Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-09-21

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use of alcoholic stimulants, and the
education of docto and nurses should
be pursued. In the formation of the
constitution of the American National
Red Cross association a still wider
range of activities was adopted. 1t
was hoped that we should have no
wars, but calamities and disasters
were always to be apprehended, and
the organization determined to pro-
vide aid for such emergencies. Other
nations, seeing the usefulness of what
has been called the american amend
ment" are following our example and
adding the amendment to their con-
stitutions. During the past seventeen
years the American Red Cross has
given aid to sufferers in fifteen dis
asters or famines, the Russians, Ar
menians aud Cubans being those who
have received aid outside Of our own
countrvmen.
Notwithstanding the fact that Miss
Barton advocated starting hospitals
during peace, no such work has been
done in America, with the exception
of one institution which Miss Barton
installed apd opened in the city of
New York in 1894. It was founded
by Miss Bettina Hofker-now the wife
of DR.. A. Monae Lesser-a graduate of
the Mount Sinai training school for
nurses, the daughter of general OF
the Prussian army, and whose mother
and aunts had served as assistant
nurses during the Franco-Prussian
war.
The life of professional nurse is
one of constant self-sacrifce, but at
least she feels that she is being re-
warded for her services, and that when
no longer able to continue her work,
she has been fble to lay aside small
sum, which will be sufficient to sup
port her for the rest of her life. But
while trained nurses in general receive
fair compensation for their services,
the sisters of the Red Gross get moth
ing whatever. With the danger of o
war before us, noble professional
nurses have come forward by hundreds,
and offered their services for Red
Cross work. They fully comprehend
the magnitude and Importance of the
work that they will be called upon to
perform, and undertake it quite aware
that they are giving gratuitous SER
vice.
But what shall be said of the un-
professional women who, without
training or skill, offer themselves as
assistants to TIE Red Cross? 1t would
seem folly to accept their services, and
yet the officers of the society base
their opinion on the experience gained
in the Franco-P -Prussian war, when the
princesses of Prussia and women of all
degree offered their services to the
Red Cross; and proved of inestimable
assistance.
The trained nurses will have life
and death in their hands, but the un-
trained assistants will have no less re-
sponsibility, for while upon one will
the care of the sick devolve, on the
other the protection of the healthy
will fail, and in hostile country, with
unacclimated persons, the task will be
neither easy nor light. A great bat
tie has been fought; the cred Gross"
is called for; bearers begin to carry
in the wounded. The coantry is de-
rastated, smoking ruins show where
tho homes of the inhabitants once
stood; there is no shelter, there are
no provisions; the wounded famish for
sip of water, which would poison
them if served from the polluted
streams about them. The surgeons
and nurses are bending over the
wounded, rendering professional aid.
The unprofessional worker is now
alert and calls to her aid her house.