Family care for the chronic insane : Miss Alice Cooke and her patients / by F. B. Sanborn.

  • Sanborn, F. B. (Franklin Benjamin), 1831-1917.
Date:
[1902]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Family care for the chronic insane : Miss Alice Cooke and her patients / by F. B. Sanborn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    8/12 (page 8)
    Her courage calm when anger, true or feigned, Threatened the blow that her strong hand restrained; Her diligent labor at each menial toil, And her bright lamp that never lacked for oil. The fixed and haggard look grew soft and mild In those sad faces, and once more they smiled; Slowly their fashions strange they put aside, Checked the loose tongue, the un- wonted labor tried; With awkward zeal, and such as love alone Could show or bear, they made her tasks their own. Each knew her place, each found her happiest hour In that brown cottage with its orchard bower; They plied their toil, they roamed through field and wood, Plucked the wild berries, fed the cack- ling brood, Tilled the small garden, spread the ample meal, Sang their old songs and danced to music's peal. Although taken a few years later, this portrait of Miss Cooke shows her as she was, but a little more serious un- der her responsibilities, when she as- sumed the care of her three patients. Gradually, so well had she succeeded that two others were placed with her, —the price agreed for their board be- ing $3.50 a week, with a small sum ad- ditional for clothing. So industrious did they become, and so frugal was the family, that, although the patients fared better, in food, warmth, and household comfort, than they had in the costly hospitals, this small pay- ment gave an income with which many improvements were made in the an- cient house. It was not until more lucrative private patients were re- ceived, however, in the years after 1889, that Miss Cooke enlarged her stable and set up her carriage for the comfort of the inmates to whom a daily drive was important. The one horse, used at first, in time became a span. I have often participated in drives about that picturescfue seashore re- gion, where of late the admirable art- ist, Dodge McKnight, has been sketch- ing in glowing color the singular beau- ties of hill and dale, lake and stream and ocean, which make Sandwich one of the most enviable resorts of the painter and the sportsman. Mr. Mc- Knight's home and studio are but a gunshot beyond Locust Grove, towards East Sandwich and Barnstable. The two inmates represented in the kitchen view, are those who survive, after sixteen happy years in this re- treat, where Jane and Katy have had more real comfort, and been of more true usefulness, probably, than in any equally long period of their lives. Katy is approaching seventy, if not already at that age, while Jane has passed fifty. Mary Doherty, never in so firm health as the others, and of a more difficult and suspicious temper, yet spent more than ten years at Lo- cust Grove, and lived in general har- mony with the other two. The addi- tional two patients, Martha and Hen- rietta, both of German parentage, who lived with Miss Cooke for a year or two, could not be kept at her expense, for many months after the state offi-