AN INSPIRATION BEING THE STORY OF ST. MATTHEW’S RED CROSS HOSPITAL.

By Nellie Olmsted Lincoln.

St. Matthews Red Cross Guild Hospital.

A beautiful thought of a wise and generous woman, like a fruitful seed, has blossomed and borne fruit in an ideal, modern hospital, just completed and given to the people of San Mateo.

Thursday, February 11, 1909, was a red letter day in the annals of this lovely little California town, for on that day was formally opened St. Matthew’s Red Cross Hospital, built and equipped by Mrs. Whitelaw Reid in memory of her mother.

It was a happy combination of circumstances that made it possible for four officers of the Red Cross to be present at the opening: Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, Hon. Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the California Branch; Mrs. John Merrill, Vice-President, and Mrs. Thurlow McMullin, Secretary. Addresses were made by the Rt. Rev. William T. Nichols, Bishop of California; the Rev. N. B. W. Gallwey, rector of St. Matthew’s; President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, of the University of California, and Mr. Paul Pinckney, thanking the donor in the name of the people of San Mateo.

Dining-room of Hospital.

Two years and a half ago, immediately after the earthquake, Mrs. Reid, feeling the great good a district nurse could do in the community, sent from New York a nurse who could be called upon for emergency cases and also to work among the poor. In providing for her, a house was built in which there was a fine operating room and rooms for six patients. Other nurses were secured, and in a short time one hundred and one cases were cared for. It was soon found that the building was inadequate, and Mrs. Reid immediately took steps to have it moved and on its place erected the one just completed.

This is a charming building, with timbered and plastered exterior, generous porches and accommodations for twenty-four patients, in three wards and ten private rooms. The operating room is entirely in white tiling, with an exceptionally fine light and every appliance for the use of surgeon and nurse. Opening from it are two rooms, one a sterilizing room with the finest of apparatus, and the other the room for anaesthetizing. In the entrance hall is a modest bronze tablet, bearing the date of opening and stating that the building is in memory of Jane Templeton Mills, born August 1st, 1832, died April 26th, 1888.

The halls are wide and well lighted, and the elevator with its electric motor can bring the patients from the lower floor to be wheeled upon the two porches, where they can find new life in the California sunshine. There is a special room for X-ray work, and there, as elsewhere, the outfit is complete.

Ward of St. Matthews Red Cross Guild Hospital.

All the nurses are graduates, Miss Sarah M. Dick, of the Cook County Training School, being superintendent, so that the care offered patients is of the best; and to hold and attract the highest type of nurse, everything connected with their rooms is as dainty as the rest of the hospital. Charming pictures in sitting room and dining room add to the homelike appearance. All physicians of the community are urged to bring their patients, and there is no distinction of creed—everything is offered in the broad spirit of the Red Cross.

Several beds have been endowed. Adjacent to the main building, yet surrounded by larger grounds of its own, stands the maternity house, in which there are also nurses’ rooms and headquarters for the district nurse, one of whose duties is to hold classes for anyone interested in “first aid.”

It seems as if Mrs. Reid had thought of every detail possible to make the gift as near perfect as a mortal may, even providing one of the purest specimens of radium. It is her earnest hope that similar hospitals will be erected throughout the country, so that in times of emergency they may be ready for immediate use for Red Cross purposes.

The affairs of the Hospital are administered by a Board of representative women consisting of Mrs. Ansel M. Easton, Vice-President; Mrs. Charles E. Green, Treasurer; Mrs. Lewis P. Hobart, Secretary; Mrs. Ernest Coxhead, Corresponding Secretary; Mrs. A. M. Easton, Mrs. William H. Crocker, Miss Jennie Crocker, Mrs. Frances C. Carolan, Mrs. Walter Martin, Mrs. Laurence Irving Scott, Mrs. William Tubbs, Mrs. E. D. Beylard, Mrs. N. B. W. Gallwey, Mrs. J. D. Grant, Mrs. Mountford Wilson, Mrs. James Otis Lincoln. The president is Rev. N. B. W. Gallwey, whose deep interest and able leadership have been of inestimable assistance.

Operating-room of Hospital.

Mrs. Reid is Honorary President of the Board, and as perhaps it can be said of no other person living, this modest, generous donor has in the completion of this work finished a golden circle around the world of love and service for suffering humanity, for the Philippines, Paris, London, New York and California now share in the ministering care which she has provided.