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This morning I commenced by coaxing as many of the patients as I could, to allow me to wash their face, neck and hands in a bowl of warm, clean, soft suds; and then shampooed as many of their filthy "live" heads as I could find time to do before chapel service.

When the Doctor visited the ward that morning, I cannot forget the look of surprise he cast upon the row of clean faces and combed hair he witnessed on the side seats of the hall. Simply this process alone so changed their personal appearance, that it is no wonder he had to gaze upon them to recognize them. Their rough, tangled, flying and streaming hair looked, when I began, as if a comb had never touched them. He simply bowed to me and said:

"Good morning, Mrs. Packard!"

And then seated himself upon one of these seats, and silently watched my movements while I pursued this my own chosen calling.

Without even alluding to the losses he had subjected me to, I simply remarked:

"Doctor, I find there is always something that can be done for the benefit of others, and you have now assigned me quite a missionary field to cultivate!"

"Yes," was his only response.

He did not so much as ask me how I liked my new room, or my new associates! but after seeing me shampoo one or two of his patients, he arose and left the hall, speechless.

The next day, Monday morning, I commenced the slow work of reconstruction and recuperation of the human faculties in sober earnest. I first obtained from my accommodating attendant, a bowl of warm saleratus water and a quantity of castile soap, a soft cloth and two towels, and a bowl of clear soft water. I then took one patient at a time into her room alone, and there gently stripped her and gave her a thorough sponge bath of this saleratus and water and soap, and then rinsed her well off with the pure water. I then laid aside all her wet, filthy, saturated and offensive garments, and put clean ones on in their place.

After combing her hair, I would introduce her into the ward as a neat, clean, tidy lady, who was going to be an example in these virtues to all others! being careful, however, to prove the truth of these compliments by tending upon her as I would, my cleanly dressed infant. By vigilance on my part, her clothes might be kept comparatively clean and dry for two or three days, before another change would be necessary.

Having thus cleaned the occupant of a room, I then cleaned the room in the same manner, with the aid of a pail of strong saleratus and water and scrubbing brush I would at length succeed in finding the coat of paint I was seeking for, which had to be done by dint of patient perseverance equal to that required to find the skin of its occupant.

It is no exaggeration to say that I never before saw human beings whose skins were so deeply embedded beneath so many layers of dirt as those were. The part cleaned would contrast so strikingly with the part not cleaned, that it would be difficult to believe they belonged to the same race, if on different individuals.

But the scrubbing of the walls and the floor was not the only portion of the room to be cleaned, by any means. It was no insignificant task to put the bedstead and the bed into a suitable condition for a human being to occupy. In many instances, the husk mattress I found completely rotted through with constantly repeated showers upon it, and this rot had in most instances become a black as soot, and retained an effluvia most difficult to tolerate.

With the aid of the Misses Tenny I had all these rotten beds removed and emptied, and the ticks washed; then I cut out the mouldied part, and supplied its place with new cloth, and had it filled again with fresh straw or husks, which completed this part of the business. The sheets and blankets then passed through the cleaning process; but the white counterpanes which covered up these filthy nets did not need cleaning.

They were kept white and clean, by being folded up every nights and laid upon the seats in the hall, and in the day time they were displayed upon the beds to advertise the neatness and comfort of the house and beds!

But if a sick patient should chance to lie down upon one of these advertisers of neatness, the white spreads, she was liable to receive some of the severest punishments of this inquisitorial prison, for this great offence against the "display of the house."

The cleaning of one patient and one room, together with the waiting upon those I had cleaned, took one day's labor. And this I continued, day after day, for about three weeks, before I got these eighteen patients and their rooms all cleaned; and by this time the process needed to be repeated.

This I continued to do for nearly one year, until others began to wake up to the necessity of doing likewise in their wards, as ours was by this time reported to be the neatest and best kept ward in the whole house; even the odor of which could not be surpassed in purity.

This contagion for amelioration extended even to the trustees, and as the result, at Dr. McFarland's suggestion, each ward was subsequently furnished with a nice bathing tub, which the Trustees designed only for the comfort of the patients, as the Doctor urged the need now of the weekly bathing of all the patients.