"The
Patients," Said He, "Are Many Of Them Growing Worse.
One in particular,
who has been here for several weeks, I can see is growing worse every
day." Dr.
Conolly asked the name of this patient - "I can not tell," said
the man, "but I can bring him to you." "Bring him then," said the doctor;
and after a moment's absence he returned, leading up one of the healthiest
and quietest looking men in the ward. "He looks better to be sure," said
the man, "but he is really worse." A burst of laughter from the patients
who stood by followed this saying, and one of them looking at me
knowingly, touched his forehead to intimate that the objector was not
exactly in his senses.
In one of the female wards we were introduced, as gentlemen from America,
to a respectable-looking old lady in black, who sat with a crutch by her
side. "Are you not lawyers?" she asked, and when we assured her that we
were only Yankees, she rebuked us mildly for assuming such a disguise,
when she knew very well that we were a couple of attorneys. "And you,
doctor," she added, "I am surprised that you should have any thing to do
with such a deception." The doctor answered that he was very sorry she had
so bad an opinion of him, as she must be sensible that he had never said
any thing to her which was not true. "Ah, doctor," she rejoined, "but you
are the dupe of these people."
It was in the same ward, I think, that a well-dressed woman, in a bonnet
and shawl, was promenading the room, carrying a bible and two smaller
volumes, apparently prayer or hymn books.
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