The City's Indecent Ambulance

This city, which exerts such an influence in this country, had a shock this morning when a telephone message was sent in by the church committee at police headquarters that a woman was in a fit on the street and would have to be removed to the hospital. It so happened that the patrol wagon was not available, horses being at the blacksmith's shop to be shod, and hence there was fully an hour's delay in getting the patrol from the jail house to the Seattle General hospital. She lay, meanwhile, in the open patrol wagon, exposed to the gaze of all passersby upon the thoroughfare, none of whom could tell whether she had been found in a drunken state or whether she was to be taken to a hospital or to the city jail. Such unsavory publicity for the sick in this city is a disgrace and should be stopped without delay. A patrol cannot come from the city repairs as a vehicle for all cases, criminal or otherwise, and the suffering is at times of magnitude. If the city is fully able to rain or sun, it ought to be able to provide an ambulance before Seattle spends money on municipal curiosities.