Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-04-03
AAWThoRNE's DAUGHTER
now She Oevotss Herself to caus. Of
Suffering Humanity.

Halfway down the side or a..
gently sloping hillside that horaar,
pretty valley up in the portbern
part Oh "estchester county, and look
ing toward the setting sun. stands a
strasghrs, overgrOwn building. with
glass covered verandas SURROUNDING
IL on three sides and a small church
rearing its unsteepled gable On the
fourth side. But for that appendap orc
of unmistaKably sacred character the
structure would look like a summer
hotel. And as such it began its ex-
lstence. Then it became a monastery
occupied by a little group of Domin-
lean brethren who had been exilad
from their native France. They built
the chapel. Now it is known as the
Rosary Hill home, and serves as The
last resting place for death-doomed
victims of that most insinuatinp and
most relentless of modern diseases
cancer.
Rightly might the "Lasciate ogni
sperahza Vol ch'etrate' of the divine
Florentine be carved rs a motto over
the humble entrance to that home of
the hopeless. And yet the highest ex-
preston of earthly despair would do
grave injustice to the place. For. un-
like the place of gloom visited by
Dante, it is the home not only of
suffering and pain, but it is also an
abiding place of the highest, most
self-sacrificing and most god-iike hu-
man love. There dwell not ONLY
those who have come here to die and.
dying. to forget. but also a small band
OF devoted women who have conse-
Grated their lives once for all and
unreservedly to the service of their
doomed brothers and sisters.
They call themselves most prop
erly the Servants of Relief, refrain
ing from any definition of what they
are to relieve. lest out of it grow any
restriction on their pious and chart
table work. Up at the Rosary Hill
home they confine their activity to
the care of incurable cancer patients,
but not so when, by turn, they put
in some time at the mother house of
their institution, the st. Rose Free
Home for Incurable Cancer, at 426
Cherry street. While they dress
wounds of any kind-maybe sustained
in some of the fueds which are ever
raging between hostile gangs Of
toughs-and go wherever their as
sistance may be needed. 1t is the
fervent hope of the sisters that some
time they may be able to extend their
activity along these lines.
The sisters are twenty in all, with
mother superior at their head. or
her We shall speak later and at
length. The sisterhood is now an in
tegral part Of the Catholic church,
forming a branch of the Third Order
of the Sisters of st. Dominic. Thus
they stand on the border between
lay sisters and those who have con-
secrated themselves for life to the
service of the church. But it is only
technically so. Although the Servants
of Relief are permitted to take VOWS
only for a year at time. their sur
render of themselves is complete and
final as if their vows covered life
time. Their dresses are of creamy
white, with Quaker like hoods of the
same color that seem to throw a
constant light on their faces. Four
teen are always at the Rosary Hill
home. while six are on duty at the
Cherry street place.
To comprehend what their sacrifice
implies II is only necessary to call
to mind what cancer Is. These
women have chosen for their part
to live in constant proximity to
death in its most loathsome and
painful form. And In order to full
fiji their task in accordance with the
ideal they have set for themselves.
they must not only work dutifully and
faithfully. but in a spirit of constant
cheeriEess. as if they were, indeed.
helping people to live, and not to
die. Yet they know, whenever new
patient enters the home that he
stay there d week, maybe. or few
months. but rarely as long as IA
whole year. Departures from this
life occur almost daily under the eyes
of the nurses. Seldom is the little
chapel. with it's brightly painted
Christ images and carved statues OF
the Holy Virgin, free from cOfTn
that has been placed there pending
its descent into the grave. And In ac-
cprdance with the will of the leader
of their faithful band, they must not
deceive the patient as to his state.
The people they serve are not only
Condemned, but the sentence of death
has been read to them. And side by
side with this misery the sisters move
smiling, forbearing, kind, ever pa
tient.
The woman who gathered them I'M
der her leadership and set the purpose
and inspired their devotion was once
Rose Hawthorne. the youngest ana
most beloved daughter Of America
greatest prose writer, and the sister OF
Julian Hawthorne. Then she was
married and became Mrs. George Par
sons Lathrop. Death took her hus-
| band. and not long after she happened
to read about a case of young wo-
| man who had been turned out Of one Of
| the city hospitals because she had an
| incurable cancer. and who was nearly
driven to suicide by the thought that
| the only place open to her was an
almshouse, on Blackwells' island.
That story decided the life of Rose
Hawthorne Lathrop. She had long
been seeking something to live for. and
| she had found it at last. That was in
1886.
ES,;n v,ae