was clean,
wholesome and undehled. Today 1t IS
infected, blasted and accursed. Damn
is there. Damn brought the smallpox
along, and he brought it from Atchison,
which makes the situation still worse
If there is anything worse than lep-
rosy it is smallpox born and bred IN
DIT Boyle. up at Atchison, dia gnosed
Damm's sickness as "a form of eczema
Eczema is against the law in Atch1son-
So the unfortunate Damn was slam
senger car was hustled to Topeka Pub
lie sentiment in Atchison is as strong
against eczema as it is against being
sober. To be a good citizen OF Atchison
a man must contribute to the Corn
Carnival keep his mouth shut about
morality and leave his eczema at
home. If anybody is caught with
eczema he is kicked out of the hos
pitable" gates of Atchison to the hos
pital" gates of Topeka, and whether
his name is Damn or not, that is the
title which is applied to him by the
splendid rum-soaked municipality OF
Atchison-
W. H Damn is a nice man IN spite
of his name and Topeka is sorry that
in the time Of his misfortune, Atchtson
turned him out and shut. its doors.
Mr. Damn has the honor of being
the first man TO occupy the new small
pox hospital. Damn is q Santa Fe OPP
orator employed at Atchison. As soon
as AtchisOn discovered that he had the
smallpox he was sent to Topeka, and
was kept safely at the Santa Fe hos
pital until Thursday night at o'clock,
when he was taken to the pest house.
A great effort was made by City
Physician Judd to keep all details of
the case secret. He refused to tell
where the patient was being kept, and
said he did not know the patients
name.
tell something about the new Topeka
pest house, which a State Journal re-
porter visited yesterday because 1t was
his last chance before the building be-
came inhabited by a noisesome pesti-
lence instead of a gang of carpenters,
stove rcen and coal shovelers-
To reach the pest house you go out
East Tenth to Crosbys mills, where
Washington street extends its rocky
lengths toward Racket hill You climb
Racket hill up, up, up until you are on
the very top of the great divide which
separates the valley Of Topeka from the
] Lyorz r5xr h III n
can look down on the big town which
stretches away at your feet; to the
northwest the state house dome, to the
north the tail chimneYS and black and
white smoke clouds from the Santa Fe
shops and the manufacturing district,
to the northeast. almost on level with
the place where you stand, the wide ex-
panse OF marble and granite cedarS ana
bare-limbed elnns where lies the Topeka
graveyard. 1t is convenient to the pest
house.
The road which bears off little to
the east is what is known as the old
Sac and Fox road. Follow this, and you
soon come in sight of a bright red
building, with a new brick chimney
from which curls a wisp of smoke This
is the new pest house. It is separated
from the top Of the divide where you
stand by a deep ravine, barren and
SCARED by the outlying rains which
sweep in torrents down from the divide
toward the Shunganunga.
This ditch; this barren, rocky, God
/ fOrsaken desolation. this ten acres of
gully is what the city paid 81 900 to
/ possess. What a marvellous thing is d
city councilman when it comes to buy
ing landi
Well, by going half mile further you
can get around the south end of this
/ Grand Canyon of the Topeka health de-
partment, and it then requires only n
4 little care to pick ones way along the
( side Ct the canyon to where the noble
/ pest house roOsts in its solitary
/ grandeur, Nith one side buried in the
bank and the other propped up on tail
/ foundation wall, like the lOpsided man
sions in Kansas 6ity.
The front door is in the south end.
They have not had time to build a
/ porch, and the doorstep is a luxury
which the city does not permit. On the
etarboard side the building looks like
barn. for it has a big barn door Oh
rollers and a loft door with long iron
hinges nailed to the outside of the build.
ing. These little improvements were
put IN place when the city expected to
use the building as a stable for the
ambulance horse instead of a sanitarium
for the resort Of smallpox sufferers.
inside, the building isn't half bad. It
is a gratifying disappointment And as
the patients will be inside of the build
ing. that IS what counts
Inere IS no plasterinS on the walls
1 Instead, the whole building is ceiled with
/ matched boards The boards are nailed
| on tar paper There is a good single
roof, the outside boards are well bat
/ tened. the studding is substantial the
( doors and windows are well hung, ami
there IS no reason why. with proper
4 care. the inmates of the pest house will
not be as well and happy as though the
/ building cost SO 600
Downstairs there are three rooms:
kitchen, dining room and a sleeping
room for Mr.. and Mrs. Henry Wade the
immunes who will be in charge of the
placs- Mr. and Mrs. Wade are said to
be good cooks. and brand new kitchen
range was set up in the kitchen yester-
day upon which they will demonstrate
/ their skill
Upstairs there are two large ward
rooms" for the patients These ward
bred patients each. and it is doubtful