The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-05-28
THE MISSIONARY NURSE.
Diversity of Occupation in the Lot
of One Who Cares for the Poor.


sionary nurse. "Why. bless you,
nursing isn't a matter of hours; it is
of endurance. One day out OF
six | am allowed to rest. but during
the other FIVE working days of the
week | am thankful if / get five hours
sleep out of the twenty-four.
why don't the sick poor go to the
hospital? Ii you were to ask them
they would say they are afraid of the
black bottle. They believe firmly that
when hospital nurses and doctors see
that a patients Ease is hopeless they
put him out of his misery with a
dose from q black bottle. You would
be surprised to find how common
this kind of talk is, even among
those of whom you would expect bet
ter sense. They would rather remain
among their own people, who encour-
age them in such foolishness, though
they themselves haven't time to nurse
their sick, EVENT. they knew how. OF
course people brought up in the slums
don't mind the smells as / do, and the
sight of vermin doesn't nauseate them
as it does me; but for all that their
sick would not only be much more
comfortable, but in many cases their
chances of life would be doubled if
they could be persuaded to go to some
decent hospital.
What kind of smells do / enconn-
ter? All kinds except sweet ones. /
often wish / might leave my nose at
home, for while / am cropping about
in the dark halls, trying to find my
way to the shaky s~taircaSes, it seems
to me q different bad smell comes with
every breath | draw.
II have sometimes almost gone
down on my knees to some poor rheu-
matte or partially paralyzed women,
inp1oring her to let herself be taken
to the hospital, where she could re-
ceive all the attention she ought to
have, and the answer would be L
amt fifteen to die yet, SO Pm a-goin' to
keep out of the hospital as long as I
can One day the doctor said to a
case of this kind = she had been a
dressmaker, and had supported her.
self comfortably as long as she was
able to work-that she would be sure
to die if she stayed at home and let
her children expose her to draughts
as they were always doing. Well
she said, better die at home, when
ILL tiA4O COAlCS, bAASsA1 Ut pAC 41OSB1Ldl,
before nv time comes. and where
III be cut open before the breath
is fairly out of my body. That's the
way a friend of mine was served last
year. Her folks didn't know no bet
ter than to let her be took to a hospi-
tai, and after her death, which I
s'pose was helped along by the black
bottle, them doctors, without asking
leave of nobody, slashed away at the
poor thing; and then they botched
in the seam, such as | wouldn't allow
no little prentice girl of mine to
make
Nov, that dressmaker is a fair
specimen of the kind Of people 1 work
among.
Duties of a missionary nurse?
Well, besides giving medicine and
sticking on plasters and taking tenn
peratures, | sometimes have to cook
and wash and scrub and beg. Scarce
ly a day passes that | don't boil
Cruel and broil chops for sick
people. and often ! have to roll up
my sleeves and wash dishes or scrub
the floor. Then occasionally / have
to go to some depository where bene-
NOlGIAU DCISO1S cCuA ouCA tulll&S. duQ
present a petition for sheets or blank
cts, or whatever else is needed among
my patients, whom | sometimes find
lying on a pile of rage.
Salary Forty dollars for the
first month, the month of probation,
and afterwards $50 a month. If you
we're to go the rounds with me some
day | think you would say that I am
- xz4tl - 1AltA& 49, $500 T--A
now, besides the case of rheumatism
l have been telling you about, J. have
a consumptive patient, a cancer to
look after and a bone felon to poul-
tice, and some cases of malaria that
Zone or another of them) are needing
quinine at every hour Of the day, and
cannot be trusted to take 1T by them
selves; these are only O few OF my
patients"
A Bedroom Planned by Mrs. Logan.
Mrs. John A. Logan is noted for her
interest in young girls, and her love
for them goes beyond superficial cour
tesies. There is one little lass here
who proudly that her
dainty bedroom was designed espe
cially for her by Mrs. Logan. She il
Elsie McElroy, the daughter Of Colo
mel John McElroy, of the National
Tribune, and the room was furnished
for her under Mrs. Logan's D
vision when Miss Elsie was fourteen.
It is all in baby blue, and is simple
and sweet as a Puritan maiden's. 1t
was Mrs. Logan's idea to have the
room suggest spring, and to typify
| the hallowed time of m~aidenhood. To
carry out the idea the rug, which
nearly covers the floor, has a moss
green ground, with the pink trailing
arbutus and fragile duets inter
woven.
The walls are softly tinted in blue,
and the broad dado shows the same
design as the carpet, the ceiling re.
peating the design of the rugs and
wall in deeper tones. The bed is all
of white, blue and gold, the blue
| chintz canopy having a deep valance
of silk wrought in shades OF blue.
The low washstand has d set OF oddly
shaped china bearing hand paint.
ed designs of arbutus and duets,
while about it reaching to the floor il
the quaintest valance of blue chints
in the style of Mrs. Logan's girlhood
days. Near it is a white and colo
dresser as simple as the one before
which Faust watched Marguerite,
There is only one thing that has beer
added that was not strictly ia ACCORD
with Mrs. LOgan's idea. and that Is q