The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-04-13
Recent Incident Shows the Back
bone in Human Nature
How Hospital Patents Bore Themselves
While the Building Vas Threatened
by Fire-Two Brave Little Girls.
Hopeless to Nominate a Southern
Man for President.
For The Messenger.

land frail these mortals be-" These
are two or three of the jiremiads
which make up the large stock-:n-
trade Of the moralists who declaim
and write in mournful depreciation Of
1.-The weakness Of their brother human
iplex problem for study. In its nor
imal development it really does pre-
sent inconsistencies, weaknesses, fol-
tbles and petty meanness which evoke
the contemptous pity Of the philos-
iopher. In great crises it either goes
til to pieces-the backbone f1abby
Jelly, the gizzard empty of every bit
iof sand; or it shines forth like par.
fne-spun gold in the crucible, like
diamonds flowing in chunks Of cnaT-
local, like rupies sparkling and glow
ing in the walls of caves deep down III
the earth.
Not long ago | saw a lot Of people
ihuddled together, who believed, every
one of them, that they were in ve-y
serious peril. was a patient in the
IHignsmith hospital on the night of
Sunday, March 25th, when it came
within an ace of being burned TO the
Iground. l was near enough convales-
cent to be able to get up, put on my
lclothes and shift for myself; so that
was in position to note all the
stirring and dramatic incidents of that
~Ieventful night. l have come to the
conclusion that a panic or a stampede
in a crowd is as easily averted as it
lis easily started. Many years g ]
was on a steamer on the Potomac
river, when the boat caught fire, not
far below Mt. Vernon. The flames
Iwere so accessible and so easily con-
|troiled there was not at any time
anv great danger, but the officers and
crew of the steamer unaccOuntably
I''lost their heads" injecting some OF
the travellers with their panic; and,
had it not been for three Or four
firm, commanding passengers, some OF
1.-THE women and men too. would have
jumped overheard.
There is no sort of doubt that in
the hospital that night, had there been
lany lack of discipline in the staff OF
NURSES, a lAC ASou huASN oNSS
Iexcited. or had the proprietor and
superintendent lost his nerve-who
was even at that moment losing a
ls2o, 900 block of buildings, and saw
ruin staring him in the face in .he
loss of his hospital, worth twice $2O,-
OOO-there would have been some dis
itressing scenes. But he was as cool
las if directing the affairs of somebody
ill., 80 %hoc0 s1nd0p him f0lIHwp0
Ibis lead.
It was one of the most spectacular
land fearful fires that l ever witnessed
of a nature to strike terror to the
hearts of men, women, and children,
some of whom had just gone through
Idof6cult surgical operations, chained
Ito their cots by weakness, unable 70
move hand or foot. The Thornton store
lin which the fire started, an immense
structure, towering above the whole
block, was less than fifty yards IRON
the rear Of the hospital by a straight
diagonal line. but the fire burne1
around Market Square and down
iGreen street, to the southern wall 81
the hospital. Through the windows
the HELPLESS patients could see the
heayens angrily aglare, the vast
FWQlIlluS O1uulC vi oAAohS "N
,the Jagged columns of fame; they
could hear the cries of fremen sore
jbeset, the rumble of the hose wagons
. and the deafening crash or 1ail1ns
walls.
Would any one have visited rebuk:
on these poor, MANNED, fevered, dis
eassd ones, had they made grievou:
lmoans from their narrow beds. ant
cried out for help during that terribl,
period of three or four hours? l die
. mot hear a cry, a whimper, or wore
, Iof complaint from man, woman O
t Ichild all that night In the Chart!
:. ward of the Cochran Annex, wher'
lone contingent of the patients wa
lcarried, to be near the exits at hi
time of removal, were two lovely girls
rs or 16 years old. who had not Ions
, before undergone critical operations
their long dark hair streaming owe
sItheir pillows, they looked up at M
with brave smiles as / bent owe them
land their little hands. as | claspe'
them were as steady as steel. Al
!, through that trying time, from on
ward to another, from Il floor q
another, from patient to patient, wen
a Good Samaritan'-Rev. !. "
IduSHtS, IcCooi VI Oh ooA NF
Ipal church, his handsome, schoiar'
face, his bright eye, his genial smile
all carrying comfort and cheer to III
sick.
There was one remarkable featnr
! i'of that Sunday night fire, which per
| Ihaps would have been impossible Il
lany other town in North Carolina
;. lHaymount and other residence SUI
} lurbs are far distant from the bust
!. mess centre Of the city. Many OF In
patients were town people. but thei
. parents and other relatives, in mos
Instances, knew nothing of it all IN
It'll the next morning, when they rush
led from every direction into he city
Ito find the ruins, the patients alread
: taken back 10 the hospital from IN
| Martin Hotel, and all over The oaus
: WAS that the operatives of the rele