The Greeley tribune., 1910-09-08

The jailer had been forced to get
out Of bed to let him in. As re-
suit when the old man mumbled
something in his Inconsistencies
the jailer kicked him in the head
and the police surgeon to do the job
up right kicked him in the side. And
30 they left the old fellow and the
next day he was taken to the county
hospital. He recovered after six
months and was hurried out of
town.
One of the great problems in every
town in the state is what disposition
to make OF those paupers coming
here from other states suffering
with incurable diseases. The county
hospitals will not accept them and
there has been more than one sui
eide, the direct result of the combi-
nation OF want and disease. OF
course as soon as one county in any
state makes 1t known that the
pauper sick of another state may
find shelter there they would be
! shipped out by the score to leech on
the other state. But the question is
none the less a serious one.
The usual method followed is to
pay the expenses of the sick person
to another state and thus the penni-
less one is pushed from one state to
another and finally worn out with
the ravages of disease. takes the
ending of his troubles into his own
hands.
The cases are frequent all over
the state. One of the most pitiful
came up in Denver about a year ago.
| One day the police ambulance was
called to a bridge near the Jail cross
| ing Cherry creek. Lying in the
creek bed, apparently drunk. was a
young boy. If there is anything cal
culated to arouse the ire of police
surgeon it is to have the ambulance
| called out on simple drunk" case
which is the business of the patrol.
Hence the young fellow, believed
by the surgeon to be drunk, was
taken to the Jail where he remained
all night 1t was noticed at the time
he was taken into the cell that he
was crippled. He was turned out
the next morning, the jailer having
ascertained that the young fellow
was not drunk but had merely fall
len from the bridge and was parti-
ally stunned as he had explained to
the police surgeon the night before.
Nothing more was heard OF him
until about a week later. One night
a Union Pacific watchman brought |
the same cripple to the captains Of
fee at the station. He had caught |
the hoy, who was scarcely more than
is years of age, just as he was about
to throw himself under \ train.
1t then transpired that the young
fellow was suffering from an ad-
vanced case of tuberculosis of the
lower limbs and was in a precarious
condition. But there was no place
to send him. Chief Armstrong Of
fered to send him to the county hos
pital in the police ambulance but the
authorities there refused to accept
him, stating that it was against the
law to receive pauper patients from
other states. The boy had been ship
ped to Denver by the authorities of
an Illinois county but a month be-
fore.
There was but one means to be
taken to get him into the county
hospital. That was to go through
the red tape of taking him before a
justice of the peace and having him
committed to the county jail as
vag and then of taking him out to
the county hospital as i'll.
And here was an instance where
the much cursed yellow" news
paper did more good than most peo-
pie are ready to admit. The police
reporters go: together and sent up a
heart throb" story to every paper
in town with the result that when
the young fellow came up in justice
court next morning and was about
to be sentenced to sixty days in the
county Jail a nurse from promi-
nent Denver family was present and
requested permission to take the boy
to the home of the Denver man. The
judge allowed the request and for
five weeks the lad was we'll cared
for when he died.
And these cases are not rare. The
same conditions prevail in Greeley.
When a man, sick unto death comes
here, shipped perhaps with the un-
derstanding that he will be able to
enter the county hospital. and finds
that there is not place for him to