File 2: Hassall family, correspondence, volume 1, pp. 691-1800, 1855-1874: No. 084
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Sydney Infirmary, No.1 Ward, July the 1st 1858.
833
Revd Mr. Hassall,
Revd Sir, - I would have written to you long ere this, but I had two blisters on my side and belly, which [?] [rendered?] sore for so long a time, that it was totally impossible for me to venture to write sooner. I am going on very slowly but my physicians says my recovery must be a work of time; for my system was so much deranged from my disease that it cannot be expected I could go on so favorably [favourably] as I should under different circumstances [?] I have to Thank My God I am so well. Several, Say 8 persons have died in this ward since your kind visit, one from the rupture of a blood vessel, one from dysentry [dysentery] and one last night from a fever of a malignant type, all have seen me doing well. But the changeable weather experienced here of late [indecipherable] on us all, I keep my snug [?] best all the while, and only rise at nature's call, or to get my bed made up. My head feels queer at times, owing to the disorganised state of my bowels - and I experience twenty queer changes during the lapse of the 24 hours - yet I am vigorous in mind, thank God and this is mainly due to my favorite [favourite] book, the blessed and holy Bible. In the Sanctified pages of that divine work I find all the consolation I need in this world. 'Tis a treasure of treasures - to me at any rate. I find comfort and assurance when I look into its glorious pages, and desire sweet consolation from the promises contained in that sacred and inspired volume. O Revd. Sir, for there be amongst us, sick and infirm as we are - who do not prefer any other productive[?] to the Blessed Scriptures. Yet there are some here who [?] [indecipherable] read it and seem to take more than ordinary interest in its delightful perusal.
I have been shocked though more than once at the utter indifference, the recklessness that the greater bulk of the patients display when a fellow sufferer is called to his long accounts. I have seen and heard them laugh, and joke and commence on subjects foreign to the scene existing and on their 'very' eyes, as if they were in some groggery quaffing the accused dram, and smelling and playing in their horrid bacchanalian orgies. Death has no terms[?] for them to all appears once, they chat and laugh away as if so dreadful an act in the past [?] of suffering humanity was to be considered only in the light and meaning of the death of an ox or a hog. It acts otherwise on me. It calls up melancholy, tho' pious reflections, and hurries me on more eagerly to make my peace with the Almighty Father thro' the atoning [?] blood of His Beloved Son Jesus Christ. This place Kind Sir, is a fine school for taking impressive lessons in, but I regret today few there are here who seem to profit by its destructions. The coarse ribald jest - the low and foul expressions indicative of the class that gives them utterance but infrequently
offends and hurts the ear, and often those impressions are interlaced[?] with blasphemies and oaths, and shocking cusses. And all this is heard in the very chambers of disease and death, unproductive of no concern for the welfare of their immortal spirits. Of late - barring on Sundays - we have no visits from the clergymen of this City. Even the Methodist teach/ distributor, ever forthwith in promoting[?] ch[?] - knowledge - had not shewn his face here for some time. 'Tis strange they do not come to such places as this at any stage[?] - but they of late they have not