New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-01-24
KNOVTNG HOW TO DO IT.

cess of this comparatively recent undertaking.
In seven years 100 nurses have been grad
mated. In the Quaker Training School IN Pnll-
adelpbia the first in the country, the same goou
work has steadily gone on for forty years. OF
sending skilled, intelligent helpers to the SIDE OF
the sick and dying, and of opening nseful, ro-
II lucrative, and thoroughly womany career 10
respectable women.
The history of nursing rs profession IS full
of suggestive hints to all women, provided they
have enough Christianity aud common sense 10
understand them. For generations it was III the
hands of motheTly old bodies who picked up
Whatever skill they could by practice. Dickens
duhbed and damned fhem ALL uIiustly enough
IN the main, in Sairey Camp. Then Florence
Nightingale. ana IN the last year or two Dora
pattisou. kindled the zeal OF educated women,
md bospitals aud sanitary commissions were
and are besieged by crowds OF lady nurses
women whose only qualification as helpers IN
sick-rOOm is a disappointment in love, desire
to he useiul or religious zeal In both this
country and England sisterhoOds have been
established with great enthusiasm. Inc women
in them have social standing, refinement, Ter
vor; they burn to serve their Master 10 20 ou'
and hclp His poor. Nothing could be purer
than their motives, nothing more RATIONAL OF
nraiseworthy than the effort of the churches
thus to gire Christian work to idle hands, anu
70 bring pious women OF the higher classes mo
actual contact with the SEX and suffering
Unfortunately, in many cases these women
received no practical training. Nulsln: IS not
q devout aspiration, but business to be learned
a. much as blacksmIthng or telegraphy. NO
omount of zeal on refinement VIII tracD q
woman how to put or Il blister or bandage
broken LEG. Hence. in many instances, the lady
nurses having triumphantly swept the SalIey
Gamns ont of sck-rOoms and hospitals, have
proved pious dead weights, cstlmaOle null
sonccs In both doctor and patient. In Guys. the
great London hospital, their lack ot practical
training has lately brought on fierce battle he
tween them and the surgeons, which has helu
fine ear of all ENGLAND. Miss nightingale ana
Sister Dora, both women of ardent plcty but
hnId. shrcwd sense, had no patience with these
deyOut amateurs. who thought that prayers aud
sympathy comprised nurses duties Sister
Dora with keen sense of fun, put them mcrc-
lesslv 10 tho most nauseOus, mental duty ITO
take the nonsense out OF them She herself,
though inspired by rs lofty n religious zeal as
that of any old slnt, began by scrubhing floors
dentistry; dlsscced dead bodies to leIrn how to
handle living one, and found no detail too
triiling to conquer in order 10 make herself n
practical efficient nurse.
Now, our sympathics, we confess, are more
with the pous incompetent who finds herself IA
failure than with the patient she neglecIs. Her
motives have been 30 high, aud she has accom-
plishrd nothing Besides, there are 40 many
like her Half Of the Jealous Christian people
in the world do no good in II because they VIII
not 90 to work to learn how to do 1t
practically aud accurately. Women hold
their children 10 their breasts in rap
ture of love- their souls go up to Ged IN
praycr that the hoy may be healthy, pure, anu
happy. But rapture and prayer will not teach
them how Ia take care of the childs stomach or
teeth or ban. Plous aspiration alone will not
make them the intelligent comrades and con-
fdnnts OF their boys and girls as they are grow
ing up i'm their studies and their plans Tor HE.
MANY n loving, dcvOut mother sees practical
woman with but small stock e piety or love
succeed in rearing n family, while she has
failed simply because she would not learn how.
Again, what is the matter with the clcrgymen
md congregations nOwadays7 WHY are the
news of almost every denomination filled with
women and children. while THEN husbands and
fathers, though protesting sincere faith in
Christianity, have fallen out of the habit OF
going regularly to church I II is not altogether
because these men are "carna,' and "led
away Ivy Mammon.' Being men, they meet
every day important issues. great facts. IDEAS
political or otherwise, Of moment to themselves
and the world. They arc accustomed to
grappe with them III vigorous practical way
The pews Of il clergyman who knows how to
bring religious truth to his hearers in this way
are not empty. 1t is II mistake To say that men
stay away from church because they are afraid
to hive their souls laid bare and their sins made
terrible to them Nothing interests q man so
much as III, soul and its chances; but he wants
no namby-pdmby chatter about it. The most
popular preachers have been the most mercl-
le>sly truthful. Whitetield did not want tor
hearers, nor Loyola, nor Wesley, nor Moody.
II is n mistake, on the other hand, to say that
the pulpls are filled with mcrCenary men who
have taken,up preaching rs a trade sure to
Weld salary and coed social rank. There arc
such men in every profession; but the truth IS
that foo many pulpits ale filled with men sincere
and fervid in plcty, but totally incompetent rs
teachcrs. The youthful convert, Jealous TO
serve his LORD, rnsneS 10 u ulNihIty school "iVh-
out stopping to consider whether he is fitted 10y
nature 10 he n clergyman, II farmer, or car
penter. He learns What he can from his text
books. and goes ont to preach to business men
mentally weak and totally ignorant OF the world
in which they live, their knowlrdges their temp
tations tastes, passions, or virtues. Between
them there is great gulf fixed and he never
crosses it. Something more than zeal and good
intention il ocd to make man guide to
God and IL nnr con vrri hnYe not that sonnet hing