Explore "The Jest of Life" by Arthur Gask on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
NOW it is natural that a spirit of subdued restraint should pervade all hospitals, for they are monumental alike to the despair and to the hope of humankind. To despair, because they whisper always to us of the grim reaper who crouches ready for his harvest at all seasons, and to hope, because they symbolize the myriad victories of Life over impatient Death.
A new arrival feels all the senses of the body called instantly to the alert. The eyes are intrigued with the strange garments of the nurses, the ears hear the voices that are lowered and the footfalls of muffled sound, and the nostrils are assailed with odours that have no place or being in the ordinary and everyday world.