The Experience of a Nurse at the Washington Dispensary by Marguerite Von der Schmidt

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 12, 1914

The Experience of a Nurse at the Washington Dispensary

By Marguerite Von der Schmidt

THE experience I received while at the dispensary was certainly a blessed one, and I am thankful for it. One can hardly imagine how human beings can live as many of the poor people do in the section of Washington where the dispensary is located. A family of nine or ten is huddled into two rooms. Sometimes there is only one room. It is very seldom that a bit of fresh air or sunlight enters their rooms.

The principal articles of diet are pigs' heads, fish, and cabbage. Many times while on my visits to different homes, I would see the bony remains of a pig's head, or perhaps of some other animal, lying on a table or hanging on the wall. The people like whisky very much. If they haven't any money for medicine, they surely secure it in some way for whisky and gin.

The children are pitiful sights to look at. Half of them go about the streets wearing scarcely any clothing. Sometimes the little boys who come to the dispensary have on only thin blouse waists and trousers that would fit children ten years older than themselves, or perhaps the trouser legs have been cut off to make them short enough for the boy. Their shoes are usually without soles. Many times the little feet would be all bruised and bleeding, and we would extract pieces of glass from the wounds. We were very happy when we could give them a few articles of clothing; but our supply was limited. The little girls are also dressed very poorly. Their clothes seldom fit them, and a rag serves for a scarf.

The thing that surprised me most was that, on one of my visits to a home, I found the rooms full of smoke—tobacco smoke. Six women were smoking. Four of these were girls from fifteen to nineteen years of age. When I told them I had never seen a woman smoking before, they laughed at me, and told me that the women down there smoke more than the men. The mother of this home carried her cigarette over her ear when it was not in use. When they saw I did not approve of such a habit, they

stopped smoking, and waited until after my visit before lighting their cigarettes. They also began to tidy up their rooms and let in some fresh air and sunlight.

At our clinic we treated all kinds of disease. One can hardly imagine how pitiful some of the cases are. I never realized before how much pain and suffering a person can endure. One case especially I shall never forget. A woman who could hardly walk came in one afternoon and told us she had trouble with her legs. We examined them and found them to be raw from the knee down. She told us that her husband, who is now dead, used to kick and beat her, especially on the legs. Little children came with such sore heads that we could scarcely find the little kinks of hair. One woman who came to see us complained that she always had aches and pains—when one stopped, another began. The doctor prescribed some medicine and also a good hot bath. She looked at the doctor with wide-open mouth and eyes, and finally said: "Doctor, what is that?" Many of these people hardly know what a bath is.

I certainly regretted having to leave the dispensary. My prayer is that you may not forget the dispensary in your prayers, and that you will also think of the paper and tract work that is done there.

MARGUERITE VON DER SCHMIDT.