Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-18
Free Clinics Treat Poor Classes Gratis.

mer as its name implies, Is a casualty
hospital, where 80 per cent of the emer-
eency cases east OF the Capitol building
are hurried. Emergency is the receiving
center for practically the entire down
town district. Notices on the doors an
nounce the days and hours when all who
wish are free to enter and receive treat
ment. At these times all the student
staff which can be spared from cases IN
the hospital gather to examine epileptics'
consumptives, paranoiacs, those who from
sheer force Of habit and crankiness have
become chronic guests and others who
ARE afflicted with all sorts of imaginary
diseases, the very names OF which the
would-be patients do not know. More
often than would be lima gined foreigner
enters with the line of underworld folks
and is found to be suffering with a dis
ease perhaps but little known In this
country but prevalent in far-off lands.
where sanitat may not be so well car
ried out by the older governments. To
cure and give what relief they can to
this conglomerate mass. which is all
alike, yet so different, are men who stand
high in the medical profession. 1t Is
really the professor-the man who has at
tanned his success as q physician and who
in the work Of healing the sick-who at
tends to the wants Of those who come
for free treatment And especially Is this
true OF cases In which the disease may
have taken some heretofore unknown or
unusual course. For in such q case they
are there also to learn, and 1t IL the
school of experience rather than mere
study from which the most efficient work
men are graduated in any line Of work.
During the hours Of the free clinic the
waiting room presents strange picture.
Broken men and women. some young,
some old and the young sometimes old In
years Of dissipation, line the benches with
saddened faces. awaiting their respective
turns to be called by the calf-faced, white
cloaked physician. Side by side can be
seen the burIy form Of negro nursing a
crushed hand or an ugly cash in his
cheek, and the slight. crouching figure Of
a woman. her form rent now and then
with paroxysms of coughing and every
visible sign of the dread white plague.
which IS slowly but surely taking her to
an old man who has shuffled to his place
led by a little girl He has cataract Of
both eyes, and though we'll on toward
the last milestone in the race or hfe nope
fully listens for the summons OF the doc
tor with that look which can only be seen
gathering waits, the outer door opens and
a Chinaman shufies in to seek that re-
lief from the white devil doctor that
years of burning Joss sticks to his Celes-
tial gods have failed to give.
The first patient is called and takes hts
alter about which are lined the internes.
They look upon all patients as leases"
even In the most pathetic instances They
are hardened to disease and pain and
suffering by the time that they have
spent only a few months In the institu-
ton. For them the human element must
disappear and they see before them only
machine. piece Of mechanism that,
through abuse or the ravages Of time. has
at last failed to perform its functions
properly 1t IL their duty to make every
effort TO patch up the breaks and. as far
as mortal Is able. to again put the ma
chine Tin the running"
The wan little woman's time has come
to face the questions and examination to
which she will be put. She is a mother.
and her two children have been left in
charge of a neighbor. who has prevailed
upon her to go where none are denied
medical attention and learn what she
breads in her soul to know. Faltering.
low-voiced answers are given to the usual
questions which to her seem to be those