Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-26
TURKEY SERVED
TO C0UNTY'S SICK
HOSPITAL PATIENTS ARE WELL
TREATED
Good Dinner Drives Pain from Broken
Leq-One Woman 7orrows
Another's Baby to
Play With

Christmas at the county hospital as
& charge of the state, does not sound
very aluring. and the lot of the 2SO
patients at the Mission road instltu-
tion is not the most pleasant In the
city: but IL is not the worst by far.
with the execution of the heart burn
ings which the memories of better
days of the past induced, the patients
seemed to have entered into the Christ
mas spirit and were enjoying IL as
much as their more healthy frlends
who could. walk the streets.
Christmas, like Thanksgiving meant
n specially goo6 dinner at the hospltal:
Turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin ana
berry pie, preserved peaches apples,
cookies and all kinds of goodies loaded
the dinner table; and in the evening
cold turkey, pie and a lighter repast
satisfied the inner man.
In addition to the special CASTRO
nomic de!icacies provided by the hos
pital authorities, many charitable IN
Siutions visited the wards and by
generous gifts of nuts, candy, fruit and
little trinkets, frightened UP the rather
humdrum life of the unfortunates.
Has Good Dinner
In the mems surgical ward lay a
!ytoung man of about 81 years of age,
his leg badly broken. Failing off a
derrick several weeks ago, he had sus-
tanned compound fracture, one of the
worst in the hospital. In reply to the
question, How did you enjoy Christ
mas?" he answered, laughing and jolly,
in spite of pain: IT'S a little tiresome
lying here, but they're all treating me
fine Had a good dinner" he added
optimistically.
In the women's ward patient called
the doctors attention to a wonderful
Christmas tree Santa Claus had left
for her. 1t was a little pine tree,
scarcely two feet high, but crowded
with strings of popcorn, oranges, nuts
and apples. The hundreds of little
tots who danced about their trees yes
terday morning were not more pleased
than was the hospital patient with her
little two-foot imitation. Cant Santa
do wonders when he tries?" she said.
Intermingled with the brightness and
happy spirit of the day was certain
element of pathos, common to such a
place, where the dwellers have time to
review their past conditions.
Borrows Another's Baby
In one ward lay a woman, fondling
with all a months love a bald headed,
bright eyed laughing baby boy. In
quiry showed that the little fellow was
not her own, but belonged to one of
the domestics. Her own little phil
ip," a 6-months-old child, was at her
home, just recovering from a sick
spell, and the mother, unable to fondle
her own child had borrowed the other
woman's youngster as substitute.
At still another place sat an old man,
his legs bent with locomotor ataxia. In
1867 he graduated from the University
of Dublin, and several years later
gained a degree from a Boston uni
versity. At one time he had been one
of the most brilliant surgeons in the
British army, but youthful eXcesses
had left their mark, and in his old
age he has to depend on the county.
His one desire ever present is to be
allowed to go to Santa Monica to fish,
but the rule of the hospital is that all
must be treated impartially, and if he
were sent for a beach trip 200 others
would demand to go, so an evasive
answer was the best he could get.