The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-09-20
MISS LOUISA PARSONS.
4 Piucky Nurse. NV In Johns Hopki
Hospital at baltimore

4 Plucky Nurse. NV In Johns Hopkins
Hospital at baltimore
Miss Louisa Parsons, head nurse of
a ward in Johns Hopkins Hospital,
has an interesting history Miss
Parsons is one of the Nursing Sisters,
a Nightingale nurse. trained in 1879
at St Thomas Hospital, London.
Florence Nightingale, after the
Crimean war, started this field of in
struction under the name of St.
Thomas Training School for Nurses.
For service in Egypt during the
Soudan war Miss Parsons has been
highly commended and handsomely
decorated She received from Queen
Victoria the Royal Red Cross, which
the Queen, the Princess of Wales and
other members of the royal family
of England wear; a silver medal
from the English War Office, and
bronze medal from the Khedive of
Egypt
Miss Parsons Is an Englishwoman of
medium stature and active movement
She sailed from London for the Soudan
March 3, 1885. and landed at Suez,
from which place she had a two and a
half days trip to Suakim- She WAS
stationed on the steam transport
Ganges, fitted up as a hospital. The
boat received its complement of pa
tients from the seat of war, wounded
and fever-stricken- There were about
four hundred sick on the Ganges when
Miss Parsons was assigned TO that post
During her stay on the steamer the
ship was cleared off of all who could
be moved They were transferred
to the Iberia and sent to London.
Suakim is said to be the hottest place
in the wOrld-so hot that flies can't
live there. The last popular belief,
Miss Parsons says, is n mistake, for
she saw and fought millions of flies
there and all the plaques of Israel.
Miss Parsons, with two other sisters,
took back to England four hundred
patients on the Iberia and only lost
four on the way. She returned over
land to Brindisi and crossed the Medi-
terranean to Alexandria, whence she
went to Suez by rail, passing the bat
tlefield of Tel-el-Keber, where the
Arabs in 1888 lost five thousand in
killed The journey is described as
terrible, on account of the heat With
three other sisters she was stationed
at Suez, and received all sick for
warded from Suakim. AS soon as con-
valescent they were put aboard home
bound ships
1t was intensely not at Sl1ez, and Mss
Parsons had a thermometer, from ex-
cess of heat, to burst in her pocket.
The hospital yard was gorgeous with
beautiful flowers, but they had to be
gathered before four o'clock in the
morning or the hot atmosphere robbed
them of their fragrance. In some of
the marches the men, suffering with
dreadful thirst, would drink water
that had been laying in the sun for
days in the skin bags. The result was
always largely increased number for
the hospitals She was herself at
tackled with typhoid fever at Suez, suf-
fered a relapse on the homeward voy-
age on the steamer Ganges, and had
a second relapse after she reached her
home.
Miss Parsons sent her resignation
to the War Office before coming to this
country. She came to the United
States on visit but circumstances
caused her to remain longer than she
expected, and finally to accept a place
in the Johns Hopkins Hospital She
has never served in any other hospital
In the United States N. Y. Express.