Charity, holy though the poets sing her, and beautiful the painters
picture her lineaments, is, after all, a hag, if real; or only an ideal
being, at best, if we are to judge her by her precious, favored
children, the almoners she sometimes employs to dispense her bounties.
In New York a great many vulgar wretches are, from time to time,
officially connected with the charitable institutions under control of
the city government. Bellevue Hospital was, in 1869, the theatre of
some of these base fellows' operations.
These men were protected by the "Citizens Association," so called,--a
self-constituted body of very respectable gentlemen, whose business it
is to see that everything in the city is properly conducted; gentlemen
of high moral tone, the hems of whose phylacteries (made of invisible
or abstract "great moral worth," "solid character," "piety," "good
standing in society," and visible and real amounts of greenbacks, all
interwoven in some mysterious way, and which together constitute
"dignity," we believe), are broad enough to out-Pharisee those
marvelous gentlemen in Christ's time who made Jerusalem such a genial
place of residence, with their "long prayers."
In July, 1869, the Citizens' Association published, through the
newspapers of the city, what they called the result of an investigation
of the several institutions under the control of the Commissioners of
Charities and Corrections, in which they assured the public that these
institutions were all properly and well conducted, and felicitated the
said public that the said institutions were in charge of such high
toned and efficient gentlemen as they named.
But there was a man in New York, who, when he read the Citizens'
Association's manifesto, thought it a most astonishing falsehood,
either of the kind known as a lie, or of that kind which people tell
sometimes when they are talking of things about which they know
nothing; for his duties had called him to Bellevue Hospital on sundry
occasions, and he had there witnessed, with his own eyes, sundry things
which made his blood boil with indignation; and when he read the
manifesto of the Citizens' Association, he determined to correct it.
Of what this man had seen at Bellevue Hospital, some faint conception
may be formed from the following facts: There was scarcely a bed
there, in any of the wards, which was free from vermin; patients who
took most care of the beds, were always liable to get lousy in the
water closets; only a single clean sheet a week was allowed, no
matter how filthy a bed might become through the poor patient's weak
misfortunes; the blankets were dirty; to keep the coverlets clean,
for "whited-sepulchre" purposes, when visitors called, they were
taken off nights; the cooking of the institution was done by a
drunken, filthy cook, and was served to the patients on what had once
been tin dishes, but had been so often polished "clean" that they had
became rusty sheet-iron plates; the "orderlies," who were paid to
attend to the sick, were tyrannical, and little or no attention was
paid to the complaints of the sufferers. The only thing a poor sick
man had to sit on was a stool, with a seat of about twelve inches by
fourteen inches in size, without a back (and most of the sick had
weak backs). The sick poor, picked up in the streets, for example,
and carried there, had their outer garments taken off, and were put
to bed without washing, with their under clothes on, and had no
"change of raiment" till they died! The wards were cold in winter,
and the poor were glad of even their filthy rags to keep them warm.
Generally the bed in which a poor fellow died remained as he left it,
unchanged, for the comfort of the next occupant and corpse! But this
is quite enough, we opine, for the reader's entire satisfaction.
Of course this "Augean stable" needed cleansing, and the Citizens'
Association needed enlightening, or reforming, whichever is the proper
term in the case, and that man to whom we have alluded knew how to do
it. The Tribune and Evening Post, when informed of the true state of
affairs, cheerfully gave space in their columns for the facts, and
appealed to the Citizens' Association to revise their work of voluntary
report-making. We have before us a copy of the Evening Post of date
September 1, 1869, containing a long editorial article on "Bellevue
Hospital," mostly made up of a letter (which was written by a poor,
disabled soldier, then "confined" in Bellevue Hospital), setting forth
some of the luxuries, conveniences, the neatness, etc., enjoyed at
Bellevue Hospital. (It appears that the only decent thing connected
with the hospital then, was the medical care which was pronounced
excellent.)
The article alluded to, called on the Citizens' Association "which, by
a recent publication, has made itself in some sort responsible for the
good management of the city charities," to "investigate" the matter
(out of courtesy it ought to have said, "_re_-investigate," but it
didn't).
The secretary of the Citizens' Association visited one of the editors
of a city paper, and stated that Bellevue Hospital was the only
institution under the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections which
he had _not_ personally visited! and after two weeks' delay, the
Citizens' Association sent a committee of investigation to the
hospital, and found everything all right, of course, and drew up a
report, which, however, was never published; for when they presented
the same for publication, the wary editors required that the report, if
it were to appear in their columns, should be followed by affidavits of
proper parties, showing that the iniquities complained of existed at
Bellevue Hospital when the complaints were made.
The result was, that reforms so much needed at Bellevue Hospital were
made there; for which hosts of patients have since been grateful. It is
said that the authorities of the hospital offered a hundred dollars
reward for the person who wrote, or instigated the writing, of the
various letters to the press, exposing the state of things there, and
which wrought the reform. But they were not successful at the time in
discovering their enemy, and the poor patients' friend; for the
bringing to light, and subjecting of these outrages at Bellevue
Hospital to public condemnation, was one of Officer McWatters' many
silent Good Samaritan deeds, and he did not intend to have them or the
public know who wrought it. Besides, the officials were powerful, and
might do him great harm, in their indignation at his exposure of their
wickedness, and it would not have been wise in him to act too openly.
But time enough has passed now, we presume, to calm their animosity;
and having possessed ourselves of the facts without Officer McWatters'
knowledge, we think it proper that the credit due him in this matter be
acknowledged here.