Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-14


Dun and dreary thoroughfafes they
are now. Swallowed by the impercep
tihle impenetrable veil of discouraged
souls Even on the days when sun
shine polIrs down upon Chicago the
ncighhnrhood Just beyond the river
catches only enough of the Danaite
shower to thicken its grayness of
asnoct Tho gold filters into pale
patina on widespread ramparts of
great hospitals and medical colleges
OF Presbyterian and Cook County OF
Rush. Of Physicians and Surgeons, on
dozens Of smaller institutions clustered
around them. on thousands g shall
houses marked by signs of Fur
nished Rooms and leaves so liitl'
Of it's glow that even in the sunset
the district gives back but feeble
chickering's of radiance.
STRANGELY though. 1t stays lani
Of youth. Quarter Latin of west
ern world its gloomy streets ever
worn by the restless feet of those who
seek the city's guerdons of fame and
fortune. its midtown houses. shelter
for boys and girls ready and willing
to battle for their dreams Perhaps
to these crusaders of later genera
tons freedom the neighborhood is as
brave an ACincourt as 1t used to be
to Amy Brooks and myself. when we
sought the meanings of life and love
and death and eternity under the
grim palisades of the County Hospital.
Amy Brooks was In her last year al
the Lister Medical College when ]
CHANGED to meet her in the way |
met so many of the city's figures OF
drama. high and low. in the course
OF news story. Sh" was not the
story's chief actor but she was its
stage director. for she was handling
publicity for the college in payment
of her tuition. and it is likely that |
would have passed out of her ken
without much further thought of her.
if IL had not been for her eXtraordi-
nary gift of human sympathy. I
lived in the neighborhood of the col.
lege, and she fell into the habit of
picking me up when she needed com
panionship-or. more probably, when
she thought l needed it.
Outside the hours OF my own work
I went with her through the post
graduate of liberal education. to
clinics at Rush. to court hearings at
the Psychopathic. to lectures at p.
and S.
The bond between us was our love
of the city. but l realized even then
that hers was broader. bigger emo.
ton than was mine. In those days ]
loved Chicago for its spreading piano.
rama, for the thrill of its power, the
vision of its future. the drama of its
stories Amy Brooks loved Chicago |
Cor it's poor. Her profession was to
her,oI believe. merely a means to the |
end OF giving service to those who |
needed it most That was why she |
counted the cost of struggle not at all. |
She was amazingly equipped for her |
work, with a physical endurance that |
never failed her and shrewdness that |
saw around corners in everything but |
her own sentimental affairs. Even |
by the stretch of kindly recollection, |
she could not be accounted beautiful, |
but she had two assets of lasting |
charm-the quality Of understa nding |
and speaking voice with the timbre |
without effort on her part, but I never |
saw either a man who sought her il |
she failed to notice him, or a man who /
resisted her IL she chose to attract |
him. That was why did not believe |
her when she told me that Mark Pres |
ton had come to love her against his |
will and her own.
You worked for him." I accused |
her.
II didn't. truly" she protested. He |
was the lawyer for that awful Ca |
miardi. trying to get the children away |
from that poor woman, and hated |
him so that I'd have scratched him |
II he'd won that case"
you saw that he didn't" NJ
Yes, and then he called me at the +
college and said that he had to see
me. thought it was something about |
the children and let him come. Now
can't lose him"
Amy"
Its true. and the joke of it is that
he doesn't really want to love me any |
more than I want him to-"
4 \ u
TT was certainly true, as far as out.
ward appearance went, that Pres
ton was the victim Of an unrecipro-
Gated passion for Amy. He was a
young lawyer, struggling, ambitious.
Through the few months that re-
naained of her course at Lister he was
literally under her feet. for he waited
for her In the gloomy corridors OF the
college with doglike tenacity. even
after he came to know that she some
times evaded him by back-door de.
partures. He annoyed her at f1rst,
then amused her, and gradually she
Admitted him into comradeship, and
then she began to love him.
That love, nourished by the thou
sand and one springs of her easily
aroused emotionalism, fiourished like
a green bay tree. If she was no mig.
gard In friendship, she was a profit.
gate in love. The devotion, the self
abriegation. the sympathy she poured
out upon Preston would have suffIced
q dozen. ordinary women through a
dozen lifetimes. So tremendous was
the tide of her love that II periled
Preston's desire for her. and, had 1t
not been for her determination to fin.
ish the work she had set out to do
for herself, it is likely that she would
have lost him through the very VIC.
lence OF her newly awakened wish to
hold him.
She had made up her mind, how.
ever, to go through an internsk; In
one OF the women's hospitals before
she married, and nothing Preston
could say moved her from that deter.
nina ton.
IRA be cheating myself and all the
other women who try to be DOCTORS"
the grade to let any one slip back be.
fore she comes to the top Of the hill"
Against Preston's arguments and
pleas she held out for that year of
intensive experience, and finally won
an appointment to work in the Clara
Clayton Foundation, which DIR. Anna
Lebcovic's surgical skill was already
making famous.
On the night she took her degree
Preston gave Amy hundreds Of roses
and an ultimatum that she must
marry him the next day. He was 60.
ing to Texas on a case that might
keep him away for several months,
and he wanted her to so with him.
Il can't" she protested, standing
among the roses i'm her cap and
gown. Il start at the hospital next
Monday"
Don't you think I'm more impor-
tant than the hospital?"
Not more important" she coun.
tered. than my faith In myself. I've