The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-14
AT DEATHS. DOOR
Roy Jewell, Is Year Old Boy,
Victim of Typhoid.
Found in a SquaIid Howell or
East Fourth.
HOSPITALS REFUSED.
Had No Place for the Sick
Child.
Unknown Citizen Finally Comes
to the Rescue.
HOSPITALS REFUSED.

Roy Jewell, a typhoid victim. has
been rescued from almost certain
death in a howell on East Fourth street.
If careful nursing in hospital can
save him he may yet live.
one does not have to go. to a great
city to witness poverty, restitution and
see the suffering of their fellow beings.
A case Of this kind was reported to
the provident association last week
from the home, for they term it such,
Of r. ID. johnson at 405 East Fourth
street.
Not only does poverty reign here
supreme but death was all but ready
to claim one of the members of the
family when the matter was taken up
by one Of the residents of the city who
has taken steps to save the life of the
victim.
The place is a low rooted howell and
consists of two small rooms, across one
of which is stretched a thin, f1imsy
curtain as a partition. There is no fur
niture in the front portion of this room
at ALL and in the second there is
bedstead and a wire cot and on this
cot rested the wasted form of fifteen
year-old Roy Jewell, stepson of
Johnson slowly burning up with
typhoid fever and a temperature which
has not been below one hundred for
the past week.
There is one old broken chair in this
room which is by the side of the bed
of the sick boy while his mother sits
in it farming him with bits Of newspa-
1 pers, trying to cool the feVered brow
as she moistens the parched lips with
water from the neighborhood well.
For ten days the boy has lain on this
wire cot covered with a sheet and
scarcely more under him, while DR.. H.
D. Ryman, in charge of the free dis
pensatory, has done all in his power
with the meager appliances at hand to
stay the disease.
In the lean-to which serves as
/ kitchen there is a one burner gasoline
/ stove, a dozen old tin cans and a skill
let which comprise the entire kitchen
outfit.
r. D. Johnson, the husband and
/ father, is one of the town drunkards
who has served much of his time in
the county jail on this charge and who
was in the city prison serving time on
a charge of drunkenness until released
last night that he might go home to
/ the sick boy. This was probably a
ruse to escape serving his sentence, as
! he was seated in the back yard smok-
4 ing and playing With a NANCY eur
when the call was rnaae last night
The mother is a woman well spoken
4 of in the neighbOrhood and seems to
/ appreciate the humiliatng position
Playing about on the floor or clinging
H.
one al the crawling age in its life, and
the other barely able to toddle about
The sick boy was lying on a cot in
| front OF window facing a filthy alley,
swarming with cursing men and wo-
men, for not far from the place is what
IS said to be joint and disorderly
house.
There was no ice nor electric fan to
cool the brow Of the semideliriOus boy
who was tossing about on the cot and
the feeble efforts of the mother were
of little avail One of the nurses of
the city who had interested herself in
| the case called in the mornings and di-
rected the mother as to the care of the
boy, while the city dispensatory fur
nished the medicine to its physician
who called as often as possible.
The physician in charge of the case
said he tried repeatedly to get the bov
into one of two of the hospitals but
without avail. The matter was taken
up yesterday by A business man who
has interested himself in the case and
late last night the boy was taken ia
the keith-R Rhodes hospital, where he
Will have attention and a chance for
his life If the lack of attention so far
has not proven too much for his con
stitution.
The boy has worked since he was ten
years of age and has been the rnafnsta y
OF the family and was employed by the
Union Pacific railroad at Kansas civ
when he was obliged to quit and come
home on account of his physical con
dition.