Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-01-04
From the London Examine
WHO is MRS. NIGHTINGALE.

From the London Examiner
WHO IS MRS. NIGHTINGALE.
Many ask this question, and it has not yet
been adequately answered. We reply, then,
Mrs. Nightingale is Miss Nightingale, or rather
Miss Flowrence Nightingale, the yougest daugh-
ter and presumptivc co-heiress of her father,
William Shore Nightingale, of Embley Park,
Hampshire, and the Lea Hurst Dcrbyshre.
She is, moreover, young lady of singular en-
dowments, both natural and acquired. In a
knowledge Of the ancient languages, aud of the
higher branches Of mathematics, in general art,
science and literature, her attainments are ex-
traordinary. There is scarcely modern Ian
guage which she does not understand, and she
speaks French, German and italian as auently
as her native English. She has visited and
studied the various nations of Europe, and has
asconded the Nile to its remotest cataract.
Young, (about the age of our Queen,) graceful,
femanine, rich and popular, she holds singu-
larly gentle and persuasive influence over all
with whom she comes in contact. Her friends
and acquaintance are of all classes and persua-
sions, but her happiest place is at home, in the
centre of very large band of accomplished
relatives, and in simplest obedience to her ad-
miring parents.
Why, then, should being SO highly blessed
with all that should render life bright, innocent,
and to considerable extent useful forego such
palpable and heartfelt attractions Why quit
all this to become-a nurse.
From her infancy she has had ycarning af-
fection for her kinda sympathy with the weak,
the oppressed, the destitute, the suffering and
the dessoate. The schools and the poor around
L "a Hurst and Embley first saw and felt her as
: visitor, teacher, consoler, expounder. Then
she frequented and studied the schools hospitals
/, and reformatory institutions of London, Edn
burga and the Continent. Three years ago,
, when all Europe had holiday on and after
The Great Exhibition, when the highlands Of
Scotland, the lakes of Switzerland, and all the
bright spots of the continent were filled with
parties of pleasure, Miss Nightingale was with
in the walls of one of the German houses or
hospitals for the care and reformation of the
lost and infrm. For three long months she
was in daily and nightly attendance, accumulat-
ing experience in all the duties and labors of te-
male ministration She then returned to be
Q once more the delight of her own happy home
e But the strong tendency of her mind to look
t beyond its own circle for tho relief of those
: who, nominally having all, practically have but
too frequensly none, to help them, prevailed :;
and, therefore, when the hospital established in
D London for sick governoresses was about to fail
for want of proper management, she stepped
forward and consented to be placed at its head
Derbyshire and Hampshire were exchanged for
the narrow, dreary establishment in Harley
street. to which she devoted all her time and
3 fortune While her friends missed her at as
i sembles, lectures, concerts exhibitions and all
8 the entertainments for taste and intellect with
s which London in its season abounds, she whose
powers could have best appreciated these, was
It sitting beside the bed and soothing the last COM
d plants of some poor, dying, homeless, queru-
: lous governess. The homelessness might not
: improbably, indeed, result from that very qde-
: rulousness; but this is too frequently fomented
y if not created, by the hard, unreaecting folly
n which regards fellow-creatures entrusted with
y forming the minds and dispositions of lis chill
y dren as ingenious, disagreeabe machines, need
is ing like the steam-engine, sustcnance and cover
Is ing, but, like it, quite beyond or beneath all
10 sympathy, passions, or affections. Miss Night
q ingale thought otherwise, and found pleasure
; in tending those poor destitute governoresses in
lie their nfrmities their sorrows, their deaths OF
10 their recoveres. She was seldom seen out o
J. the walls of the institution, and the few friends
y whom she admitted found her in the midst o
10 nurses, letters, prescriptions accounts and in
'g terruptions. Her health sank under the heav,
III pressure, but little Hampshire fresh air re
10 stored her, and the failing institution was saved
a. Meanwhile q cry Of distress and for addition
y al comforts beyond those of mere hospital treat
or ment came home from the East, from our woun
Il ded brethren in arms. There instantly arose a
he enthusiastic desire to answer it. But inexpe
vo rienced zeal could perform little, and bevy @
as ill-organized nurses might do more harm thai
- GOOD. There was fear lest a noble mpuls
as should fail for the want Of a head, hand an
6, heart to direct it. 1t was then that u fell
ad was opened for the wider exercise of Miss Night
he ingales sympathes, experience and powers o
command and control But at what cost A
n, the risk of her own life-at the pang of separa
,o- ton from all her friends and family, and at tn
ed certainty of encountering hardship, dangers
lr tolls, and the constantly yrenewing scene OF hu
,st man suffering amidst all the worst horrors o
ch war. There are few who would not recol from
tn such realities, but Miss Nightingale shrank not
he and at once accepted the request that was mad
ng her to form and control the entire nursing es
O. tablishment for our sick and wounded soldier
and sailors in the Levant. While we write, thi
as deliberate, sensitive and highly-endowed younl