Public H ealt/e and Social Welfare Work
37 1
the unflinching self-sacrifice of the Sisters of Charity. An epidemic of smallpox broke out that soon filled the City Hospital and hundreds were hurried to an inadequate "pest house." To this segregated district all persons suffering from the loathsome and deadly disease, who were unable to be quarantined at home, were brought. Tents were hurriedly put up to take care of the mounting number. No one but physicians and a few persons deemed absolutely necessary to give the minimum attention were allowed in the horrible enclosure. The winter weather was disagreeable, wet, and cold. The suffering victims grew more helpless day by day and tear and dread kept many from giving assistance. Mother St. Louis, whose heart bled with sympathy, was in a quandary. "What shall I do?" she plaintively asked Bishop Gallagher. "Ask for volunteers," he advised. Every Sister in St. Joseph's volunteered. Three were selected and sent. "To the shunned and abhorred pest house they went and there remained until all danger of spread of the contagion had passed, ministering to the sick and the dying regardless of creed, condi- tion or color." They had to even help bury the dead.u When the epidemic passed, Mother St. Louis firmly refused all re- muneration for the unselfish services of the Sisters. "They had done noth- ing more than their duty in imitation of the Master," she said. The people of Houston were deeply touched by their sacrifice and have ever since been most generous. Two years later, in 1893, the erection of a new, four-story brick building became necessary. The Sisters had just moved into the new fully equipped building when misfortune struck again. In the stillness of the night rang out the cry "Fire!" Dominated by one common impulse to save the patients, the Sisters sprang into action without a single thought of their own safety. Amidst the fitful glare of the roaring flames that enveloped the old frame building and the new brick structure they went and came carrying patients out to safety. When the fire was over and a check was made, all the patients were accounted for, but there were two Sister nurses who failed to answer the call. They had gladly made the last sacrifice in the consuming flames that the sick and the ailing might live." The charred remains of Sister Mary Dolores Boyle, and Miss Jennie Lillas, postulant, were sent to Galveston to be laid to rest in the conse- crated ground of the Sisters' Cemetery of St. Mary's.
22 /bid., I 3-14. 23 Sister M. C. Shelly, Cal/10/ic Hosf!ilalization ;,, T4xas, 15.
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