A SAD STORY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3011, 31 October 1891, Page 5 (Supplement)

A SAD STORY.

The following "Hospital Sketch " is con. tributed by "M. D," to the National Obeerver : —

A bittor east wind was driving sleet along the exposed levels of Lnuriston, making the warmed and lighted corridors of the infirmary all' the brighter by contrast, whon a couple of tall policeman carried on their stretcher a pitoou* burden to the casualty waiting room. The porcer —a fine old Crimean veteran, who hnd charged at Balaclava in the Greys, and whose pot birds and monkey are now twittering and chattering near the bright fire—soon has the burden on the bed, and urives his opinion :—" I fear she is gono, ! sir—and the poor baby, too." Tho bundle of lamentable rags and patches has two inmates—a woman and a small baby, thin, blue with cold, though closely huddled to the poor starved breast. The policeman's story is snarl;; the woman had been found lying in a corner of t!ic Meadows—no one near, no marlr of iujiirv, could not speak; so he brought 'jer in at once, a* sho xeemod to be dying, 'int. drunk. That wise and charitable guess of the policomau gave her a chance, "or the willing hands of the nurse and probationer of the casualty ward wera sO'in «t work. Not the poetry of nurning, this, by any mean*, but the very sordid -tnd loathsome prose. To i>trip off those leprous and crawling rag*, fit only to be iiurned ; to wa.-h the poor worn bo.ly ; to try to revive the almost hopelessly chilled baby; such tasks ne«d a constant self ■ torgetfulnes" and a tenderness which are heroism. The doctor jrive* his easy directions as to wirmch food, and stimulants, and wonders if either or both of th" new cases will need his care at his evening visit.

Poverty and misery of tbo deepest; bnt the poor creature wears a bniRS wedding ring, and the only possession found in tho foul rags are her marriage line*—as the Soots call thstprecious document of respectability. Her age might be anything under fifty, and nothing youthful remained to her excopt tin enormous mob of nifty huir coiled up under a lamentable old hat or bonnet. At his rvsning visit both were still alive, but.'ittle more ; poor baby warmer, and able to take a drop or two of milk. In the eud both recovered, and a strange thmjr happened. This wretched buudle of rags turned out, when cleaned and fed, to be a lovely woman barely out of her teens; the wealth of rusty hair when wuahed and combed was a golden brown: tho sunk cheoks filled up, the dim eyes brightned, she and baby both were happy, and wero the pride and pets of the ward. The Samaritan Society fitted them uufc with clean good clothes ; the nurses amused themselves by making , for the wife that cheapest and most becoming of dresses, a nurse's uniform, with cap and apron. She had heard nothing of her husband, who had starved, beaten, and deserted her; and in her warmth and comfort with her laved baby she did not seem to care. The lady visitors were trying , to got her work anil a home when one day her hueband, who hud probably been kept from wank inside a prison door, came to ask after her. They met, aud he did not know her, and sheepishly touched hie hat to the gracious lady—who knew him, and followed him to the door, and beyond it to the u.iaery and want of her former life.