Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-18

"HE study Of human nature In the
rough has always been and always
i will be the most ia scinating, the
most Intensely and poignantly interesting
question on which master minds and the
minds of Iaymen alike can be concentrat-
ed True, this may, at first thought. seem
a broad statement to make, but the ma
jordty Of people who are thrown with
the masses or those who give any time
to real thought on the. subject Will agree
that to watch the faces in the crowd at
a large depot or any other place where
crowds gather: to Judge one by the other;
to analyze the thoughts and actions OF
the people hurrying to and fro and to
attempt to place each face in its own
category of human make-up-in other
words to make the study Of human ma
ture in the rough not from treatises or
books, but from the viewpoint Of the per-
sonal. observer-is not time wasted.
There are scores Of places where the
interested observer can see life at us
best and worst-places where the student
OF human nature can get fund OF stage
setting and Information that can be relied
upon to be, in many instances, pain1ully
true to life" There Is the Police Court,
where life's comedies and in most IN
stances tragedies are enacted as no actor
can ever portray them; the train station.
as has been mentioned, Is another. ana
others innumerable might be mentioned
But perhaps OF all places where the truest
phases of life, and sometimes death In
all forms, bar none, may be seen depicted
upon the rapidly moving screen with
Kaleidoscope swiftness and rnonotony IS
at the free clinic In the hospital.
Free clinics are held in all but one or
two Of the public hospitals at least once
every day. OF course, they are primarily
an institution for the poorer classes, VINO
cannot meet the expenses Of the home HE
when the added weight Of illness bears
down upon the wage Garner. oven from
this class Of people Is expected part pay
nent, at least. for medicines used. But II
II is known that the patient IL worthy.
yet unable to pay a penny. he receives the
engages the hfghest-priced private ward
in the institution Then, too, the free
clinic was established in the emergency
hospitals as a means Of bringing ALI the
Ills that flesh Is heir to" under the OBJ
servation Of the young physicians who
are rounding out their medical courses as
internes Just previous to taking the med
ical board" What the patients are to the
medical student as means Of studying
sickness In every form they are to the
the latter an amending and continuously
changing study Of life All the year round
the doors Of the daily clinics are thrown
open to the diseased and suffering speci-
mems of humanity who are unable to Sc
cure medical attention in any other way
But 1t is not only the MANNED and the
halt and the blind who cannot pay for
medical treatment who haunt the open
and ever welcome doors OF the free clinic.
As IL always the case in similar In
stances. the undeserving, or people who
are we'll able to pay but who think that
life owes them more than they are get
ting from it. seep in with the influx Of
those whom the free clinic alone keeps
from suffering and sometimes death. The
number Of people who accept gratis the
free clinic treatment when they could
with but little or no effort pay for nedi-
cal treatment 10 astonishing.
Washington has more than haH doz-
en- of these free clinics. Because OF the
nature of the hospitals. Casualty and
Emergency, OF course. are foremost in
the number Of classes treated The for