BELLEVUE AND A NEW INMATE.
A gloomy home for one like this;
So pure, so gentle and so fair,--
Must her sweet life, in weariness,
Go out for lack of human care?
The carriage which bore Mrs. Chester paused before the gates at
Bellevue. The gloomy and prison-like buildings loomed in heavy and
sombre masses before the stranger, as he leaned from the carriage
to deliver his order to the gatekeeper. The Hospital, with its walls
of dark stone blackened by age, its sombre wings sweeping out from
the main building and lowering above the massive walls, struck him
with a feeling of gloom. It seemed like a prison that he was entering.
The Hospitals were drear to him, and the dull, heavy atmosphere seemed
full of contagion. He looked at the poor creature thus unconsciously
brought there, perhaps to die, and his heart swelled with compassion.
The gate swung open, and down a paved causeway leading to the water,
bounded on one side by a high stone wall, and on the other by a bakery
and various workshops belonging to the institutions, the carriage
was driven. The wharf in which this causeway terminated, was full
of lounging inmates; some were attempting to fish in the turbid water;
others leaning half asleep against the wall, and some were grouped
together, not in conversation, but basking lazily in the sunshine.
Before it reached this wharf the carriage turned and was driven
through an iron-studded gate, into an open and paved court that ran
along the front of the main Alms House. The hospitals were some
distance back of this building, but here the sick and dying must be
brought first, for their names were to be registered in the Alms House
books before they could be permitted to die in peace.
As the carriage drove in, up came the swarm of idlers from the wharf,
dragging themselves heavily along, laughing stupidly at the ponderous
gambols and grimaces of a huge idiot boy, who, on seeing a new
arrival, rolled rather than walked up from the water with his hand
extended, crying out--money--money. It was all the language the poor
creature possessed. He had learned to beg, and that was knowledge
enough for him. In everything else he was the merest animal that
crawled the earth. Yet, the other paupers followed him as they would
have chased a dog or tame animal of any kind, whose gambols broke
the monotony of their idleness.
Up came this idiot boy to the carriage, leering in upon its inmates,
and rolling from side to side, with his hand out, mumbling that one
word over and over between his heavy lips: and up came the gang of
paupers, gazing in also with stupid curiosity.
It was well for Jane Chester that she could neither see nor hear all
this--that the fever had grown strong enough to shut out all the real
world to her heated senses! As it was, the sight of these miserable
objects did create some new and more harrowing pain. She began to
murmur of the torment to which she had been consigned--of the strange,
heavy fiends so unwieldy and coarse that had taken her in charge.
Every event of that fearful day was absolutely thrusting her a step
nearer to the grave.
Just as the driver had dismounted from his seat and was about to open
the door, the Alms House van came tumbling along the pavement and
into the court with another freight of misery. Along by the carriage
and nearer to the entrance rolled the ponderous black vehicle, and
out from its tomb-like depths were taken forth the men and women,
that an hour before had been lying so helplessly on the benches at
the Commissioner's office.
One by one these poor creatures were carried up the steps, and after
them rolled the idiot, calling out--money, money--as if the emigrants
whom England consigns to our charity, had anything but their own
miserable lives to give away.
And now with the heat, the noise, and the motion of the carriage,
the poor invalid became almost frantic. She struggled with the
stranger--she called wildly for Chester--and would have cast herself
headlong to the pavement, for in her hallucination she fancied that
the pauper gang were carrying away her husband.
They bore her into the Alms House in a fit of momentary exhaustion.
Her name and history was a blank in the Alms House books. Her lips
were speechless--her eyes closed. They only knew that she was
nameless, homeless; and thus was her entrance registered.
And now came two men to carry her to the hospital. One was old, with
grey hairs, who tottered beneath his burden; and the other a pale
lad, who had just recovered from the fever. Out through the back
entrance, down a flight of steps into the hot sunshine again, they
bore the helpless woman, her garments sweeping the pavement, and her
pale hand sometimes striking the stones as they passed along.
But there was no rest for her yet; another registering was to be made.
In the Hospital office a pauper clerk had charge, and to his
investigation the invalid must be consigned. He was no physician,
certainly; but the hospital was divided into wards, each ward having
its own class of diseases. It was this man's prerogative to decide
what particular malady afflicted each patient, and to assign the
proper ward. The two men placed Mrs. Chester in a chair, and the
stranger stood behind it supporting her head upon his arm.
The clerk had entered the blank order upon his books, and now came
forward to examine the patient.
"Put out your tongue?"
The order was given in a peremptory tone, worthy the captain of a
Down-East militia company. Poor Mrs. Chester opened her wild eyes
and looked at the man.
"Your tongue, woman! open your mouth--don't you hear?"
Jane Chester unclosed her parched lips and revealed her tongue. The
edges were red, as if they had been dipped in blood; and down the
centre, like an arrow, lay the dark incrustations peculiar to ship
fever.
The clerk shook his head, and laid his hand upon the sinking pulse.
"Low, very low. Just gone of consumption--no doubt of it--phthisis
pulmonalis--a bad case--very. Take her to the wing!"
"I should doubt, if you are not a physician, sir," said the stranger,
mildly, "I should venture to doubt, if this lady is not suffering
from fever. Not half an hour ago her pulse could hardly be counted;
now you feel that each beat threatens to be the last! These terrible
changes--do they bespeak consumption?"
"I have pronounced upon her case!" replied the clerk, "but it makes
no difference. Let her go to the fever ward. If the doctor don't agree
with your opinion, sir, she can be sent to the wing!"
"I am no physician, but she requires prompt care!" interposed the
stranger.
"Then you are not an M. D.," cried the clerk, with a look of annoyance
that he should have yielded to anything less than a professional man.
"No, but it is quite certain that all this moving about from place
to place is killing the poor lady. She requires the greatest
tranquillity, I am sure!"
"Well, well, take her up to number ten," said the clerk, addressing
the persons who had brought Mrs. Chester in. "The doctor will see
to her when he goes his rounds!"
The two men raised Mrs. Chester in their arms, and carried her up
a flight of broad stairs and through a neighboring passage, till the
stranger, who looked earnestly after them, could no longer detect
the faint struggle with which she sought to free herself, or hear
the moan as it trembled on her pallid lips.
The stranger drew a deep breath as she disappeared, and turned back
to the office greatly oppressed by all that he saw. The clerk was
leaning back in his chair, drumming with his fingers upon the seat.
Inured to an atmosphere of misery, he felt but little of the painful
compassion, the mingled horror and pity which almost overwhelmed that
benevolent man.
"You are sure, quite sure, that this poor lady will be cared for,"
said the kind man, addressing the clerk. "Here is money, I would give
more, but am some distance from home and may require all that I
have--see that she wants for no little comfort that can be bought!"
The clerk's eye brightened as he saw the money.
"Oh, be sure, sir, she shall have every care."
"I have a letter for the resident physician--where can he be found?"
"Oh, he has just started for the island in his boat. The aldermen
and their families dine at the Insane Asylum, and he has gone with
them. You might have seen his yellow flag on the water as you came
in."
"And when will he return to the Hospital?"
"Oh, in a day or two; his rooms are in the other building, but he
usually walks over the wards once or twice a week!"
"Once or twice a week! Why I heard that the ship fever was raging
here--that the hospitals were crowded, and many of your doctors sick!"
"Well, no one disputes that the hospitals are crowded--half the
patients are on the floor now; and some of the assistants are sick
enough!"
"And your resident physician only passes through these hospitals once
or twice a week--who attends to the patients?"
"Oh, the young doctors of course!"
"And are they experienced men?"
"Some of them are graduates, almost half I should think."
"And the rest?"
"I suppose, all have studied a year or two."
"And do these men--who have only studied a or year two--prescribe
for the patients--without the advice of a superior?"
"Certainly, why not? They must begin sometime, you know."
"And will this poor woman, laboring as she is under an acute disease,
be placed under the care of a mere student?"
The clerk mused before he answered.
"Let me see, number ten--yes, young Toules has charge there. It is
his turn in the fever ward. He has never graduated, I believe."
"And has he had no practice among fevers?"
"Oh! yes, he has been three days in number ten, and one sees a good
deal of fever in three days, I can tell you."
The stranger turned away sick at heart.
"Let me," he said, in a broken voice, "let me speak with the nurse
who is to take care of the person I brought here."
The clerk called to a lame pauper who was limping through the building
and ordered him to summon the nurse from number ten. The old man
went with difficulty up the stairs that led from the hall, and soon
returned, followed by a tall dissipated-looking woman of forty, who
still retained in her swollen features traces of intelligence and
early refinement that redeemed them in some degree from positive
brutality.
A look of fierce and settled discontent lay on this woman's features,
which was aggravated by the dress of dark blue that fell scant and
ill-shapen around her stately figure, and was fastened tightly over
the bosom with a succession of coarse horn buttons that but half
filled the yawning buttonholes.
This woman approached the stranger with a dogged and sullen air.
"Is it you that wants me?" she said, looking earnestly at him. "That
man said somebody wanted to see the nurse!"
"And is this woman a nurse to the sick? Is she to have the charge
of this poor lady?" questioned the stranger, turning to the clerk.
"That is the nurse, and I hope she suits you, for you seem hard to
please," answered the clerk, crustily. "She is one of the best women
in the hospital, at any rate!"
The stranger turned his eyes upon the woman with a grave and pained
look.
"I sent to ask your kindness for the poor lady that has just been
carried to your ward," he said; "of course you are well paid by the
city; but I am willing to reward you for extra care in this case!"
"Well paid by the city!" cried the woman, with a fierce and sneering
laugh; "oh, yes, hard work and prison fare at the Penitentiary--harder
work and pauper fare when they send us here for nurses. That is the
pay we get from the corporation for nursing here in the fever. If
we die there is a scant shroud, a pine coffin and Potter's field.
That, is our pay, sir!" and the woman folded her arms, laughing low
and dismally.
"The Penitentiary--what does she mean?" inquired the stranger, greatly
shocked.
"Oh! they come from the Penitentiary, these nurses," said the clerk.
"The corporation have to support the prisoners, you know, and the
hospitals all get their help by law from Blackwell's Island."
"And is this woman a prisoner?"
"A prisoner--to be sure I am--you don't take me for a Poor House
woman, I hope?" cried the nurse. "I haven't got to that yet--nobody
can say that I was contemptible enough to come here of my own accord."
There was something too horrible in all this. The stranger sat down
and drew out his purse with a suppressed groan.
"Here," he said, giving some money to the woman, "this will pay you
for a little kindness to the poor lady. In the name of that God who
has afflicted her, see that she has proper care."
The woman's face softened. For one instant some remnant of
half-forgotten pride made her hesitate to take the money, but this
was soon conquered, and she reached forth her hand clutching it
eagerly.
"I will take care of the lady, sir, never fear," she said, and for
the moment, she really intended to perform her promise.
"Do, and when you lie ill as she does, God be merciful to you as you
are to her!" said the stranger, solemnly, and taking his hat he went
forth with a sad countenance.
When Judge Sharp left Bellevue he went directly to the Mayor's
residence, where he had made a dinner engagement the night before.
We have already described his meeting with Joseph Esmond.
He was satisfied that the person whom he had conducted to the hospital
was the lady for whom the lad was in search, and resolved to go with
the boy and obtain more knowledge of her condition. The little girls
had just returned from the funeral, and were sitting desolately in
their bed-room, shrinking into the farthest corner like frightened
birds in a cage, for the landlord had taken possession, and the poor
children had no home but the street; even in that little bed-room
they felt like intruders.
But the Judge came with Frederick and Joseph, and this was a sunbeam
to their grief.
The noble man questioned them gently, and at last told the whole
anxious group that Mrs. Chester was alive and in Bellevue, where he
had himself conducted her.
The little girls uttered a cry.
Oh, the wild, the bitter joy of that moment. She was alive--alive!
They should see her again--stand by her bedside. She would look at
them--speak to them. They clung to each other, the sobs they could
not suppress filled the room. The Poor House! They were going to the
Poor House! What was that to them? She was there, and with her they
could lie down and sleep once more. It was better thus. The landlord
had taken possession of their home. He determined to keep the scant
furniture, for his rent, and after that the home of those poor
children was the street. The Alms House! It had a pleasant sound to
them. That was a home from which no landlord could send them forth.
They went gladly with Judge Sharp before the Commissioner.
"You will not let them take us away from her--we may all be together!"
pleaded Mary.
The Commissioner mused; it was unusual, but he resolved to request
of the superintendent that these children might not be taken from
Bellevue until the mother was pronounced out of danger, or should
be no more. He wrote to this effect, and with his own hands placed
the children in the carriage that was to convey them to Bellevue.