Show E 5 kELLIE E LL LLIE ae bevell ae VELL V ES LL says bays p ays I 1 IN N A hospital every little noise has a meaning all its own gothere Is so little to zoo and so BO mucho hear that eliat one quickly learns to read and interpret the numerous sounds of the day and night in an ah early story of II 11 G wells it a man readies reaches a country to in africa in lr which all the inhabitants fire are blind at first lie he Is impressed with ills his tremendous advantage over the natives but before long lie he discovers that lie ho la is tile the one who Is handicapped so keenly developed are arc tile the senses of hearing and touch of these people that eliat the nelc mier la 14 forced to blind himself lest ho be bo be outclassed in ill the struggle for life tito story was recalled to me ly by tho the realization of what a sensitive receiving station my ears had become during my long sojourn in ill ft hospital 1 1 room of all the days noises the dominating ones are tile tho bells from early morn until into at night bells mark and punctuate the passing hours they begin ut at five in fit the morning with the delicate tinkle of the bell curried by the nun who precedes the priest and his spiritual old aid then follows follon fl the chapel bell oil summoning the patients who are able to attend services A special ring heralds each doctors entry into the hospital ni another lother bell in the hall signals eliat lie he Is ready to ma make 0 the rounds with a senior nurse A welcome hell bell Is the one which indicates that broth lins baa left the diet kl kien and i genuine thriller Is the one proclaiming that meal trays are ready for distribution one of the most exciting sounds sound to a shut in Is tile the peal or of tile the telephone bell it carries with it a sus suspense that it never has in the ottlee or home I 1 mild could hear it every time it rang while I 1 was in the tinman human repair shop and often I 1 waited what seemed an agee tor for the nurse to come com down tile the hall with the message and stop at my door or go to another in the gamut of hospital bells how low ever the most sinister and most impressive Is the ambulance bell it lathe black sheep of the bells many times I 1 was awakened from deep steel sleep by that somber gong end anti listened with sorrow and fear to its clangor shuttering shattering tile the calm calin of streets as the ambulance tears away on its unknown mission tile imagination tried to follow and fill in the picture what awaited the nt at the end of the journey V teA ra tenement house fire A child ab nb over A murderous brawl or perhaps some weary soul who had found the fight too hard find and tried to cut tile the threads of fate then I 1 would lie ile awake waiting for the ambulance to return for the first faint brazen clatter that increased with steady cres cendo until tho the machine roared past the corner anti and stopped at the hospital entrance it was easy to tell when there was a passenger for then the ring was unusually loud so BO that tile the staff in tile accident ward could be ready for instant action no bell in the hospital can arouse such sheer terrors terr terror orns as the fl rebell one night some clec electric wires got cros crossed seI and the alre gong sounded I 1 lay holp less walting waiting for the nurse to come in an eternity of brent breathless liless apprehension it se when tile signal for fire drill Is sounded the nurses area are required to take their stations at the hall telephones and there await instructions though it Is only a few minutes before they come to tell the patients it Is only a drill in eliat short space of time the imagination cart can startle one with mental pictures of what a fire in a hospital would mean but of them all tile the most exasperating the most nervo racking Is the bell that answered every walk in life lias has its own code cod of superstitions the sailors are superstitious about certain things thing 1 tile the waiters have theirs actors have ninny many and the newspaper people are not without some while nearly everybody regards rIs thirteen with apprehension alie antor includes twenty three in his list of things to beware of but what thirteen twenty three breaking a mirror and whistling in a drowsing dressing room all combined are to the actor that much anti and more Is thirty to a newspaper man or woman it means Th rits all good night no more we ve write thirty at tho the end of our story to let the copy editor know there any more and whon a member of the fourth estate leaves tills this land of doubtful assignments we say lie he got his thirty so lit imagine ingine the chill that chased up lip my spine when alien I 1 up in the has bos pital about fire henrs ago having been brought in on oil a stretcher in nn an ambulance and asked the number of my room X 1 its all right tho doctor said 1 I r L know now you show folks dont like teen or twenty three so I 1 picked out a nice even number for you youre in room thirty harry says lie he went into a soda water empo ilum lind and said give tile me sit nn ice cream soda without flavoring what do you mean without flavoring boring vo ring why you might muke make it n god rodn without chocolate flavoring the clerk went away and litter after a bit returned with the verdict sorry orry but we got chocolate have haleo 0 take it without vanilla vanlila copyright Copy tight by th lh grod fute lac in |