The Meeker herald., 1917-06-16
Hospital Experience

to his brother, Charley Taylor. In
cidentalIy, hosts of personal and po-
litical friends in this county will be
glad to hear that "Richard is himself
again.
WASHINGTON, MAY IL, 1917.
Hon. Charles W. Taylor,
Glenwood Springs, Colo.
MY DEAR BROTHER:
Lam just out Of the hospital and
back to the office for the first time in
three weeks, and am delighted to let
you know the doctors say am doing
just as good rs possible. While All
AS weak AS diluted water, they say
will very rapidly recover. and that 1t
will only be two or three weeks until
"Richard is himself again. While
Eta and the children have seen me
every day, the last three weeks have
been n tiresOne and rather lonesome
blank. but am delighted to be back
10 earth again, to be able to assume
the perpendicular and realize the
very great difference between six
feet above earth's surface and six
feet below, that can rapidly forget
my three weeks eclipse. Besides. i
have received SO many kind express
sions of sympathy and good wishes
from all over Colorado that it is Il
great comfort and relief to know that
n fellow has so many kind and
thoughtful friends.
There were several kinds OF grim,
humorous and ludicrous instances,
that think you would appreciate.
now that it is all over; although they
were not hilariously funny to me at
the time. In the first place. the
doctor fixed the date Of the operation
for Friday morning, the 10th Of
April, and told me to report there
the evening before. AS | left my
office and started over to the Con-
gress Hall hotel to get some little
things to take to the hospital, i
passed a darkie dolefully whistling.
"There Will be- One Vacant Chair"
When l reached my rooms I found a
letter notifying me had been elected
to a prominent order and requesting
me to at once make my will and send
it in for deposit among the archives
Next morning after they had pre-
pared me for the operation and | was
lying stretched out like n bundle of
laundry, there was funeral across
the street and the church bell WAS
mnurnfully tolling and | had to lie
there about twenty minutes and
listen to that while the surgeons
were finishing carving up another
fellow before my turn. just before
started to the operating room n nurse
took my pulse. An freshman who
was apparently strengthening things
around, when the nurse went away
looked up at me with twinkle in
his eye and said, when your pulse
gets down low enough they will give
you drink of whisky But FORUM
ately my pulse never got low enough
to get that drink of whisky.
e. l supposed the operation was to be
q strictly private affair, but when ]
WAS wheeled into the operating room.
I found a number OF surgeons, ply
sicians. assistants and nurses. l at
first felt somewhat complimented at
having such an audience in attend
ance at my opening exercises. But
when / looked at the assistants
standing around with oxygen and
hydrogen and other resucitating APP
paratus, and noticed that they had II
kind of eXpectant air about them, it
was not enthusiastically encouraging.
They looked to me rs if they would
be disappointed il something didn't
happen. There was II kind of funeral
air of solemnity and dubious futurity
about the whole performance that
WAS somewhat disquieting and omni-
GUS. | tried to look and act rs ma
tural and unconcerned as possible.
but i secretly wondered how many
more evil Omens could conveniently
bob up, and / told the surgeons to go
ahead.
They did not give me an apaes-
thetic. just used cocaine and move
caine and lay there and talked with
them as cheerfulIy as possible for an
hour and quarter while they cut and
sewed me and tied, and strange to
say it did not hurt a particle and l
did not get faint.
That night along in the night when
I couldn't sleep and was in consider
able pain and had to lay straight on
my back. counting the cracks in the
ceiling, there was fellow went up
the street, under my window Justify
whistling, Goodbye Girls, I'm
Through" But l am delighted to
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