Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-12-16
, NH NIL START nd
FOR MERCY HOSPITAL
81. THOMAS BADLY IN NEED OF
ELEVATOR, AND INSTITUTION !,
HAS DEBT.
SOMETHING OF THE GOOD
WORK SISTERS ARE DOING
Hospital Great Blessing to Community
and is Entitled to All Help That Can
Be Given-Many Could Supply Pres
sing Need if So Inclined-who Will
Make the start7

Make the StartY
Out on the high point of the north |
western part of the city, sitting in a |
sisterly fashion beside the Iowa Sol |
diers' Home, is st. Thomas hospital, an
institution of which Marshalltown and |
Marshalltown citizens, irrespective of
creed, color, or class, may well be
proud, for it is one of the neatest and
best conducted institutions of it's kind
within the borders of the state.
The average person sees hospitals !
thru glasses colored by his own fears.
Too many are inclined to view askance
the building to which all the pathways
of pain lead and where sickness creeps
in it's extremity. The average person
sees the surgeon. bare armed and
bloody, and shudders at the sight Only
those who have fallen in an agony of
pain, and in the fear of death, ON the
threshold of. the hospital. who have
beat at it's doors for the human help
that is never refused, who have known
the beneficence of the surgeons SEEM
ing severity, know what Ravens of hope
these institutions are, what shelters
across the cemeteries. To them the
hospital takes on the holiness of a
great and helpful human charity for
universal human need. They know.
In ST. Thomas hospital six gentle
women who have renowned all of wo-
manhood but it's helpful holiness, sweet
faced women with tender faces and
silent feet, fit from room to room on
errands of pure mercifulness. Million
aire or tramp, cultured and intellectual,
or ignorant and uneducated, is of mo-
ment nor Of heed to them. Sickness,
pain, the deep sweet desire to minister
to immediate human need. are the in
centives that have set circle of the
purest and most effective service
around the world in the magnificent
work of the Order of the Sisters of
Mercy. This is the order which is in
charge of st. Thomas. an order which
asks no questions of denominat ton;
creed, age, color or sex. It's single
query is the need of those who ask. All
else is subordinate. Life itself is sub
ordinate. In all the world there is no
charity superior to this: Which asks
no questions, makes no conditions but
spends itself gladly for the human be-
ings whom God made because He made
made them. This is the spirit at st.
Thomas. With the means at its COM
mand it does the most 1t can. 1t is
blessing to this community. And it
should be enabled by the community
to do the work its splendid sisterhood
is anxious and willing to do
This hospital cared for more than
200 cases this year. Eighty major OPP
erations have been performed with
splendid proportion of success in the
perfectly equipped operating room
furnished entirely by contributions from
the physicians Of this city. Eighteen
sensible women have taken advantage
Of the care, comfort and economy of the
hospital for their lyings-in. Today
there are sixteen patients in the rooms
of 500 a month to keep the institu-
ton in operation. Six sisters are as
signed there. Eight capable and COM
petent nurses are employed under the
supervision of the sisters. All is spot
less, sanitary, scientifically conducted
These sisters spend their lives in this
work without earthly or mercenary re-
ward or desire for such reward They
must have current expenses to keep the
institution going. Sometimes this ques-
ton becomes pressing one. There is
still a debt unpaid on the hospital. 1T
ought not to be so in a wealthy and
prosperous community like ours. An
elevator is needed. 1t is an absolute me-
cessity. To install it would cost about
$4,000 Here in Marshalltown, rich as
a community and counting many
wealthy men. any one Of whom could
install the elevator and feel no prick
of pain unless from the greed that hesi-
tates to part with money, this need
should not endure. The hospital, and
the sisters, landmarks of direst human
need, would seem to have earned so
much. Looking over the hospital to-
day and recognizing it's needs, the
thought forced itself that men must die
and go naked before God. They can
not take their piled up pennies with
them there.
This complaint is not the sisters.
The sister with the Golf wrapped about
the patient purity of her facet when
asked whether it was hard to keep the
hospital up on the raeeints from all
sources said: 1--WE get along pretty
WELL" but the look on her face told
more than the words she spoke. I'VE
20 need the elevator" she continued,
lit is an absolute necessity in this in
stitution." If some Of the certain rich
mem might have seen and heard her
they might have well thought of the
(. needles eye and the narrow gate to
glory.
The sisters are not askers. They beg
that the debt shall not be mentioned.
But it should be mentioned, if not by
them then by us. The elevator should
pc mentioned. The splendid hospital
Ind the quiet but splendid work 1t Is
!. aoing in this city should be mentioned
3 Ind by those for whom it is doing. ut
should be mentioned over and over un-
I'll the institution is free from debt to
Z The credit of Marshalltown and the
absolute necessities. Of an up-to-date
hospital for an up-to-date city have
been fully supplied.
More than the university, than the
8 club, than many other institutions for
which money is freely given, and which
!. the liberality Of the rich establish, are
the hospitals, which touch the present
and direst need. They should be en-