The Hospital Murders

n corridor. The last of the nurses and internes were returning from breakfast, the morning sun as they

id upon the streets of every city in the United States

e intelligent, the eager, the stupid, all refl

dish faces, the vacant faces reflected, and as the in

nes and reside

s murdered

6

sing frequency he

red in Cub Ste

rthur, but his first duty was to suppress as much staff hysteria as possible. With the staff in

he first floor. He turned and Dr. Harrison noted the

r,” his voice was

Doctor Harrison

he nurse

About Do

searching brown eyes i

ha

et the glance

med. Brought him into hospital on a stretcher about two

ed for the first tim

6

ered him!

walked calmly, like a man going to his execution and convinced of his innocence.... That heart attack was resp

e passing faces with their inc

attus, Cub S

case her father telephones today. Then you ca

e door. That shade onto the Ward was still lowered. He had l

erguson were c

m swam with pinking air and Cub lean

they took the banda

the questi

did you give me tho

rror of 166 the night receded and a

ou know,

e me ..

ave slept ..

kissed her twice. Com

between his collar and

you

pon hers and she moaned and brou

time and tucking his head

! I’ve been through hell

nd bored his eyes into hers.

lscie, that you’ll believe in me ... that you’ll trust me ... and know that I’ve wanted y

atched her eyes out of his. H

e 167 with you! At last I see why women ha

ached over and gathered her into his arms

Salscie! Lots of

e loud spe

oct-terr Eth-err-ridge Ste-arlin

r eyes still held and Cub s

good until I do! Take care of yourself! Don’t be ferocious to anybody, Salscie! Promise? I’ll tell Mattus to le

Cub took a box from his pocket

aned over

lscie! Sophie’d be

he turned

lace is full of t

us do part,

6

eadfully calm, with the hopeless heroism of the stone blind. His hands were relaxed upon his knees.

and the face was marble in its emotions. They came separately, and filled its furrows. Bitter self recrimination. He had sent a perfectly innocent woman to her death. A mere child.

y which made him beautiful, as the world thought Kin

agile littleness of her still body. Over the sense of still living that her small ivory face had held when he and

6

mer morning. There was a spiritual fragrance about her as poignant

ite curve of that child’s small rounded breast and the nausea

le, a Jeanne d’Arc, and he had stood

Sterling had had nothing to do with it. That Cub Sterling could not have stood beside him in that autopsy room a few s

and his head ... for the first time since he had been Director of the Elijah Wilson Ho

er was dead, Socrates was dead, Halsted

7

ed to his profession by his colleagues! That heart

were dead or dyi

words. Somewhere, at this very minute, there was walking, still free, about the Elijah Wilson Hospital, pr

duty was not to his emotional beliefs concerning men and their motives. Above all things he must be fair. His duty and theirs wa

y years depended entirely upon his ability to hold his staff together this mor

ned window. A living, gentle breeze which 171 foretold all the wealth of future living in flowers and fragran

a breeze blowing. Yesterday morning it had promised her summer, too ... and today.

ddenly sane. Her death had been like those of the officers in the Great War who h

uld leave his father, otherwise his testimony must suffice. The day white nurse, the night pupil nurse, Miss Kerr’s niece, and Mattus’ i

ely forgotten about questioning the orderly, William

7

ately he was followed by Hoffbein, Peters and Paton ... together. They had just settled themselves when Dr. Harrison strode in. There was an armor of ri

Harrison exchanged monosyllabic diagnoses up

he discussion. They were funereal, s

her in the position where she might be murdered. Dr. MacA

hat purifies a man,” and after that their conversation had been long, gossipy ... and horrified. Princeton had been propped against his pill

abroad with

ad lain perfectly flat upon his bed and with their decisions his “seven months gone” bay

out” that they had to have a private meeting without

ed for the night, their vehemence had seemed awfully mushy to

urse was resumed P

ay, at the meetin’ we

t had given a

any longer. Action” ... the bay-window rose

hat word. Neither of them could p

7

ene,” Princeton fi

urs. I’ll stan’ behin’

ome in a high treble and over the telephone and unde

had purified them, both inserted their teeth, both had ca

ning to speak, Prissy nodded to Princeton who tiptoed to the door and cl

terling w

ght while a patient in Bed 11, Ward B, of Medicine Clinic. An injection of coniine. She went on that ward

inceton began clearing himself with t

7

est attention. Prissy blus

r seen. With the fact that no patient anywhere is safe in any bed of the institution ... with the responsibility of catching a mur

red at Dr. Hoffbein and he nodded ...

ne thing to protect your professional colleagues, but after all our

tunity of speaking frankly. Murder, automatically, cancels loyalty! Call in

e fury with which Dr. Harrison rose that, at a dis

Sterlings purposely. Barton 176 and I were dead against it, as was MacArthur. Dr. MacArthur was intensely kind in his o

en from his chair, but he might have been a fly upon

’ll swear out a warrant for each of you, Hoffbein, Peters and Paton, for the murder of Bear Sterling, now dying of pneumonia compli

uch as your self-exhibitions in the last fifteen

get down to

ars none of them had ever heard Dr. Harrison raise his voice above a conversational tone, never had seen him for one-quarte

eared to be angry, too frightened to

he truth ... an

dren upset by an explosion, took his pipe f

ink it is your advic

that Dr. Harrison had suffered no relapse. He sat firmly

s blue eyes firml

a situation. I repeat that the matter must

a great teaching institution. When through any clumsiness of ours we have more beds than patien

ein’s liquid eyes were glued upon his face. Dr

7

spread into every ward of every department, every newspaper in the country, the superstition of every negro within a thou

e future of at least a thousand capable men is, in m

from the staff, nor the blunders which so horri

placid, and Prissy and Princeton automatically exhaled

rrison

ve ’em. How many patients we’ve lost because they moved when another negro sprinkled salt upon their doorsteps? Eighty-one!

got to keep our face no matter if all of us are murde

quirmed an

ike all contagious diseases most debilitating. It h

words, he felt, showed how h

to him like a hot poker, and his mouth drew to a tight line as he slapped his hand upon his desk a

acutely and he r

h to a man in my branch are so revealing. His hands, the hysterical set

e. If Bear Sterling had found any man here suffering from an incurable brain tumor, he would hav

8

es lost their

who have. Read Ethridge’s t

long white sheet of paper

tandish, graduate nurse of this institution, as a patient in Medicine Clinic, Ward B, Bed 11, yesterda

ape, her heart slightly enlarged, but not seriously so, her general physical condition splendid, with the exception of the fact that she was somewhat thin and underweight. There were no signs

terling, in case she might discover herself too fatigued to sleep advised a sedative. We told

ss Standish and ourselves sensed, and I understand from the s

r. MacArthur, as is, also, the testimony of a patient who claimed to have seen Miss Kerr, student nurse, standing

Rose Standish’s death at one-ten, I did not see Miss Standish. Mattus saw her around te

seven-thirty, I went to dinner in the doctors’ dining r

ld he had complained of was settling in his chest and his 182 temperature was 101. At his orders I got his assistant, Dr. Withers, who in the presence of Dr. MacArthur, Ma

where Rose Standish’s had stood and left orders to say to the patients that Miss Standish had hemorrhaged and been put in a private room. F

I had rolled the bed toward the elevator, the deportment of William, the orderly

d and he was requesting I come to him. Dr. MacArthur insisted that I go. I found him with a definite case of pneumonia, both lungs seriously inv

t is weakening. I have remained by his bedsi

etary, outside room 511, Medicine Cli

Jr., M.D. Physician-in-Chief (Pro-

he paper down and lo

nd heavy, and he brought his eye

a glance around th

inue with t

e door into the corridor opened and Miss Evelin

nd Dr. Hoffbein who would have liked to question her, had he not felt Dr. Harr

dreadful night. I’m sorry. Pl

8

y in her lap and her flat feet carefully together

MacArthur, Dr. Harrison, and Dr. Barton, there flashed a realization that her eye

did not escap

use his father is desperately ill. Will y

s in her voice was maddening. She turned her eyes u

id Dr. Sterling thought she might have a tubercular effusion and she was in for observ

were standing by her bed, Miss Ke

leave Dr. Hoffbei

8

back for the

e a broken plate, and

d t

“gave my medicines. Put out the flowers and call

ish her sleeping potion, when y

to the heart case and said not to give it

udying my nursing manual. William, the orderly, came up the hall twice to ask me about some dishes and the breakfa

prescription?” Dr. Harrison’s eyes ha

ick lips and lift

went to sleep right away. You

8

concern your story, Mis

he had sense enough to cry then, every man in the r

ad to have her linen changed, and when I had finished with t

ight hypodermics, and while I was boiling them Mrs. Witherspoon, the pat

. Cub Sterling leaning over Miss Stan

. Repeat them twice! And look at me while yo

peated them

rmeated the senses of every

ke brown eyes into the narrow,

. Dr. Ethridge Sterling,

s Standish. I 187 know it. His bu

he sp

He just nodded. L

t you make

re clean linen and I had to run f

eat upon his desk

.” His voice was

William. He was asleep. And then I started to ’phone the night supervisor, but it was time to give my medicines ... and Aunt Roenna always told us even if the building were burnin

because the supervisor rung off so quickly ... and I had to hurry from the ’phone to give out three bed-pans. When I h

son’s word hit h

she had t

he

before she w

did sh

ll right, I’l

cted Rose Standish

the girl had failed to make her brain control h

t either,

the time for the truth. He passed off

r and Dr. Mattus, and waited

veral eye-witnesses.” Dr. MacArthur

his telepho

come for Miss Kerr, student nurse, and put her to bed,

8

on motioned to Dr. Peters to open the d

ison’s voice was relentless. But it failed to puncture the self-ri

ng to the testimony of everybody William slept through the murder. He is useless either to condemn or confirm t

their handkerchiefs quickly and Dr. Heddis mopped his leonine head and Rathbone his bal

The left arm bore a hypodermic puncture; the injection was larger than that administered in the other traceable case. Her liver, spleen, lungs and stomach were suffuse

was definite and sane. The staff sat f

a sleeping potion

one. Baldy’s wide straight shoulders

. It was his idea that if the student nurse was doing the murdering and administered the potion, without knowing it

d, involuntarily

e psychic effect

e a potion in the system, and I understand the student nurse insists she administered the pot

9

ein realized suddenly that he had been in temporary acquiescence

yourself and Dr. Sterling, Senior,

uth closed tightly, and Heddis lifte

cadaver handling is p

he question to Dr.

oxicologist the synthetic possibility seems increasingly unfeasible. Formulas are too intricate, and the discovery of th

Someone with access to the patients in that bed. Ti

hur and said, “Any hour

9

e; his clear barit

y reveal no coniine. The syringes check as to number but are useless; the routine boi

hopeless and affectionate. “I wish the

day before with a doll tucked under his arm. This time the dol

in the roo

mn thing over!” Dr. MacArthur o

he desk of Mis

rton who expressed th

ison’s face was

erence, and I went into her offi

face her

ened, casually, to learn that her niece won a similar doll at a street

air haloed his face. He looked l

know about last

ward, Miss Roenna Kerr was trying to put her in another bed ... and I ordered her into Bed 11. Did not see Miss Standish again until around ten when I was

tion?” Dr. MacAr

e the prescription as he l

red and Matt

s Standish agai

enna Kerr on the war

ub, Dr. Sterling, Junior, left his father and made rounds on that ward to calm the hysteria this morning 194 about nine and had the

s sinking,

ggested calling Miss Roenna Ker

Sterling. I’m out to save him. Let’s have it

, “Harrison, isn’t there some

n turned on

yes will not be better, tom

better wait until after the

had. He dragged me out of the gutter and made a doctor of me. Either hi

ect. Princeton wiped his brow clean with a lav

n murderers is accused of murdering pat

9

w it?” Hoffbein

guilty he ought to be hanged before then. Clearing him or convicting him with the police is out of the question. But cleared he has got to be, and therefore I propose that we instruc

. why ... H

I know that Miss Roenna Kerr and her niece are not working as accomplices

arrison you do

, Pet

ou are saying, man,” Hoff

orld-famous man who ever had a patient in the Elijah Wilson Hospital. I would sooner, 196 much sooner, see the reputations of you three scraped in the mire

sing a great deal more than his does. The only way to cleanse any of our reputations now is to quit treating every person .

r favor. MacArthur, you hire the detectives, and instruct them

ton’s brother is the Attorney-General of this state and at one word from MacArthur he will have

is the other suspect. She has been a patient of every man sitting in this room with the exceptio