The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-17
"Santa Claus Joe"
  He Makes a Happy Christ mas For Two Lovers
By ANNIE HINRICHSEN Copyright. 1910, by American Press
 Association.

 MI Association lll Joe was a Portuguese urchin, six years old and untidy with the accu- mulated soil of all his seasons. He lived with his father and mother and numerous brothers and sisters in di- lapidated cabin in the outskirts of the city.
 Their neighbors were fellow expa- triates speaking their own tongue and continuing their own customs. and Joe's only knowledge of the world that lay beyond the truck farms had been gained when he went with his father to peddle vegetables in the city. A bullet intended for a rabbit enter ca Joe's leg, and he was brought to the hospital
 Miss Merton, a senior nurse, was his '1ady." She was with him through the days when ali his world was full of horrors.
 She vas his first nurse and the one he first felt was his friend.
 In hospital living and dying move according to certain laws. The prog ress of a case is routine to the experi- enced ones. Dissolution takes place in certain known steps.
 But one element of which no account ls taken, for which no calculation Is made, is the love of a man and a wo- man
 In the hospilAl life there is no place for it. A nurses time and thoughts gro devoted to her work. Her love and sympathy belong to her patients. Concerning the relations of doctors and nurses hospital etiquette is strict It demands that these relations be ab- solutely professional. The reputation Of . hospital depends on the discipline maintained within its walls, and the laws of St. Anne's were enforced with severity.
 When interests quite unprofessiopal arsw together . senior nurse and one & the young physicians of the hospital 0ea6 there appeared difficulties and smbarfassments. and the courtship, un- def tho adverse circumstances of dis approbation, conscience and lack of t1ma. plaes and opportunity, made s3ew and halting progress, with fire a0snt backward steps.
 "WM you % for a walk tonightr' ssksd Dr. Knight one morning when Wfth Aiss Aerton's assistance he was aSssains Joss wound. -s,--.s swlth your Certainly"
 And meet all the heads and few doctors and nursesT'
 There are places where heads and doctors and nurses don't go"
 ~Yes. on back streets. hate that ssrt of thing-going out alone and nseting you on a corner and sneaking aloay back streets"
 There is no other way we can see each other. You will come tonight, won't your
 She shook her head. T graduate next spring" she said, little wist- fully. Can't we wait till then to be friendsF"
 Whats the use of waiting? No one your previous good record will save ycu."
 The words and tone were blunt and careless.
 Miss Merton did not answer. She fastened Joe's bandage and left the room
 As she passed him Dr. Knight saw her face, hurt, proud and angry, all its sweetness gone
 For many days Mr. Knight saw Miss Merton only in the presence of others. She avoided him in the corridors and met him only in the rooms of patients. There was nothing he could say to her.
 A man cannot apologize with words for a wordless insult, and he cannot by appealing, penitence expressing looks affect a moving, marble statue that never sees him.
 Christmas was near, and the nurses were preparing for it. Joe was po- ntely interested ill the decorations of the ward, but he seemed unconscious of the reasons for them.
 Those are Christmas greens, Joe, ' said Miss Merton in answer to his in quiry.
 Joe looked puzzled.
 Have you ever seen Christmas greens before, Joe?'
 "No'm; I never seen Christmas greens before"
 But you know all about Christmas don't youT'
 Nom; didn't never know nothin at an about that"
 Joe, have you never heard of Christ masT'