The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-07-30

SISTER MARY FLORENTINE. MOTHER SUPERB
OR OF MARY IMMACULATE, KEY WEST
tional hospital would be needed at Key
West, it being so near the seat of war.
The difficulty was at once removed by
the mother superior and sisters of the
convent mentioned offering freely and
without solicitation or ostentation their
home to the government to be used as q
hospital. It is needless to say that in
making this offer the sisters of the con-
vent made great sacrifice. The act in
volved the closing of their schools and
the dismissal of their pupils. They,
however, patriotically regarded the tenn
porary interruption of the education of
the young as of less Importance than
the care of the men who had been
wounded or contracted disease while
employed in the service of their coun-
try The proposition of the sisters was
first made to the navy, but the depart
ment was not quite ready at the time
to consider it. Subsequently they made
the same offer to the war department,
and it was accepted.
Immediately afterward DR.. Hall left
Washington, and, proceeding to Key
West, began the transformation of the
convent into q hospital. The ground
floor, formerly used as classrooms for
young children, was turned into an inn
mense ward, and three wide doorways,
all now open, make it practically one
room. Long rows Of comfortable cots
are ranged against each side, leaving
ample space for both patients and nurses.
On the floor above, reached by a broad
staircase from the grounds, are the dis
pensary and the Office of the surgeon in
chief. The music hall, a circular room
with abundance of light and air, has
been set apart as ward for wounded
officers. One of the ciassrooms has been
taken as the office of the assistant sur
geon, and next to It is the operating
room, fitted up with all the latest APP
pliances used in modern surgery.
The dormitories, fight farther up,
have been stripped of their bedsteads
and furnished with hospital cots, and
the small buildings, about 200 feet from
the main structure, formerly occupied
as schoolrooms for white and colored
children, have been turned into wards.
They are capable of accommodating
from 20 to 30 patients each. To provide
for an overflow, in the event Of some
great disaster to our arms, hospital
tents have been erected amid the palms.
The building has capacity for the
reception of about 400 patients with
out overcrowding. DR.. Halls staff con-
sists Of DIR. w. O. Borden, assistant
surgeon; DR.. s. T. Armstrong, acting
assistant surgeon; DR.. Barnard e. b.
ker, acting assistant surgeon, and III. p.
jackson, also acting assistant surgeon.
Four trained nurses arrived recently
from the north and at once began in
structing the 81 sisters of the convent
in regard to their duty in attending
upon the sick and wounded. With the
surgeons, nurses and the necessary at
tendants, the force under the control of
the surgeon in chief will be close upon
100. Cooking ranges, oil and gas stoves
have been put in and competent corps
of cooks engaged to prepare the food
It is noteworthy that four of the
trained nurses will serve for merely
nominal salary-less than one-quarter
of what they would receive when en-
ployed as private nurses. There is no
doubling the patriotism Of these young
women who travelled 1000 miles from
their homes to assume arduous and dam