Missing Friends: Being the Adventures of a Danish Emigrant in Queensland (1871-1880)Weitemeyer, Thorvald Peter Ludwig
History
Missing Friends: Being the Adventures of a Danish Emigrant in Queensland (1871-1880)
Weitemeyer, Thorvald Peter Ludwig
Queensland -- Description and travel
Then he went out of the shop. As I turned round I saw a very large
mirror, in which I beheld my own image from head to foot. At first I did
not realize it was myself as I stared at it. Would my own mother have
known the picture? I hope not. Unkempt, unwashed for nearly a fortnight,
my hair hung in matted knots about my face. My whole head was swollen
to such an extent that to describe it as I saw it would seem
exaggeration. Add to this a graveyard complexion in the face, and an
emaciated form, dressed in an old crimean shirt, dirty moleskin trousers
and blucher boots, and you have the picture I beheld of myself as I
stood looking. I felt my knees giving way under me, made a grab at the
counter and fell. The next thing I remember was that I was lying on a
nice bed, in a room which proved to be in the adjoining hotel, and that
a doctor was there. With consciousness my agony returned, and I again
preferred my request in writing that he should pull all my teeth out.
"Yes, that is all very well," said he, "but we must first try to break
your mouth open. You must go to the hospital. I will give you a ticket.
What is your name? Have you no money?"
I took out all I had got, my one hundred pounds' cheque and some change,
and laid it on the table. At the same time I wrote to him on a paper and
asked him to take charge of it and give me the balance when I asked for
it. I also asked him to order anything I wanted and to spare no expense.
Then the doctor suggested to call in a colleague that they might
consult, and when the next doctor arrived they agreed to give me
chloroform, but after great preparations had been made and a sponge held
to my nose for a minute or two without having any effect on me, they
again decided that I was too weak for chloroform, but as I, half
crying, beckoned to them to do in my case what had to be done, one of
them, with his knee on my chest, put an instrument between my teeth
while the other held my head back and somebody else sat behind my chair
and held my arms. My mouth came open. I will not unnecessarily prolong
the agony, only to state that I felt relieved shortly after and that
somebody with the utmost tenderness was bathing my head. I had now
nothing to do but to allow people to wait on me. I stayed in the hotel
for two days, when the doctor's own buggy came for me and I was driven
to the hospital. So that the reader may not be under the impression that
I wear false teeth, I would like to say that not a tooth was pulled or
any other surgical operation performed. I now got better rapidly. It
seemed impossible to feel sick in that hospital. I had a large private
room and broad verandahs outside. From my bed I could lie and watch the
ocean all day and try to count the islands. My friend, the doctor, came
also every day, and any extra comfort I wanted was quickly procured. As
I grew better I would sit and bask in the sun down among the rocks by
the shore in that half-unconscious but blissful condition which I
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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