A HOME FOR THE DYING.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPE[TATOR."] SIR; Will you kindly grant me space in your valuable columns to plead the cause of St. Luke's House, a Home for the Dying Poor, 14 Pembridge Sqnare, Bayswater, W., one, I think, of the most deserving, and certainly one of the most pathetic charities in existence ? This little hospital, or rather " Home," which is under the patronage of Tier Majesty Queen Alexandra, contains thirty-six beds. It is intended for the superior poor and for the deserving submerged of higher social class, of whom there is so great a crowd of pathetic and pitiable cases, men and women— occasionally children—who have been certified by a physician to have only three or four months to live, whom no hospital will receive or retain, and who, but for the shelter which St. Luke's House affords them, would have to die either in the Parish Infirmary, which above all things they dread, or at home, often in distressing neglect, privation and the squalor that acute untended sickness usually engenders, often in circum- stances of cruel loneliness. At St. Luke's House they receive the skilled medical attendance and careful nursing they so sorely need, and everything is done to make them feel themselves at home" in the wards, which are gay with pictures, bright-coloured chintz, and masses of beautiful flowers. The Home has a religious basis, but is entirely undenominational. We have our own honorary chaplains and clerical visitors, Anglican, Nonconformist, Roman Catholic, and Jewish, each of whom takes charge of those patients who profess the faith he represents. We also receive valuable assistance from our visiting sisters and from many devoted cultured laymen.
I would plead most earnestly with those whose hearts are touched by the suffering of others, to come and see the Home, to give us their support and sympathy. to become annual subscribers, however small, to send us plants, flowers, game, "old linen," and to help us in many little ways I could tell them of if they would write to me. We should be particularly grateful to anyone who would volunteer to come and sing at the little service held in our wards, generally by a layman, on Sunday morning. It is very difficult to obtain an efficient "choir," and the hymns are a source of much comfort and pleasure to our poor patients. Once again I would beg for a thoughtful considera- tion of the financial and other wants of St. Luke's House, for they are urgent, in view of the haven of peace that it provides for many worn and wasted by storm and strife, of the comfort it brings to thcas who otherwise have none, of the agony it is often able to assuage, and of the knowledge of the loving Father of all that it strives to impart, so that with many, how dark soever the day has been, "at eventide it is light."—I am, Sir, &e.,
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