Selma, on her side, took up the organization of the Free Hospital provided by Mr. Parsons.  Her husband left the decision of all but legal and financial questions to her and Miss Luella Bailey, who, at Selma’s request, was made the third member of the board of trustees.  She decided to call in a committee of prominent physicians to formulate a programme of procedure in matters purely medical; but she reserved a right of rejection of their conclusions, and she insisted on the recognition of certain cardinal principles, as she called them.  She specified that no one school of medicine should dictate the policy of the hospital as regards the treatment of patients.  To the young physician whom she selected to assist her in forming this administrative board she stated, with stern emotion:  “I do not intend that it shall be possible in this hospital for men and women to be sacrificed simply because doctors are unwilling to avail themselves of the latest resources of brilliant individual discernment.  I know what it means to see a beloved one die, who might have been saved had the physician in charge been willing to try new expedients.  The doors of this hospital must be ever open to rising unconventional talent.  There shall be no creeds nor caste of medicine here.”

She also specified that the matron in charge of the hospital should be Mrs. Earle, whose lack of trained experience was more than counterbalanced by her maternal, humanitarian spirit, as Selma expressed it.  She felt confident that Mrs. Earle would choose as her assistants competent and skilful persons, and at the same time that her broad point of view and sympathetic instincts would not allow her to turn a deaf ear to aspiring but technically ignorant ability.  This selection of Mrs. Earle was a keen pleasure to Selma.  It seemed to her an ideal selection.  Mrs. Earle was no longer young, and was beginning to find the constant labor of lecture and newspaper work exhausting.  This dignified and important post would provide her with a permanent income, and would afford her an attractive field for her progressive capabilities.

Selma’s choice of young Dr. Ashmun as the head of the medical board was due to a statement which came to her ears, that he was reviled by some of the physicians of Benham because he had patented certain discoveries of his own instead of giving his fellow-practitioners the benefit of his knowledge.  Selma was prompt to detect in this hostility an envious disposition on the part of the regular physicians to appropriate the fruits of individual cleverness and to repress youthful revolt against conventional methods.  Dr. Ashmun regarded his selection as the professional chief of this new institution as a most auspicious occurrence from the standpoint of his personal fortunes.  He was ambitious, ardent, and keen to attract attention, with an abundant fund of energy and a nervous, driving manner.  He was, besides, good looking and fluent, and he quickly perceived the drift of Selma’s intentions in regard to the hospital, and accommodated himself to them with enthusiasm.  They afforded him the very opportunity which he most desired—­the chance to assert himself against his critics, and to obtain public notice.  The watchword of liberty and distrust of professional canons suited his purposes and his mood, and he threw himself eagerly into the work of carrying out Selma’s projects.