Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-04-03

the very start that to help the sub
merged ones is impossible save by
stepping down to their level, by living
among them and with them
She raised all the money she could
from her own resources. Then she be-
gan to look for a house where she
could make a beginning. She was
told Of one on SCANNED street. 1t was
cheap; it was in the heart Of one Of
the poorest and toughest regions of
this city. 1t was ramshackle and damp
and ugly. But that she cared not for.
The cheapness decided her. And there
she started her new life She was
alone, mark you. alone in a place
where nobody but thieves and their
like lived; where a human life was
worth less than the price of a drink.
and where the knife and the pistol
We're the only arguments that counted.
She will not admit it, but she suf-
fered shock when, day by day. new
revelation as to the character of her
next door neighbors brought her a
clearer understanding of her sur
roundings. But so far from tlinching.
this only made her more determined to
go on. She had only a small part of
the mousse. There she received and
maintained her patients. after having
searched them out in their dens where
they were dying in want and pain. She
was mistress and cook and maid and
nurse. She washed their clothes and
their rags; she served their food and
she dressed their wounds.
At first she slept alone in the small
est of her rooms, which was so dimin-
utive in size that she could hardly
stretch herself out at full length. But
when the other rooms were full she
found it possible to divide that room
of hers. sacrificing for the sake of
those whom she had chosen to serve
that most cherished privilege of the
refined, privacy. That she took risks
in regard to her health she never gave
. thought. Cancer is supposed to be
infectious under certain circumstances.
And one who works like slave from
morning to night is not particularly
well fitted to resist the secret approach
of the disease. But then as now she
acted with the simple unQuenchable
faith OF the men and women of her
type.
Why should ! spare myself" she
said the other day, whit I was talk
ing with her in the plain but cheerful
rarlor of Rosary Hill home. "As long
as God has use for ME here he will
protect me-
Speak of her in Scanned street or in
Water street, where she next took up
her abode. OF in Cherry street, where
she established herself for the first
time in house all by herself, that is,
counting her patients and her assist
ants as part Of herself l have
heard men of the coarsest and tough
est type stop short their outpourings
of profanity to repeat her name in
tones OF almost feminine softness
And as they spoke higher light came
into their eyes, reflection, however
faint. of the endless love that inspired
1t. One of them cried to me:
If angels ever come down to this
earth, she is one of tham''
The woman thus praised would prob
ably be the first one to deprecate what
she would regard as an almost sinful
exaggeration. She is one Of those rare
creatures that combine ardent en-
thusiasm and complete sincerity with
sense of humor. Flattery falls Off
her as water Off the back Of a duck
She thinks she is doing nothing because
what she does falls so far short Of what
she is yearning to 10. Her face is
round and rosy and smiling. She is
round of figure as we'll as of face
"pudgy" and ''stumpy' are some of the
erithets she applies to herself when she
is among her friends. A woman who
so far as appearance goes, might be
taken for thrifty and good humored
Dutch housewife. with not the slight
est touch of the heroic about her.
Appearances are so deceptive! Ona
night. shortly after she had settled
down in her Scanned street place, q
terrible racket broke out on the floor
helow. knowledge she had previously
gathered enabled her TO guess that the
husband and wife on the ground floor
were qutrreiing and that probably the
woman's brother was having a hand in
it.
This will never do she said as the
voices rose ever more shrilly and
threateningly. My patients will never
get any sleep
And forthwith. paying no heed to the
entreaties of the scared women about
her. she started downstairs to quell the
riot. She found what she had expected
two men ready to Use whatever
weapon might fall handy to satisfy
their hatred. and woman egging them
on by her tongue laShirgs. Then the
little rOund-faced and chubby woman
in her neat nurses dress stepped in be-
TIVE zen those two men-rot to plead
with them or to reproach them, but
simply to tell them that they were pre-
venting her poor patients from getting
the sleep they needed SO much. And
il; that way she drove cun of the men
away from the room and compelled the
ether one and his wife to keep their
reace for the rest Of the night.
On another occasion she surprised a
man trying to cut the screen door
which on hot summer nights formed
the Only barricadc between her and the
low world pressing in upon her from
every side. He ran when she came to
the door to investigate the noise sh,
had hearl. Later she discovered that
the man was relative OF one of her
own patients woman who had prom
ised TO open the door so that her con-
federate on the outside could get in and