Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1892 — How They Do In Florence. [ARTICLE]

How They Do In Florence.

A harrowing tale comes across the sea anent a young American gill who was studying music in Florence. She had few friends in the city, and lived by herself. She become ill, and apparently from a desire not to worry any one else, she struggled against bet increasing weakness, and let no one know of her condition. She had been helpless and in considerable need of careful nursing for some days, when one evening after night had fallen, four black-robed figures, with hidden faces and only holes cut through the soinbie cloth for their eyes, appeared in her room. Almost fainting from terror, she made a frantic appeal for mercy, but it only met with a low murmured response, which did not reassure her. Finally the stretcher which they brought was placed at her bedside, she was slipped onto it, a cloth wns thrown her and she felt herself borne through the streets. But not to a terrible dungeon, as her fevered imagination supposed. When she regained consciousness it was to find herself in a hospital ward, where she received devoted care and attention. Later on she learned that her oase hod corns under the notice of the famous Order of the Miscricorde, and its efficient, though mysteriously alarming, ministration was the result. All ranks and conditions of Florentine society hold membership in this order; and the shrouding robes are worn so thai service without ostentation may be rendered. It has existed for hundreds of years.—[New York World.