Los Angeles herald., 1910-11-25
THANKFUL DESPITE
ACHES AND PAINS
Inmates of County Hospital Have
Never-to-Be Forgotten
Holiday Celebration

"And each one got q big belleheur
apple"
There used to be period when a
story began with "Once upon time"
and ended with "They lived happy
ever after" but those phrases-both
for the beginning and ending-were su-
perseded by "And each one got big
bellefieur apple" when the inmates OF
the county hospital told the story of
their Thanksgiving day
That big belleheur apple seemed to
take the position of the tabled last
word"-there was nothing more to be
said about a Thanksgiving dinner
which was crowned with such an event.
The "apple" incident is far from
closed one and it seems destined to
be told and retold by the sick and the
halt and the blind who are the guests
of the county at its hospital.
To use a Hibernianism, Thanksglv-
ing day at the county hospital really
began the night before, when the men,
bers of the Christian Endeavor union
of Los Angeles gathered in the chapel
of the institution and presented a ut
erary and musical entertainment Tor
the pleasure of the patients.
That made them sleep more happily
and temporarily forget their physical
pains and ailments and gave them
the day when one is supposed to reflect
upon the things for which he should
be thankful
So the day began with the 450 pa
tients thinking and talking about the
pleasures of the night before and with
anticipating the gastronomic delights
which they had been told would be
ready for them at noon. And they
were, too.
NONE Is FORGOTTEN
And the patients, some in wheeled
chairs, some on crutches and some
haltingly walking alone, all obtained
their full portions of an unusually
good dinner, which consisted of cream
of celery soup, turkey with oyster
dressing and cranberry sauce, escai-
loped oysters, French peas, pumpkin
and mince pies, seven kinds of cake
and tea, coffee and milk.
SOME DINE IN BED
And-that "big bellefleur apple which
each one got'' and of which each one
told afterward as they sprawled In
the nearest approach to comfort pos
sible for invalids on the sunny lawns
or sat upon the verandas or even lay
| in bed, according to their various con-
ditions. Those who were unable even
! to wheel themselves into the dining
| rooms had their meals taken to their
| bedsides and the inmates of the insane
ward, the maternity ward, the tuber-
| cular ward-where many live entirely
upon a bright porch upon which their
| beds are made-all had their shares of
| the feast-not forgetting the apple.
And they were thankful, too. They
appreciated that no matter what their
| conditions are, they still might pe
worse. and regardless of aches and
pains and doubts about complete re-
covery, they heartily entered into the
! spirit of the day.
'"There was Captain" I. N. Strick-
Ter, for instance, 72 years old and the
victim of an odd accident which re-
suited in the amputation of leg. He
! sat in a wheeled chair on porch ana
cheerfully declared himself thankful
that both legs had not been cut Off.
He praised the institution and It's otl-
cials, the doctor who operated on him
| and, like all the others, did not over
look the apple.
For seven wears Captain" Strickler
who fought for the Union in the Civil
War. has been in the city health de-
partment, being in charge of the quar-
antine station in Chavez ravine. He
| is a member of the Bartlett-Logan
Grand Army post and the Army ana
! NAVY club. He was standing one day
watching a man shaking dice at cigar
e+and when somebody else who also
was watching stepped suddenly back
ward, placing the heel of his shoe hard
on the Captains" great toe.
NOT DISCOURAGED BY LOSS
blood poison did its work and the old
man now has only one leg, but still is
NOT discouraged and is looking brightly
| forward to the time when he Will be
able to resume his work.
And Johnny McCandless, who has
been at the county hospital for six
wears. was thankful. He is one of the
most thankful inmates and does not
! confine his thankfulness to one day
of the year, either. He goes about
smiling all the time and is popular
alike with fellow inmates and with the
doctors and nurses. He keeps his hands
| in his pockets all the time so that no
one will notice that he is suffering
from motor paralysis, which claimed
| him as a victim eleven years ago. lie
| knows that he never will be cured ana
though he is only 40 years old he is
regisned to his fate and keeps bright
and sunny, anyway.
Tn the "baby' ward, which adjoins
the maternity department and is JOG
ularlv called the Emusic room" by the
nurses because of the fact that babies
sometimes cry, there were five mites or
humanity yesterday who at least
| looked JQdnkLul. IHSy NSlC <A6hC7
Sanges, three months old, who is af-
ficted with spinal disease; Jacob Kuhn,
a week old: Dorothy COOK, also week
old and the pet of the nurses because
she has such big. dark eyess "Baby'
| Domain, twelve days old, and Merce-
des Levre, five days old. Their moth
ers are being cared for near at hand
and once in a while are permitted to
snuggle their little creatures close up
to them, as mothers like to do.
PLANS SCHOOL FOR AGED
An interesting inmate of the wom-
| EMS ward is DR.. M. Augusta Fa1rchild
one of the first female physicians in
the United States. She graduated from
a medical school in New York in 1861
and has been working at her profess
sion ever since. She laughs at the
physician, heal thyself'' theories and
SAYS she is thankful she was able to
| go to the county hospital. She also
is thankful for some one to talk to and
is full of a plan for an 'altengar-
ten" the antithesis of kindergarten.
! She wants to work among elderly peo-
ple and teach them that they do not
! need to grow old. She intends to es-
| tablish the "altengarten" in Los An
geles and has already decided that no
person who is not at least 40 years old
| can become a student of her theories.
Another thankful person at the in
| stitution is All How, a Chinese, who
| tells about himself like this: "Yes,