The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-04-26
Women at the Bedside.

Florence Nightingale has written a
characteristic and Interesting introduc-
tiOn to the memorial of Agnes Jones,
"Una and her Paupers," published by
George Routledge x Sons, very rich
book in its way, showing what young
woman who religiously wants n life
work, and when she finds it, enters
upon its performance in spirit of re-
ligious conservation, can really bear and
do. Miss Nightingale touches the right
string when she says that nursing is an
art, and if il is TO be made an art, re-
quires as exclusive a devotion, as hard a
preparation as any painters or sculp-
tors work; for il deals not with dead
canvass nor with cold marble, but with
the living temper OF an immortal mind.
IL is fine art, if not the very finest of
fine arts.
This is one of the hardest things in the
world to make our people understand.
They seem to think that any poor, dis
appointed, broken-down woman, who
cannot possibly do anything else, even
/ If she can find anything else to do, can
take care of the sick-a work which re-
quires trained perceptions, as we'll rs
quick and rich sympathies, and n per-
| feet self-command, as well rs affluent
resources and ready invention. But il
/ is work which brings peculiar COM
pensatiOns to those who engage in il
with the right motives after proper
preparation. And we are pleased TO find
Miss Nightingale saying that the hap
piest people, the fondest of their occu-
patton, the most thankful for their
lives, in her opinion, are those engaged
in nursing the sick. True, this work
has had its martyrs. So every best
thing comes from the costliest sacrifices.
Every blessing we enjoy has been paid
for in hearts blood. But those who
have made the sacrifice have been least
aware of it, and have found their cross
heaven-crowned.
There are hundreds of young women
among us with gifts as great and a spirit
as noble as that of Miss Jones, who
like her, would devote their talents &c
the service of men, which is the service
of God Like her, they want n life
work. They have no sympathy witt
any Church party, and cannot joiI
either a Protestant or Catholic sister
hood. They have home-ties and duties
TO perform. But these do not complete
ly absorb or satisfy them. They lonl
to feel that they are forces in the world
that they are rendering actual and i'm
portant service to humanity; that they
are ministering spirits in world fille'
with sorrow, suffering and wrong. An,
for these, among other important Office
and occupations, is the care of the sick
for which women have the finest apti
tudes, often amounting to real genius
| Every year it becomes more eviden
that the nurse is quite as important n
the physician, and that the proper car
, of the sick is an essential condition c
their cure. Women are fast eOnquerin
the prejudice which environs the medi
cal profession, and finding within it
, fitting and congenial field. 1t remain
for them to make nursing an honorabl
and remunerative profession, by liftin
: it up to its true place as an art whic
I requires skill and training to maste
and patience to properly execute, and 8
n service to man which the spirit ,
piety and duty will invest with all tn
D sanctions and satisfactions of religion
: Golden Age.