Year: 1869

$lO62 VI
There has not been case of small pox within
the limits of the county, while all of the
FIVE counties adjoining Shasta have been invaded
by this pestlence. Our good fortune in the
past. however, is security for the future. In
asmuch as liable to have a case precipitated
upon Us at any hour, | recommend that suitable
pest house be built upon the Hospital grounds, al
a safe distance from the present Hospital build
ings.


Within the last few months some dissatisfaction
has been manifested at the presence Of Chinese in
the Hospital. The last Grand jury taking cog
nizance IF this subject, in their report say:


g The inmates express dissatisfaction in being
mixed with Cinnamon. We would recommend
TO the Board of Supervisors to remedy the nui-
sance, if possible"


The Chinese seldom seek admission into Ameri-
can Hospitals, but for the last four months we
have had one Chinese patient in the County Hos
pital Last fall several citizens of Shasta informed
that there sick and destitute Chinaman
at Chinatown, that they thought should he taken
to the Hospital. Upon inquiry | learned that he
was brutally neglected by his own countrymen.-
Why they thus treated him is yet mystery. !
went to the place where he lay. He was the most
wretched creature | ever Helpless and al
most speechlcss from palsy. his own country men
had neither clothed nor fed him, scarcely given
him drink of water. Had not the citizens in the
vicinity occasionally ministered to his wants be
would have perished-died naked, of desttution,
of starvation. Polloks thrilling description of
poverty the lowest of Eer ragged sons seemed
no longer fancy sketch from wrought
imagination of the poet. 1t a scene where the
sum of human miseries vast that no power
of fiction could magnify it.


This was taken to the County Hospital,
where the law and humanity alike dictated he
should go. In the warm weather he seldom in
a room, o even in the house with the other in
mates. He eats and sleeps alone but in the in
clement weather he warns himself by the same fire
with the other patients.


1t would be difficult to have this Chinaman in
the Hospital without the other inmates being
mixed with him much they now are If we
put the Chinaman in room by himself, to keep
the other patients from being mixed with him, he
must have fire during the cold weather or he
will suffer: but he is not safe to be alone with fire.
This would not only put his own, but the lives of
all the other patients in jeopardy. If we hire a
Chinese assistant to watch and attend him, we
might keep the sick Chnaman out of sight, but,
them the assistant in the performance of his duties
would be mixed with the other patients. If we
hire white man for an assistant, he would get
worse mixed with the Chnaman than the patients
now


The subject under consideration presents novel
coincidence. While our Governor and other high
officials, Federal and State, together with the
prineely merchants of the great commercial me-
tropolis of the Pacific coast, esteem it distin-
gulshed honor to dine with the of the Celestial
Empire, here in the Shasta County Hospital it is
deemed nuisance for single, solitary China
man to himself by the same fire with the
other inmates of the institution.


This is the only Chinaman ever admitted to the
Hospital for the last eight years. During this Pc
| rod the Chinese, mainly through the two dollar
capitaton tax have paid into the Hospital Fund, in
the aggregate, between nine and ten thousand dol
lars which is nearly twenty-five per cent of all the
moneys paid into that fund for the same period.
| know your honorable Board will entertain no
proposition to exclude people from the benefits of
the Hospital who are heavily taxed to support it.
The eccentric John Randolph a vindctive
opponent of protective tariff. The high duties on
wool, to foster that interest, once so wrought him
into frenzy, that he said he never saw a sheep
without wanting to kick it. Our dislike to the
Mongolans is excuse for cruelty treating them,
and to deny the benefits of the Hospital to this
miserable, friendless, palsied old Chinaman would
be worse than the misplaced vengeance of John
Randolph against the harmless sheep.


Respectfully submitted.


BENZ. SHURTLEFF,


Hospital Physician.


Shasta, Feb 1, 1869.