Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-08-02
The New order Of s.. katharine.


London Daily News.
New "orders of merit" are not al
ways welcome, especially to people
who do not expect to be decorated.
but cynic could hardly find fault
with the latest order-that of Saint
Katharine. The queen has always
taken a great interest IN the Nurses
Home at Westminster, the foundation
of which was one of Lady Augusta
Stanley's countless good works. Her
majesty, too, as patroness, like some
English queens Of old days, of St.
Katharine's Hospital, has kind of
official interest in nurses and their
well being. 1t is for their advantage
that she has founded the Order Of
st. Katharine" into which the three
first members, nurses in st. Katha-
rine's Hospital, were received on
Wednesday. Each member is deco
rated with a royal badge, an oval of
white on ground of green, with the
golden letters "St. K" in the center.
For three years the members receive
an honorary addition to their salaries
and when the three years are out they
still retain the badge and are members
of the order If nurses are like other
men and women, and value distinc-
tions Of this sort as highly, the hope
OF winning the order may often en-
courage and support them in their
most trying and laborious life. OF all
despots nurse is the most absolute,
and she needs, more than kings or
emperors, the combination of good
qualities which make what the Greek
philosopher calls 'the noble tyrant."
Under the despotism and dominion
OF the nurse we are ali likely to come
some day, when we shall no longer be
our own masters, no longOr able to 90
whittier we would. The affection of
children and of kinsfolk, however as
Siduous, will not always be able to
serve us. We shall want cool drinks
and fresh pillows and an eased pos
ture, with no more power of getting
them for ourselves than now we have
OF jumping six feet, or running a mile
in four minutes. In those days,
when they that look out Of window
are darkened, it will be the one thing
of greatest moment that a nurse
should be gentle, watchful, pleasant
and quiet in her ways, with none of
the tricks that drive restless and fe-
vered patients wild. The temper of
the nurse will be far more important
than that of nations and princes, and
her watchfulness of more moment to
the man or woman forced to be an
Iegotist than all the cuteness of Euro
lpcan statesmen. Life will be limited,
las it is for thousands of people to-day,
to the walls of one little room, and to
a round of doses, and simple dishes,
iof changed raiment, and open VIM
Idows. In this narrow domain, and
Iamong these revolutions of the sick
man. state, the nurse is supreme and
it is the interest of all the world, OF
all who are i'll, or who have friends on
whom sickness may fall, that the abb
solutism eft the nurse should be exer-
cised with skill, patience, kindliness.
1t is natural to suppose that the royal
encouragement and bounty now offered
to women who act well in this impor-
tant business will aid the general ten
dency in favor of better and more
intelligent and more highly educated
nurses.
The business of nurse is so harG
and difficult that we sympathize even
with the failure of those who try to
exercise it. Nurses used to be women
chosen, apparently, for their object
and fluent conventional piety. 1t is
only thus that we can account for the
existence of such very empirical nurses
as the models of Mrs. Camp. These
coarse women were unframed, except
| by some narrow experience at home,
and uneducated. They had none but
the narrowest pecuniary interest in the
sick people whom they poisoned with
snuff, though they had more special
delight in the hustle attendant on
another part of their business. 1t
would have been curious if they had
not yielded to the temptations of their
calling. We all instinctiyely recognize
this, so that probably few people feel
really angry with Sairey Camp. Itwas
hardly in human nature not to leave
the bottle on the chimney-piece foi
her that she might put her lips to il
when q nurse was expected to be
wakeful. What other solace was there
for a coarse, untaught old person, on
whose feelings (well known to be ten,
der) demands were frequently made
4 We cannot be angry with Mrs. Camp
for :" to understand all, is to forgive
all, and any one can imagine the un-
relieved tedium of dim-lit nights. and
days passed in the air of sick room
} and in attendance on the capriceS of q
, fevered patient. 1t is something to be
thankful for that Mrs. Prig aud hel
race are extinct, or tend to become
extinct, like the moa, and that nursing
has become profession with its pre-
J vious education, its grades, its honors
, and rewards. The kind and happy
thought of the queen should add dig.
nifty and consideration to the profes
sion, and its members will rise, Of
rather have risen, with the new ant
more civilized view which is taken o
, their status and duties.
How the Japanese Keep Meat