Wednesday evening, March 1, 1882
O’Farrell Street Boardinghouse
In the boardinghouse kitchen, Annie sat in the rocking chair with Abigail resting on her shoulder while her sister-in-law Laura ate her dinner. Weekdays, Laura went to the university at Berkeley during the mornings then took the train and ferry back over to San Francisco in the afternoons so she could put in four or five hours working for the Women’s Printing Cooperative as a typesetter. This meant that she seldom made it home to the boardinghouse in time for the regular meal, usually eating left-overs in the kitchen when she got home.
Laura always said that Beatrice O’Rourke was such an excellent cook that even a warmed-over meal beat eating in a fancy Market Street restaurant.
Today, between spoonfuls of split pea soup, she recounted what she had learned that afternoon from the copies of Dr. Skerry’s medical journal she’d discovered.
“How did you find back copies so quickly?” Annie said.
“My forewoman, Iris, found them for me. Turns out that one of her friends works for a small press that publishes the paper. So I stopped by before work to look at their back archive. Even got them to let me bring a stack of them home, as long as I promised to return them.”
Kathleen, who was washing pots and pans, turned around and said, “This Dr. Skerry is also a publisher? Isn’t that odd?”
Annie said, “That’s what I thought. But on Monday, when I told Dr. Blair that Mitchell had mentioned Skerry putting out a newspaper, she said this wasn’t all that unusual, although usually the papers—or they call them journals—are subsidized by institutions like the California Medical Society. Dr. Granger and his son are actually the editors of one of these journals. Ella Blair said these publications are the way for doctors to tell other doctors what they have discovered in their practice, a kind of continuing education.”
Laura put down her spoon and said, “Well, as far as I could tell, Dr. Skerry isn’t editing other doctors’ work…she seems to have written all the articles herself.”
“And you got some copies to look at?”
“Yes, I did.” Laura pulled out a stack of slim volumes from the leather satchel that was at her feet. “I read through a couple of them on my tea break. Dr. Skerry is a woman who does not mince words and is very addicted to putting things in all caps with multiple exclamation points.”
Annie itched to get her hands on the volumes, but she would have to wait until Abigail went to sleep so she could put her down in the nursery for the night. She said, “Did you see anything about Dr. Granger?”
“Not yet. But do you remember how Nate said, when he got home from dinner with Mr. Truscott, that it sounded like it was Skerry who had convinced him that the Pacific Dispensary was somehow defrauding patients?”
“Yes, I do. According to Nate, Truscott hinted that he might go to the papers with the story, which would be disastrous for the dispensary’s reputation.”
“Well, this Dr. Imogene Skerry certainly has a thing for accusing charities of wrong-doing. In one article, she went on and one about the Methodist’s Chinese Domestic Mission. How they were just encouraging prostitution among the ‘dirty heathens.’ Isn’t that the refuge that comes to you for investment advice, the one you said was doing such good work?”
“Oh my, what a despicable thing to write,” Annie said. This particular charity rescued young Chinese women, who were often no more than children and had been forced into indentured servitude and prostitution in order to survive. She was furious to think that Dr. Skerry would attack this mission, but it made it all the more probable that she was capable of urging Richard Truscott to do something that would damage the dispensary’s reputation.
Laura continued, saying, “There was another charity that she mentioned, the Benevolent Association. Skerry referenced a series of articles in the Chronicle that accused a Dr. Allen of using his position heading up that charity to support a young woman as his mistress. In addition, at least according to Skerry, the Chronicle reported that when this young woman became pregnant, this Dr. Allen encouraged her to get an abortion.”
Annie’s heart constricted, remembering the language Richard Truscott had used in his last letter, saying something about suing the doctors for malpractice. Maybe he really had meant to suggest that the dispensary helped women terminate their pregnancies.
Oh, this Dr. Skerry was dangerous. And they needed to find out more about her if they were going to be able to counter her influence with the Truscotts. Annie hated to admit it, but Richard Truscott was probably correct. If his wife was indeed rich and he controlled her property, he could likely survive a loss in reputation, whereas the Pacific Dispensary could not.