BOND OF AFFLICTION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16302, 30 November 1918, Page 6

BOND OF AFFLICTION.

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. THE EIGHT AGAINST EVIL.' When all the trouble and distress of the last sad month is ended, the men and women of Auckland will have many enduring memories of those strange, terrible days of storm and stress (says the Herald). The men and women, who with such bravery and devotion have ministered to the sick and needy will have seen sights and learned sad truths which, it is sincerely to bo hoped, will bo the inspiration for further strenuous lighting against the nowly-rovealed evils of ignorance and poverty and neglect; the sick and the bereaved will have learned that kindness and mercy still live in tbo heart of the community, and that a great need calls forth a great and swift response. Thus, for the first time in the history of the city, all classes and creeds have been brought close together in the bond of a common affliction, oven.as they have been on the field of battle itself. It now remains for citizens to band together and carry on to a successful issue the fight against the evil things which _ the epidemic has revealed, as menacing the welfare of the whole community.

HELPFUL SPIRIT SHOWN. When 'first sickness and death made their terrible onslaught on homes all unprepared, a spirit of panic in many cases prevailed, and for the time being, overwhelmed all the promptings of charity and pity. Many instances of almost incredible callousness have been related by those who have appealed in vain- to their neighbours for help, but many other stories are also told of heroic devotion to the needs of others. ‘‘One of the things that has most impressed me in all this sad time has been the kind and neighbourly spirit shown by one family .to another,”. said a prominent worker yesterday. “At first, many women held hark from rendering assistance for fear of exposing their little ones to contagion; later on, when influenza has entered their homes also, they have been quite relieved, and immediately tended the needs of their neighbours, as devotedly as those of their own families.” This same spirit has guided many a voluntary worker to urgent cases. “Don’t bother about us,” has been the cry of many of the stricken. “Go to the people next door; they are worse off than wo are!” This is tho spirit which has helped to vanquish the common foe. HUMOUR AND PATHOS. Despite the dark and distressing side of the workers’ experiences; they have been brightened here aud there by touches of humour which have helped to lighten the burden of daily effort. A worker was greeted one day in trembling tones’ by her patient, a- woman in elaborate crepe-de-chine night attire somewhat incongruously covered with a man’s old overcoat and a dilapidated tablecloth in lieu of blankets. “Oh, mv dear. I’m much worse to-day. . . I’m all flattery. Look at my hand! I must have some stimulant at once!” “Certainly,” was the ready response. “I’ve brought you some nice mutton broth.” “Ob, that isn’t what I need at all,” was tho disappointed rc-ply. “I must have some real stimulant—a little drop of spirits! My doctor ordered it.” Unfortunately she had forgotten the name of the doctor ; when she finally recalled it, it transpired that the gentleman had expired some five years ago. She accepted the mutton broth with woebegone resignation, tho fSnttery symptoms developing acutely when .assured that there was no hope whatever of the National Reserve supplying the special stimulant desired.

Another home was found to be in such a deplorably dirty state that the occupant, an aged woman with a sick husband, was asked wbv she did not try to keep it cleaner. “It’s the rheumatics,” she explained. “X haven’t been able to do a thing to clean it since I had' ’em so had,” “How long is that?” “Oh. about four years or so.” was tho vague, but sufficiently convincing reply.

MANY SILENT TRAGEDIES. The reluctance of some people to aid their sick neighbours was illustrated in a case whore the patient, a.man living alone, had been very feeble and ill for ■several days. He seemed to make little improvement. The visitor noticed one morning that his out-door clothes were in a different place from that in which she had If st seen them several days before. “Have you been out?” she asked in surprise. The man hesitated 1 , and at last confessed ho had got up and dressed every day in order to go outside and feed' his fowls. His neighbours had shorn marked aversion to having anything to do with him, “and I couldn't lot the poor birds die of hunger,” he said. The visitor lost no time in calling on the people next door and expressing her personal views on the matter. which were sufficiently strong to wring a reluctant promise to care for the birds until their owner was- fit to leave his bed. One cf many silent tragedies was brought to the attention of a suburban resident last wee!-;. A returned soldier and his wife, both of whom had been helping at the Technical College hospital, spent the entire day. assisted by a kindly resident, seeking the mother of another returned soldier who had been living in town, had been suddenly stricken, and lay dying at the hospital. She had lately ’moved from Ellerslio, and her son was too ill to give any address. The search proved unavailing. On one of their errands of mercy the voluntary workers came across a man dying in a shanty in a poor district. Tho conditions wore such that it was necessary to remove him at once, and a stretcher was obtained. But tho doors and windows of the hovel were too narrow to admit it. and the unfortunate patient finally had to ho wrapped in a blanket, and passed through tho window, thon carried up an almost perpendicular, muddy bank by his rescuers.

AVfIAT OF THE CHILDREN? Tho question ns to what is to become of the little children rendered homeless and orphaned by the scourge of influenza is one of the problems which will call for settlement shortlv. At the present iiuui there are abont GO children at the Y.AV.C.A., and a somewhnt larger r.nmbor at th» Myers hospital. Tho circumstances in some cases

are such as to rentier it impossible to j send them -back to their former homes, j Reports have been secured as to boms conditions ; this is one paragraph: “From information gathered this man, his wife and four children, occupied one .small, dark room in a lodging-house kept by a Maori. The room was extremely dirty ; most of tbc clothing and bedding had to be burned. Both parents are now in hospital.*? Another briefly-told tragedv : “Mother died at her borne on November Father died in hospital on the 17th. Four children, two in Myers hospital. > No friends or relatives in this country.”

This is an actual record of another little baby’s “home” _ conditions: ‘‘Father a Dalmatian, wife a British woman, the latter in hospital. They keep a fish shop, cook the fish, and supply meals. The sleeping accommodation and back premises are vmdescrihably filthy, quite unfit for human habitation. The rent is £2 5s a week.” The landlord’s name is also given. “These people are simply hopeless,” states another report. “The mother is extremely dirty and careless; she will create a slum wherever she goes.” But a much brighter note is struck in other cases, and these lend a ray of hope to a dark horizon. “Nine children altogether. Father and mother ill. but improving. They will take children homo as soon as possible. They are most excellent people, a very happy family when well.” In another case the mother died, leaving a grown-up daughter to manage the house and cave for three little children. “Home conditions all that could he wished.” states the report. The next case is one where both parents ore still ill. There are seven small children. “They have had a hard struggle with so largo a family, and the father is not strong. They are very worthy people, and the home is always scrupulously clean.”