They were
robbed even of their food. They were not much to be pitied for being
robbed of the stimulants, for every drop, including the "port wine,"
was obtained by the directors from those of their number or from
their friends who were in the trade, and it was mostly poisonous.
Death is always terrible--terrible on the battlefield; terrible in a
sinking ship; terrible to the exile--but the present writer, who has
seen Death in the "House" of years gone by, cannot imagine that he
can ever be so distinctively the King of Terrors as he was there.
The thought that thousands and thousands of human beings, some of
them tender-hearted, have had to face him there is more horrifying
than the thought of French soldiers freezing in their blood on the
Borodino, or of Inquisitional tortures. It is one of those thoughts
which ought not to be thought--a thought to be suppressed, for it
leads to atheism, or even something worse than mere denial of a God.
Thank Heaven that the present generation of the poor has been
relieved at least of one argument in favour of the creed that the
world is governed by the Devil! Thank Heaven that the modern
hospital, with its sisters gently nurtured, devoted to their duty
with that pious earnestness which is a true religion, has supplied
some evidence of a Theocracy.
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