The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-02
FORTY YEARS AN INVALID.
Pennsylvania Woman Has Been in
Bed All That Time

Over in Pennsylvania the town of
famous blythe great battle fought
there during the civil war;, they have
had many celebrations and anniver-
saries since then, but perhaps none of
them has been stranger than the one
held in the little frame building at the
made particularly famous by the
war. This was The fortieth anniver-
sary of a peaceful sufferer on a sick
bed.
To most people it will be hard to
believe that any person could spend
forty years a sick bed and still be
cheerful and contented with it all.
Still that is the case of Jennie Rosen-
steel, who forty years ago this month,
when she was stricken, was one of the
prettiest girls in the agricultural COM
munity surrounding the famous bat
tlefield. Since her illness she has
never lost heart, but from her bed
she has shed cheerfulness and radi-
ated sunshine that has been a source
of much encouragement to her friends
and relatives who have not been so
afflicted.
The building that houses this quiet
sufferer has long been used as a stOp
ping place by picnickers on a visit to
the battlefield, while adjoining the
room occupied by the sufferer is
dancing pavilion OF the thousands
of people who visit this place annually
only a few have ever heard of the pa
tient girl who has spent SO much
time in the small room adjoining. Her
relatives, who make living from
these excurSioniStS, seldom refer to
her when talking to the visitors.
The case of Jennie. Rosensteel is
a. strange one from many viewpoints.
When she was stricken forty years
ago the doctors called in pronounced
1t paralysis, and said she could live
but a short time. The physicians who
attended her then have long since
passed away, while she still remains
apparently no worse off than when
she first took her bed. From the day
she was stricken she has been per-
fectly helpless, and yet through it all
smiles cheerfully and says she be-
Iieves she is fulfilling Gods will.
The door of the sufferer is never
closed to friends or strangers and she
always has smile of greeting for all
visitors, still her plight is never in
truded upon visitors or patrons at the
Rosensteel hotel. In a room at the
center of the house the invalid's bed
is placed close to the window. When
one sees the face of this longtime
sufferer it is hard to believe that she
has been in that bed for forty years
Her face is still youthful and shows
much trace of the beauty that made
her so popular years ago. The hand
is like wax and as white as the bed
linen, small and dainty, though pos
sessing no strength. Her hearing is
good and her sight is perfect. In all
the years that she has been there no
one has ever heard her grumble at her
fate.
While she has been lying on this
bed most of the girlhood friends of
her youth have died. Many of her
relatives have long ago been buried,
and even her spiritual advisers have
passed away one by one. Through it
all she still remains calm and peace
full, ever sure and trustful that when
the time comes God will take her and
fulfill His own will. Her sister-in-
law, who has been her constant at
tendant, says she is a perfect patient,
never becoming tired, irritable, or i'm
patient.
Back of all this is remarkable
story that will be vouched for by any
of the old-time residents of Gettys-
burg, or of the entire county of
Adams, for that matter. These peo-
pie do not attempt to account for this
strange illness by saying 1t is paraly-
sis, but they have version of their
own, which years ago has come to be
accepted as the true one all over that
county. AS told by one Of these old
timers. seated in front Of the Hotel