The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-07-23

less specially hidden to do so, while to eat
at the same table as n regular army sur
gcon or other officers would be an infrac-
tion OF etiquette that never could be for
given. In short, the social gulf between
nurse and surgeon Is almost AS wide and
as deep as that between prince and serf,
more SO perhaps, since the prince who
should ask serf to dine with him would
be hailed as amiably eccentric, while the
army surgeon who should break bread
with nurse would be deemed hopelessly
deficient in self respect by his fellows
Cultivated Army Nurses.
The almost comic incongruity of the
situation will be understood by the reader
when 1t is known thatone of the Oliyette's
nurses is an assistant professor of biology
and zoology in a New England institution
of learning and that, In addition to his
college diploma, he holds n certificate of
graduation from one of the most famous
technical schools on this continent. He
has delivered addresses before some of the
most important scientific bodies in the
United States and Is even now inconstant
correspondence with several men well
known for their learning In every intel
lectual center of the world
Another Olivette nurse is the son of q
solid business man in city of $50, 900 in
habitants. One night at his club q mem
Der thereof dared all the young fellows
present to enlist. They accepted the chal-s
lenge to man, and before they went
home all had signed the roll as recruits.
Next day they were put through the med
ical examination, all passing but one He
was tremendously chagrincd by his re-
lection and took the next train for Wash
ington, hoping TO DO accepted there. At
Baltimore ho kft the train, enlisted in the
hospital service, was examined and accent
ed and detailed at once 10 tho Oliyette.
Still another OF tho nurses is graduate
OF medicine who was fast building up q
practice when he put his name down as
volunteer and was mustered into tho sery-
leo as private, though later assigned to
the Olivetto and placed over tho dispen-
sary. Every ono of these men is as we'll
educated and Of as high social standing at
home as tho average army surgeon is any
where, yet none may even be called by tho
courtesy title OF Mr." while membcr
of tho hospital corps unless by an igno-
rant or stiff necked civilian who knows the
ropes not Mt oil.
IL should bo added, however, that none
of all this is tho fault Of tho Olivette's
chasm between tho nurses and themselves
and could not bridge 1t, even temporarily,
If they would
Popular Fighters.
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and General
Joseph Wheeler are the most popular Off
GERS among the wounded who came north
on the Olivettc. Concerning Roosevelt a
rough rider whose left arm is still in a
sling but is able to put up at hotel i'm
stead Of going 90 hospital, said this morn
ing:
THAT fellers the stuff, all right. He's
got II little dude voice, and his teeth and
his eyeglasses are funny enough to make
IA springfield rifle laugh; but Lord, how
he can fghtp'
Concerning Wheeler there isn't q man
brought north by Captain Stevenson who
doesn't tell this story as often "a he gets
chance IL hes hpa printed alrssdy, but
III vehtufe % rp1at the Qjivette VERSION,
6mitting the nslDsof ths sngsgement
which has shuapsq ~ msworyi
wheeler We psSSheri On an eminsnce
out endpuYAgeukept 20 his men, !
absorbed In the fighting, keen eyed and l
alert and Jet hf some curious mental twist
half livtne1n III pest Of thirty odd years
'Eo.- lie could sce the spapiaEds NsYsr-l j