The record-union., 1897-11-02

OF night to protect a sick woman from
her drunken husband? A very sad
case / knew Of was of a young and very
conscientious girl whose first outside
case was that of a child with scarlet
fever. She found she was expected to
sleep in the same bed with the child,
and when she demonstrated, the par
ents-very ignorant foreigners-fatiy
refused to provide another bed or even
allow her to sleep on the floor. You
vas de nurse, and You sleeps nit de
child, they insisted. Too inexperienced
to know she had right to appeal to
the doctor; she submitted, caught the
disease, and died. That, however, was
an exceptional case. The plain prose
of everyday nursing is commonplace
enough, dear knows?
Leaving the hospital service for
private patients is often exchanging
the frying pan for the fire l haze
spoken of the theory that patients are
all alike. Well you find that it's a
theory indeed. You meet lovely people
who become your life long friends-a
few of them. You meet so per cent.
more cranks of the most appalling
kind. They think it is outrageous of
- ~ 81, Gil Niiell l4l6N 10, tDSN
tease you for your unprecedented opin-
ION OF the doctor; they complain be-
cause they're not jolly enough and call
you heartless when you do smile; if
you deny them anything that is bad
Tor them they refer to you always af-
ter as that woman Who abused me so.
You klow'
They are forever reminding you of
your anomalous social standing, a sort
OF Mahomets coffin business. half way
between lady and a lady's maid.
Ihey expect you to have faultless man
ners and to be au fait on all current
topics and new literature; they also
expect You to manicure their toes
doht laugh It's a true case. First
class hotels won't let you eat at the
guests table, though by birth and
breeding you show your connection
| with the 400.''
| Her eyes twinkled. I'm coveting the
! chance" she said, soberly, "of seeing
my naughty little Southern lady strike
! upon that rock. She's the cousin of O.
| GOvernOri"
TalkinS of servants the head
nurse continued Strengthening her cap.
| which she had shaken sidewise in her
vehemence, there is another thorn
| prepared for your devoted side, unless
| You are wise as a serpent and harm
| ISIS as a dove. That is Bridget. She
| resents your poking around in her do
main TO prepare dainty dishes for your
| invalid. She considers you a name
| spirited craytheur,' for refusing to car
| ry up the nice strengthening cup of
| warm tay' or black coffee. and alto
| getheT, unless you placate her she can
make things as warm for you as the
tea and as black as the coffee
The doctor, too. is not all your fancy
painted him in the days when you
| thought nursing must be too ideally
lovely for anything To him even the
| patient is interesting only as a case
not as an individual, and you are neith-
er an invalid nor case, but ma
chine whose name he has forgotten if
he ever knew it. Your opinions? Just
dare to express them-but no. YOU
won't dare, for one of your first les
sons at the hosEtal was that the good
nurse has no tongue, except to answer
questions. No matter how much you
know, you must draw a veil over your
attainments, and instead of saving
The patient had fever last night. >
merely and meekly observe, His tenn
perature went up to 100 and leave the
drawing of conclusions by the physi-
clan.
SO nursing is all prose? Yes. every
bit of it-sensational prose, however.
IN which you get glimpses of trag-
edy and your faith in human nature is
| severely jolted up. Take the grim ex-
| perience of nurse of my acouaint-
ance, who, after her patients husband
| had slipped into the room with the
express purpose of tormenting her into
| Mysteries, found her trying to commit
| suicide with a knife, snatched from
| her dinner tray. Rather trying TO the
nerves. wasn't it? In fact. nurses
have more than once told me that moth
/ ing on earth would induce them to
| marry, after the scenes of domestic un-
| happiness they are forced to see-for
! there can be no concealment kept up
when sickness enters household. 1t
is quite common thing for the nurse
| to be subpenaed as witness in a di-
vorce suit-another privilege on which
I she did not count when she first put
| this uniform on"
rs that all of the seamy side?" she
was asked
Il think so,' musingly. ''A1l except
the fact that the profession like every
| other open TO women, is getting over
| crowded and underpaid And I forgot
! to speak Of the awful homesickness that
! grows and grows as years pass on and
/ you enter house after house that is not
your own. changing your surroundings
more rapidly than the most enterpris-
| ing of servant girls"
And the sunny side?"
+ "Oh, but that is another story,
/ Enough has been said about that; the
usefulness, the Independence and the
/ profit OF a nurses life. I've tried to
describe hard realities only. The use
I fulness is there-all of it, and the pleas
ure that comes of alleviating the mis-
cry of THIS big miserable world, but
the less said of the independence and
/ the profit the better-at least by me-
And in minute her light footsteps
We're echoing distantly across the pol
ished floor Of the great hall. Proba-
tioneers in blue uniforms gathered anx-
iously around her as she issued some
. order and il was impossible to tell from
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