The bricklayer, who devotes his life to the honorable work of building
the edifice; the hod carrier, who gives his best services to the
community in an equally honorable employment; the locomotive engineer,
who safely carries from city to city a train load of human beings each
day for many years, are only fit to be practiced upon by inexperienced
physicians, and abused by irritable nurses and cruel orderlies, if they
are finally overcome by sickness and enter a charity hospital for
treatment.
For several days I lay upon my little ward cot in the Ruff Hospital,
with my life hanging in the balance, and obliged to accept for succor
the abuse and mistreatment of an inferior house staff. And worse still,
I had to be an eye witness to cruelties imposed upon other and less
fortunate sufferers than myself. I feel sure that many a poor fellow
that I saw carried away upon a stretcher, a lifeless corpse, had given
up all hope of recovery and died, for the want of a few cheering words
and kindly sympathy from sonic one, instead of the constant abuse and
brutality he was subjected to.
I fully believe that I myself must have inevitably succumbed to my
pitiless treatment, had it not been for the fact that the young girl,
Arletta, visited me each day for a half hour, bestowing upon me a tender
sympathy, and manifesting the greatest concern for my welfare and
recovery.
I was placed in a most peculiar position. I could get no information
whatsoever from the doctors, nurses, or orderlies, and even Arletta said
very little, and cautioned me against talking or exciting myself in any
manner.
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