Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-03
TRAVELS IN PHILADELPHIA
In the City Called BloekIey
DEHIND the bleak walls Of the Pbilod


dies and traditions all its own. Most of the
buildings are old, and from the outside, es-
pecially over the wall from the street, their
gray sides and tall, narrow windows seem
very grim and forbidding. But once safely
within the gates this impression Is not con
firmed, and IL hospitals can in any measure
be thought of as cheerful places, this one, in
spite OF its ashen walls, really achieves
something of that effect.
A very pleasant and well Informed young
lady, In the blue, red lined shawl of a resi-
dent nurse, undertook to pilot me through
the mases OF the plant. A long walk we had
OF 1t, for there are wide stretches of asphalt
street out along the tree line, brick path
ways and, inside the buildings, miles of floors
that CLEAN In a sheen of golden brown far of
into the distance.
We stepped first into the village drug store.
on the left Of which stretches a playground
for crippled or convalescent children. The
playground is also used for the amusement
of those young ones who, during their
mothers Illness, have nowhere else to CO.
For these children there is also visiting
teacher, who reads to them and supervscs
their play.
ENROM the dispensary we went on into the
receiving ward, where incoming patients
have all their clothing and effects packsd
away and listed while they take the "es+
trance BATH and are examined by the
physician. As looked into one Of the re-
ceiving rooms / saw on the little blackboard
the curious inscription, do not admit X,
or H." X, Y or z, learned, were the
names OF certain public characters who have
become notorious for resorting to the hospital
on all occasions and then refusing to take
proper treatment or insisting on violating all
the institutions rules.
We went on then by a surgical ward where
there were few scholarly looking old men,
sitting up in bed reading books and papers,
and good many more staring vacantly into
space through dull, unintelligent eyes.
Most folk who have no resource Of reading
to fall back on spend their hospital hours in
sort of unhappy vegetable existence; and
Of course in Blockley, where all the rooms
are wards and where the patients represent
the run Of the laboring population, their
number is large. But for all that l saw
hardly single ward where there were not
several fine, intelligent faces bent over papers
or books.
Upstairs on the second floor my guide
paused at the door of another ward to wave
at little figure over by a distant window.
There was an answering wave and the
flash of n Smile from a frail white face.
That's Johnnie said my guide, and then
explained to me that Johnnie was a little
boy, now twelve years old, who had spent
three quarters of his life in the hospital.
demanded a chance to see Johnnie, so we
went over together and stood by his bedside.
The boy laid down his paper and smiled up
at his visitors He put out his thin little
hand and shook mine warmly. Then he pro-
ceeded to show me his recently acquired
treasure-a valentine with tall, round red
headed windmill and dimplng, rosy Cupid
peeping between the blades of the wheel.
There was a pair of scissors in reach for
cutting out pictures, and beside the bed a
weaving frame with warp of long, blue
threads.
But Johnnie is troubled with pains that no
surgery has ever cured, and he works at his
weaving frame only on his very good days.
do you ever read books?" l asked, see
ing some lurid creation Of Wild Wester
laid out under the windmill.
Not often" answered Johnnie, with his
persistent, searching smile; my pains won't
leave me alone very long at time
But Tom Sawyer or Treasure
lsland'?" No, Johnnie had never heard Of
those books. / turned from the little form on
the bed and looked out of the window. E.
But after all these years John can still
smile and joke about the hospital and seems
really in love with his nurses. That shows,
DtlltNt, Il STtuL uPdl dDOuJ Ine nerve OF
Johnnie, and also tells something worth tell
ing aboht the spirit of the folk ut BlocklCy.
THERE was another smiling, dark haired
young patient in the same long ROOM He
was sitting up in a wheel-chai weaving
rafia. His basket work, which looked very
neat and promising, and Johnnie's rug are
part of the result of the activity of the divi-
sion Of occupational therapy which is doing
so much to relieve the tedium of long illness
by teaching patients suitable forms of quiet
craft work that may add to their future use
fulness and give them employment for their
| many idle hours.
THERE are grim things in hospital prac-
l. tice--one Of them was hinted at in the
| heavy barred and locked doors of the two drug
wards. but it was hopeful to see that few
| indeed of the lines of beds are now tenanted
and that in the mems drug ward one patient
was sitting calmly reading by the window
At least one OF these grim things, however
| has departed, for over the barred door of
| Ward IS, the notorious drunk ward of the
| old hospital was stretched the muslin cur
| tain which indicates that the patients inside
| are victims of infectious illness, the drunk
ward, with all Of it's delirious horrors, being
now permanently converted to the sober
| treatment Of another less preventable dis
ease.
WE PASSED out into the Blockley streets
| w again through the kitchens, where all the
| patients food is prepared and thence trans
ported in heat retaining boxes to the various
sections Of the plant. Dinner was now out
| in the wards, but so perfect YVES the domestic
economy here that not soul was in sight {;
| all the great pots and utensils were shining
and back in place. and there was not one
spot or speck on all the long stretches of the
kitchen floor.
THE research laboratories are to be in
l. stalled in a fine new building which has
| every possible resource for pathologic and
/ meteorological investigation. Their compile
| tion will mark a new and highly important
step in the advancement of medical and sur
gical research for the city Of Philadelphia.
| DUT the most cheerful spot in all Block
ID ley and the one that explains in large