Fantasy fiction; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
The doctor found the rough functionaries at the police-station working
over the patient as he had directed, their sympathies being more active
from the fact that she was young, and evidently pretty; though not much
beauty could be recognized in the deathly pallor, the half-closed
eyelids, and the drenched and matted hair that clung to her face and
neck. The men pronounced her dead. “I hope not,” said the doctor,
hastily relieving himself of his overcoat and coming forward. “I think
we may revive her,” he said, after pinching her flesh and watching
intently for signs of circulation. He gave his orders quickly, and then
commenced the slow and difficult process of discharging the water from
the lungs and inflating them. To the squeamish, and to the unscientific,
the operations of the doctor with this ghastly, limp subject, would have
seemed unsightly; but no careful observer could have failed to admire
Dr. Forest, seeing him thus professionally absorbed. He was excited, as
you could see by the intense expression of his whole face, but
commanding every muscle perfectly, never hesitating, never making a
false or awkward motion, he continued his work for about forty minutes,
though it would have seemed much longer to a mere spectator. One of
these, the officer in charge, seeing no sign of life and becoming
impatient with so much apparently useless effort, said in a low tone,
“Oh, what is the use, doctor? Anybody can see she is dead.”
“My dear sir,” said the doctor, without looking up, “your opinion don’t
amount to much in this instance. See! the color is coming; we have saved
her!” None but the quick, well-trained eye of the doctor could see any
change yet, however; but in a few minutes it was apparent to all. One of
the men recognized the young girl as one he had seen at “old mother
Torbit’s,” who was well known as the keeper of a disreputable house.
“Poor little woman!” said the officer. “It’s questionable whether we’ve
done her a favor. I think any very unhappy wretch has a right to seek a
short cut out of his misery.”
“Suppose the short cut don’t get you out of the misery,” said another
policeman, who was placing fresh bottles of hot water at the patient’s
feet.
“The world has a right to our lives,” said the doctor. “We have scarcely
a moral right to destroy ourselves, and certainly not while we are free
from hideous and certainly mortal diseases.”
There was little to be done after respiration had been restored to the
patient. In a few minutes she opened her eyes and drew the blankets
higher over her breast. One of the officers was struck by this movement,
and called the doctor’s attention to it, saying, “She has some modesty
left. She can’t be wholly lost.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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