Our Catlrolic H eritn.ge in Texas
Marcus Campbell were the appointed physicians and would be in daily attendance. Patients were free to engage either of them or any other physician they desired. The minimum charge for patients was to be $2.00 per day and a deposit of $30.00 would be required for admission in the case of pay patients. While the convent and hospital were being completed, the Sisters, their friends, and the public spirited citizens of Galveston had been coopera- tively raising funds through a series of benefits for the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. There was a benefit masquerade ball and a series of concerts in which "the choir of the Episcopal Church generously as- sisted, together with the best talent in the city." Professors Sachtlehen, Lulwing, and Kepler prepared the musical program. fl Baccio was so ten- derly rendered that a commentator explained in Flakes Btelletin, "it would have been repeated had it not been against the rule." The enthusiasm for the hospital was general among all classes and the entertainment organized to raise funds were well supported by everyone. They greatly helped to publicize the opening of the institution and its high purpose. "Nothing is more imperatively required than a good hospital or hotel des invalid-es in which not only charity but other patients may be accomplished," com- mented the Galveston Daily News. In this sense St. Mary's Infirmary is the first Catholic and the first private hospital in Texas, the oldest today from the point of view of continuous operation in the State. The capacity of the hospital when opened is not known, but when crowded three months later by the victims of the yellow fever epidemic, it accom- modated a daily maximum of forty-six patients on an average. 5 Ear½' Trials and Tribulations. Hardly three months elapsed before the Sisters and the new hospital had to contend with the worst yellow fever epidemic that had visited Galveston. Rumors of its advance were rife in June. The dreaded malady had been raging in Cuba for some time and even closer, in Indianola. The case of Nathan Elliot, 35, admitted to the City Hospital on June 22, confirmed the fears that had driven thou- sands out of Galveston since late in May. when a general exodus to the country began. Tne "Black Vomit." another name for the ·disease, had indeed arrived in the island city. Charity Hospital. as the Infirmary was popularly called, began to fill with patients in July and the Sisters had to look for nurses to help them take care of the sick. Ten deaths occurred on August I. Steadily the number of the victims increased. By August
5 Sl~ters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. flinmnnd Jt,hiln, 1866-1941, pp. 9-n,
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