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Show HUMAN SCRAP HEAPJ HOSPITALS OF FORTY YEAS AQO DENS OP HORROR. Condition In One of New York's Great Publlo Institutions Da- I scribed In All Its Orewaome , Inhumanity and Filth. Even among professional philanthropists philanthro-pists It Is not generally rellzed how literally the phraso "scrap them" has applied to our traditional methods of disposing of the Industrially maimed maim-ed and unut. For ninny generations our practlco has been not unllko thnt of the Romans, who exposed their aged and Infirm slaves to death by tho dements de-ments upon nn Island In tho Tiber, R. W. Bruero writes In Harpor's Magazine. Maga-zine. Tako, for example, tho early history of New York's greatest public charity, Bellovuo hospital, which during dur-ing a considerable part of last century was the general city poorhouso. "Thoro," the records of tho Institution toll us, "In buildings Intended for general gen-eral almshouso administration, were congregated In one sickening mass tho destltuto, tho prisoners, tho victims vic-tims of all fornin of Infectious and con-tnglouB con-tnglouB disease, tho InBano and the sick dependent children of tho city." And how truly that "sickening mass" was regarded as merely a Bcrap heap the caro of tho Inmntoa bear wltnoss. In tho midst of tho glorious sixties, when tho nation was aflame for the abolition of African slnvory, an epidemic, epi-demic, duo to the comploto lack of nil MI,HH.. . J 1 Bellovue. "Tho patients," relates a visiting physician, "had boon romoved to ono of the garrot-ltko wards Immediately Imme-diately beneath tho roof. Tho shingles wero broken, and the beds, on account of tho great number of victims, had to be placed so closely that the drip pans, which wore employed to catch the floods of rain, could no longer be kopt on the fluur, but were placed upon the beds. "The treatmont consisted chiefly of stimulation, and the raw ward whisky was used for this purpose. On one occasion, oc-casion, In the dead of winter, I visited visit-ed tho ward and ordered an Increased ration of toddy for all the patients be-1 cause of tho extremo cold. There was i no sultnblo means of heating the garret. gar-ret. Early the next morning, fear-' ful that disaster might have overtaken I my patients, I rose and struggled to tho hospital through a blinding blizzard bliz-zard which had been raging since the afternoon before. On climbing tho last steps and opened tho creaking door, I encountered a horrlblo sight My two nurses foul, debauched, penitentiary peni-tentiary prisoners lay In a drunken stupor upon the floor. Snow had drifted in through tho rifts In the rotten roof and lay in great white sheets about the room. It covered tho dirt. On some of the beds It had been In part brushed away by the dying patients. pa-tients. On 12 beds Its surface was unbroken. The nurses had drunk their patients' liquor, and during the night 12 victims had died." |