PtdJli& H eatt/1 and Social Welfare Work
399
permitted, to organize Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish. He became the pioneer of work among the Mexicans, aided and supported in the great work always by the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hospital. The parish was later tended for a time by the Holy Cross Fathers and ultimately taken over by the Oblates of Mary. Seton has contributed through the years to the care of the needy Mexicans, as it has to that of all others. The Sisters have constantly been concerned with the problems of underprivileged children; have provided meals, clothes, and shoes for them, and supplied them money for car-fare, helped them prepare for First Communion and secure what they needed for the occasion. Help is extended to mothers and needy widows. In its basement wards aged men and women have from the beginning found aid and assistance. 53 Signal service was rendered by the Sisters during the smallpox epidemic in Travis County in 1917 and 1918. Unprepared and shocked by the epidemic, the health officers were unable to cope with the emergency. The sick were left unattended in the isolated pest camp established near the city and deaths increased daily. The call for volunteers went practically unheeded until answered by Seton Hospital. A group of Sisters and student nurses, headed by Sister Rose, who had had experience with smallpox, took charge, brought order out of chaos, and in a few weeks the panic that had begun to spread was ended. They stayed with the patients for ten weeks in all, until everyone was restored to health. There were 250 cases treated. The County offered to pay Seton Hospital for the services rendered and on being told the Sisters could accept no pay, a gold medal was presented to the Sisters in appreciation. Similar service was rendered in 1918 to the victims of the Spanish Influenza that struck Austin and the military installations in its vicinity with great severity. When the Army asked for help the Hospital, with capacity for 125 took in 150 one night alone. After the hallways were filled, the grounds were turned into a tent field with 48 tents. The top floor, never before used except as storage space, was utilized next, the use of several nearby houses was secured and a fraternity house in the vicinity accommodated 100 more. The Sisters, aided by the Ladies of Charity, worked day and night and one of them, weakened by overwork, fell ill and died before the epidemic was over. But the care of the sick was not relented until the dreadful trial was over. Strangely, the rumor was spread that Seton had been converted into a Government Hospital 53 Shelly, o;. cit., I 03 ad -;as.rim.
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