The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-14
TOO LATE NOW.
City Needs a Real Detention
Hospital.
City Council Would Take Steps
to Build One.
STARTS 1T.
No Facilities for Care of South
Topeka Patients.
Always Agitate When There Is
an Epidemic.
SMALLPOX STARTS 1T.

With the astonishing outbreak Of
smallpox in Walnut Grove there has
arisen a renewal of the talk about
building a new pest house, or, in more
polite language, a detention hospital"
Everytime smallpox breaks out the
city council wakes up and discovers
that the town needs a new hospital for
contagious diseases. Of course it is
then too late to do anything, and SO
the matter goes over until the scare is
past, and is thenceforth as one number
ed with the dead
II Topeka should build the right kind
of a detention hospital, it could do a
profitable business on the side in rail-
road" cases and cases from other parts
of the county. Smallpox is a disease
which is very prevalent with the rail
rOad construction companies. A big rail-
rOa contractor is not thoroughly at
home unless he has half a dozen men
sick with smallpox. Usually these
fortunate men are dumped into a tent
at some distance from the rest, fed and
cared for as well as circumstances will
permit, but their lot, at best, is a pref
ty tough one. If the railroad company
or the railroad contractor could get
these cases off their they would
be glad to pay good fees to the hos
pitaI which would take care of them.
The trouble is that mighty few hos
pitfalls want anything to do with contag-
iOuS cases,
Three different payments of money
have been made to the city Of Topeka
during the past year by the Santa Re
railroad for the care of smallpox cases
ever in the small and insufficient quar-
ters which the city has provided. In
April the Santa Fe paid $49.50. In Oc-
tOber it paid $3.50. In February it paid
$77-14, a total for the year Of S134.14.
There were, in addition, some moneys
paid in by outside parties not in any
way connected with the railroads.
This money which was turned yer
to the city treasurer by City Physician
StOrrs is supposed to represent merely
the board of the patients. The Santa
Fe hospital association furnished the
medicine. So far as can be a~scertained,
the board Of health never authorized
any specific sum to be charged for tax
Ing care Of smallpox cases. Apparently
Dr.. StOrrs charged what he pleased, col
lected what he pleased, and turned over
what he pleased to the city. One mem
Der of the board of health said when
asked for some information about the
arrangements which has existed with
the Santa Fe:
"Arrangements2 I never heard Of any
arrangements. I don't know whether the
city ever got any money at all out of it.
i don't think the board OF health has any
records which viii show anything about
the case. The fact of the matter is that
StOrrs never told US all that was going on;
We were in the dark about his actions as
much as the people on the outside"
II the city should build a detention hos
pital sufficient to accommodate these out
side cases. there is not much doubt that
it would be well Datronized by the rail-
road companies, railroad contractors and
probably by nelghborlng counties. 1t has
been suggested that the Santa Fe, Rock
Island and Union Pacific railroad com
panles would probably be willing to con-
tribute several thousand dollars apiece tOs
ward the construction of a c-onta giOus
hospital, provided it should be MANAGED
OE the CITY. and the railroads allowed to
send their cases there for the cost of their
care So far as known, the city has
never approached the railroads on this
proposition, but it is highly probable tnat
some such arrangements could be made,
and a large and well appointed hospital
erected here for the exclusive care of con
tagiOus cases.
City Engineer McCabe prepared plans
for a contagious disease hospital which
would cost about 5000. The idea. of pav-
ing out $500 scared the council so badly
that they chucked the proposition into a
pigeon mole without any further investi-
gaIIon, and there it still remains. If the
railroad companies should contribute 50
600 apiece and the city 5000 more it would
give d lu4u OF 96,uUo, with which 1t would
be possible to erect just the kind OF a
building which is needed.
The present detention hospital is a re-
constructed barn, hastily fitted out with
windows, doors and interior ceilings of
matched boards. 1t was never intended
together merely to meet an emergency
which confronted the city after the oId
torn down.
While it may not be necessary to send
any or the Walnut Grove cases to the de-
tention hospital, vet there is a sfronp
probability that the present endemic vii
develop some cases which can not he
cared for at the place where the sickness
occurs, The city will then have to send
Its patients out to the old barn. which
serves as a pest house, and in which two
men patients are already being
dated Both of these men patients are
from railroad companies.