" I have
nothing but a feeling of compassion and sorrow for those abject
creatures who mistreated me when I was sick, knowing that they, as well
as those whom they mistreated, were but the victims of this pernicious
system.
In the desperate struggle for a mere existence, most men and women are
forced into employment for which they are entirely unfitted, and
consequently take no other interest in their work than that of receiving
their weekly or monthly stipend. This fact was thoroughly demonstrated
to me by the action of several nurses who appeared to look upon their
work as tasks to be executed mechanically, instead of duties to be
performed with pleasure. Then again, others who really preferred the
work were either kept away from it entirely, or else made dull, peevish
and irritable by the great number of hours they were forced to be on
duty each day, thus turning what should have been pleasant employment
into a drudgery. And like the nurses, so were the orderlies; their daily
work hours were so long and their pay so small that only the least
intelligent and most stupid moral idiots could be secured to take
positions that should be filled by men of the very highest intelligence,
character and sympathy.
The physicians themselves I found to be inexperienced youths, generally
masquerading under a set of whiskers, which some people are foolish
enough to mistake for brains and ability. Coming direct from the medical
colleges, they accepted these positions in order to gain some practical
experience at the expense of the lives of the hospital patients.
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