The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-09
HEIRESS AS AN ARMY NURSE.
MISS GARDENERS SERVICES TO
SUFFERING SOLDIERS.

the Infested ship COncho--NeVv
York society Was Amazed at Her
Venture-Said She Had Plenty OF
Money and Plenty of Time and
That Was Why She Wcnt-One of
the HcrOines of Santiago.
From the New York Journal
Miss Adele Griswold Gardiner, heiress,
member of the -Four Hundred" beauty
and a Red cross nurse. returned from
Cuba on the pest-ship Concho. one of the
foremost heroines of the sparisb-Ameri-
can war.
She faced death as bravely. She srappled
disease as heroicaly as the noblest soldier
of them all.
She performed duties for the stricken
men on board the Concho from which
rough soldiers shrank, and which some
refused to do.
Now it is feared that she is Ill., She de-
nies herself to all visitors, even close
friends. upon the plea of indispo-iton and
extreme WEAKNESS. She was never before
known to complain about either and her
friends are troubled.
She. with two other nurses. had charge
of 100 sick and dying soldiers on the ship
that was a veritable BLACK Hole of Cal
cutta."
The water on board the Coucho was
foul.
There was no ice.
The army rations consisted Of hard
tack" canned beef and beans, and there
was no exception to this fare for the sick,
the dying or Miss Adele Gardiner.
For thirty-six hours the bodies of three
men remained on the second deck. where
Miss Gardiner was stationed awaiting
governmental permission for burial
The transport ship was chiefly of iron.
At the middle We're the powerful glowing
engines. Between them was such heat
as has sometimes driven men mad.
There were stories that the devil of vel
low fever was lurking somewhere about
the ship
The faint of death was In the air.
All this, the horror and the danger of
1t all. was made known to Miss Adele
Gardiner one day to be, if she lives to
possess it. the Lady of GARDENERS Island,
but she did not finch.
There are so few nurses" she said cit
is my duty to CO.
And DR.. A. Monae Lesser. the famous
surgeon, said it was a golsend that she
came on the COnchO. where her young
strength, her wonderful endurance and
! her rare patience were sorely needed
She fed the soldiers who were too weak
to carry their food to their lips
She bathed their hot faces and hands
and feet and bodies.
She banadged their inhamed bullet
wounds.
She took their temperature every half
hour.
She cooked such food for them as the
meager army rations afforded.
She kept daily record of their cases for
the inspection of the surgeons.
She held the hands or smoothed the
brows of the dying.
She helped TO prepare the bodies of the
dead for their rude burial.
| Society was astounded a Miss Gardeners
/ determination to go to Cuba as an army
| nurse. She was surprised at It's surprise.
! Before she sailed she preached to the
! careless ones of the 900 a modest but
! earnest little sermon in a statement TO
/ the Sunday Journal Ii had a powerful
text. Freely ye have received. Freely
/ give"
MANY ask me why go. I always re-
! ply Why should I not go| 1 have mon
! ey? That is all the greater reason why
I can give time and means to suffering
| humanity. I have leisure? That is the
greater reason why 1 have time TO help
! others. I have been taken care OF always?
1t is high time 1 should take care OF
some respects unpleasant work. but there
1 is much higher consideration than pleas
| ure That is duty. ! wish girls Of leisure
and wealth could be made to see what an
! opportunity this is for turning their backs
/ upon ideness and selfshness and being
/ truly useful"
| 1t is said by members Of the Ice Plant
and Ambulance Auxiliaries of the Red
| Cross Society branches formed largely
/ from high class social timber that Miss
GARDENERS examples was the impetus TO
/ the formation of those very successful and
useful auxiliares.
''You see. it began by one of our friends
| going South to nurse the soldiers That
set US to thinking whether We could not
/ do something" is the way its members
/ explain the organization Of the auxilaries
The friend was Miss Gardiner. The act
and the sermon bore fruit.
Miss Gardiner went to Tampa with a
relay of nurses in May. She found some
/ welcome work in the eXtemporiZed hos
| pitfalls in Florida for a Time, then went to
Santiago, where her duties CHANGED to be
/ light and few.
/ When she heard that the Concho was
/ poorly provided with nurses she begged
to be allowed to go with it.
She Is weak from the privations of the
/ Journey She is much thinner than when
she sailed South three months ago. II Is
feared that she will pay the penalty Of her
zeal by long illness, but that zeal has
| never lessened a whit.
Il would 60 back gladly if were need
! ed" she says There is 10 joy like the joy
of service.
Grevous are the stories the soldiers tell
Of the wrethcedness aboard the Concho,
At Smiths Infrmary and Fort Wadsworth
they tell tales of horror.
ice might have saved the lives Of six
Of the fellows, but there wasn't a crumb
of it, and they died, poor devils" said
one
1t wasn't because he wanted The ice
SO bad that that last fellow died al Hamp-
ton Roads" said another. Twas because
his pal was lying there dead on The COT
next TO aim Tor day and "a half while
| they was waiin' to unroA enough govern
ment red tape 70 bury him. II broke his
heart and sicAencd him, that's what it
did, and he just turned over and groaned
and died just "a sun up; didn't ! see him %
THAT was hard luck that day when
they found a iittle Indian meal and had
| just enough 70 give us each a spoonful"