The Morning Astorian

HEALTH OFFICER NEEDED

WORK DONE BY SALVATION ARMY LASSIES

Care for Sick and Afflicted and Give From Scanty Purses to Unfortunates.

From time to time attention has been called to the necessity for the re-enactment of an ordinance authorizing the appointment of and defining duties of a health officer for the city. Astoria has happily been free from the epidemics that have visited other cities of the Pacific coast, but notwithstanding this immunity there is urgent and immediate need for a health officer, who shall have the power to act and to compel others to obey rules and regulations formulated to safeguard the city's health.

A striking instance of this need was furnished in the case of the destitute family on Eighteenth street, who were provided with food, clothing and money by charitable people, whom Chief Hallock interested in their behalf. At one time the entire family, and there are eight of them, were sick at the same time. When their deplorable condition became known to the neighbors, they did what was possible for their relief. There was no city official to whom such a case should be reported and the chief of police heard of the case in a round about way, and immediately took steps for the family's relief.

Previous to the chief's action the women of the Salvation Army had done what they could in the way of nursing and caring for the patients. They procured medical attention for them and from their own slender purses provided as much as possible. There is another case now in the hands of the Army women that illustrates the constant need of a health officer. Down in that section of the city given over to the half-world there lies, bed-ridden and dying, a miserable outcast from respectability who has lived her life of sin and is now paying the penalty. She is a colored woman, probably about 30 years of age, and for several weeks past has been living alone and almost unattended in a tumble-down shanty. For weeks the Salvation Army lassies have cared for the woman. When they found her the little room was in a wretched condition. The floors were covered with dirt, unwashed dishes were scattered here and there, the sunshine could straggle in but feebly because of the crust of dust on the window panes. Occasionally an acquaintance of the sick woman would bring her a bowl of soup or some other food, but for the greater part of the time she was entirely unattended.

The Salvation Army missionaries gave that bare, little room a cleaning that worked wonders. They made a visit each day, bringing food and preparing it on a rickety stove that continually threatened to fall apart. At the request of the lassies Dr. H. L. Henderson visited the woman. Then it was discovered that she was a confirmed morphine fiend and was suffering more from lack of the drug than from lack of food. No provision is made by the city for the care of such unfortunates so the matter was referred to the county officials. The woman's condition was brought to the attention of the county court and a request made for her admission to the hospital, as a county charge. This plan was balked by the county physician who refused to admit the woman because she would need morphine continually and he declined to have such a patient maintained at the expense of the county.

Thus the matter stands. The woman will probably remain in the miserable shack until death comes. But for the charity of physician and Army women the outcast would be absolutely without care. If a health officer had been called in at the right time the woman could have been made fit to stand a journey to some city where she could receive proper treatment and care.

These are but instances: the Salvation Army could give a dozen similar ones, in each case demonstrating the need for a health officer.

Another department of the work pertains to the disposition of garbage and refuse. There is no one now to enforce regulations, valuable from a sanitary standpoint. And yet there are certain rules that ought to be rigorously enforced as precautionary measures to insuring a freedom from disease and epidemics.