The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-24
NEW FIELD FOR ROMANCE.
The Splendid Sacrifices Of the Trained
Nurses Of New York.

OdushLSES VI Nne W ar-AATbs mclean
Devotion to Duty Destroyed Her
Eye-sight-Amateur Summers and
Salvation Army Lassies Like Banker
Van Norden's Daughter - Lady
Covers Temptations-Miss Wilcox
Returns to the World-Ths Attacks
On mr.. william n. DunninE, and
Mrs. Godfrey Chapman, by the
Wretches Who Entered Their Service
as Trained Nurses-An Unsupported
Peril.
(Copyright.)
New York, June 22.-Bank President
Van Norden's daughter joined the Saliva
tion Army year or two ago and there
was much talk about it, Miss Vanderbilt,
Miss Shepard, Miss Helen Gould and
other daughters Of men worth millions
in money, go in for nursing and visiting
the SICK and find both comfort and
amusement in it. But only in an amateur
way. The professional trained nurse has
ceased to be invested with that romantic
interest which suggests the names of
Florence Nightingale, Lucille, ~ Florence
Lees, Lady Cover and the like. Yet
women of gentle birth, who have been as
carefully guarded as dollhouse flowers,
slip away from time to time from the
ways of the world into the hospital ward,
and the nurses home, and the sick rooms
of strangers, content to be for
gotten in well-doing. The trained
nurse sees a touching, absorbing,
fascinating side Of life, as well
as many of its untold horrors.
She is the daughter of war. In the
United States she dates only from the
early SOS as in England Florence Night
ingale thrilled the nations with her entree
into the bloody scenes of the Crimean
war.
Miss Virginia Mclean illustrates the
heroism of the trained nurse cf to-day.
She distinguished herself in the College
for Trained Nurses, and left Bellevue
hospital at the end of the term, in 49,
with the highest honors the faculty could
bestow. But she left it blind. In an OPP
GRAFTON at which she assisted, or while
otherwise attending little child in the
ward where she loved to work, Miss Nc
Lean got q particle of virus in one of her
eyes. To the intense grief of the staff
and of all who had known of the value of
her work, the sight slowly withered
away anu GAlC Vitality VI Vic ItuudluluE
orb began soon to be affected. Specialists
here and in Paris and London were con-
suited, in vain. Her own courage and
devotion to her calling did not falter in
this hour of extremity. She prepared to
transfer the scene of her activity to the
blind asylum. This was indeed splen-
did sacrifice.
Lady Alexandra Leveson Cover, the
only daughter of the Duke of Sutherland,
MOI 90 xwEo hon inn tifr1
OF giving up the career Of pleasure which
her social position and her fortune opened
before her. She studied nursing and
began in the summer of 1890 her
regular term in the service of a
famous London hospital. There are
people who say she has more than once
been tempted to abandon her life of self
sacrifice BY offers of things which women
hold very dear, including the love of
several honest men. Miss Lulu Wilcox,
beautiful girl, entered upon such life
in 1877 as Sister Callista of the Sisters of
Mercy, IN Hartford. A fortune was left
her, report said, and the attractions of
the world showed themselves as they
never had before. In sincerity she had
taken her vows, and in sincerity she de-
clared, she put them of, including the
VOW OF poverty. So she came to New
York city and lived happily, las good
Catholic as ever"
Pride prevents nurses from telling some
of their experiences in family work. The
husband of the invalid wife sometimes
seems to entertain a vague notion that he
must pay certain amount of attention to
the pretty soother of her woes In many
cases she is taken Into the family" and
made much of; the children become at
tached to her and she dislikes to say good
by and try "the peril of new fortunes"
In others she is subjected to Sights and
snubs which no woman of self-respect can
support without the spur of duty not to
be put aside. AS the latest accession of
the household she is at times held re-
sponsible, tacitly, for the solitaire or the
bank bill that has been lost or fallen a
prey to thievish servants. She is neither
one thing nor the other, and dimes after
the family and before the servants, in the
family dining room, but not with the
family.
There is a startling significance in the
publication from time to time of attacks
by trained nurses on their helpless
charges. There can be no doubt that
desperate and despicable men take refuge
from the police and seek other opportuni-
ties to prey on their fellows by enlisting
in the ranks of trained nurses. Herbert
Searvant is now serving a ten-year SEN
tence in Sing Sing for attempting to muir
der Mrs Hawley Chapman, whose invalid
husband he had been hired to nurse. In
his effort to escape the punishment of his
infamous crime this scoundrel endeavored
also TO murder Mrs. Chapmans good
name. He was found guilty and sentenced
amid the general execration of the COM
muuity, not the least of his crimes being
his dastardly disgrace of an honorable
profession.
William H. Dunning, president of the
United States Life Insurance Company of
Detroit, came to New York on business
trip in the latter part of january, 1891.
He fell sick at the New York
hotel and John Johnson, alias Big John,
was employed to nurse him. He
had been a trained nurse for eleven years
On the night of Feb. 10 of that year, Mr..
Duuning was aroused by feeling hand
in the pocket of his night-shirt in which
he carried 500. He jumped up, recog-
nized Johnston and grappled him, but
was thrown aside like a baby, in his
weakened condition, by the stalwart
attendant, who was a six-footer. His
shouts aroused the guests and on an ex-
animation it was found that Mr.. Dun
niug's trunk had also been broken open
and robbed Of two diamond studs, gold
watch and diamond pin
valued in all at $500. The nurse
was arrested and pawn tickets for
Mr.. Dunning's valuables were found
in his possession. A button that Mr.
Dunuing had in his unayailing struggle,
torn from the coat of his assailant, was
fOt1pd exactlv 70 match the buttOus IN tho