The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-08-08
HONORABLE TIGER MISS.
A speclmsS Of the rraiRed Narss I'm
.gt, Japan--A Charming At n
tendant.

A japanese trained nurse! 1t Is hard
to say why the idea strikes us as odd,
for Japan is provided with excellent
physicians and hospitals, and the en-
press is herself president of the Jap
anese Red Cross. Nevertheless, II we
find something surprising in the
thought, there is much that is winning
in the embodiment, II O'Iora San, the
nurse described by Mrs. Hugh Fraser
in recent volume of "reminiscences,
may be taken as fair specimen.
"She was barely four feet high"
writes Mrs. Fraser. Her complexion
was dark, her feet were encased in
white linen socks with divided toes and
shod with dainty straw sandals with
green velvet straps.
Her figure, the shape Of very soft
feather pillow, was draped in tight
fitting white apron with a large bib,
and she was kept inside her buttonless
and stringless clothes by a cruelty
tight and wide leather belt put on over
apron and all. Into this belt, holding
her breath for long time first, she
could with great effort push her fat
silver watch, her clinical thermometer,
two or three yards of japanese letter
(which she would read foot at a time
when she thought l was asleep, her
carefully folded paper pocket handker-
chief, and the relentless little regis
ter in which she noted down, from
right to left, cabalistic signs with
which she and the doctor conjured
every morning till they knew all the
sins my pulse and temperature had
been committing.
"Her name was O'Tora San-Hon.
Tiger Miss-but her ways were those
of the softest pussy that ever purred on
domestic hearth rug and oh, what a
nurse she wasl So gentle, SO smiling,
SO delightfully."- sorry for one!
81 have often caught the tears run
ming down her little brown nose when
the poor Okusama was extra bad; and
through long nights of pain has she sat
on her heels on a corner of my bed,
tanning me ceaselessly with the all
but imperceptible futter of the fans
edge--a movement only possible for
those wonderfully sensitive japanese
fingers, but most refreshing to the
famed one.
when it was time for her meals, my
maid 0'Matsu would creep into the
room, having shed her sandals at tht
door, and after inquiring about my
health, would make a deep and grace
full obeisance to Hon. Tiger Miss, anc
inform her in respectful whisper tina
her honorable dinner was ready.
1.-THE polite little Tiger would jumI
up, return the bow, ask permission
to depart, and slip out to feed on fish
pickles (such dreadfully strong-smell
ing picklesI and rice, washed dow
with thimblefuls of green tea or fisl
scnp.
AFTER about Is minutes of solid feed
ing, she would return, come up to m.
bedside, and express her gratitude fo
the meal supplied her. Then she woul'
drop down on the cushion in the cor
ner, and with the calm unconvention
atty peculiar to her race, let out
couple of holes in the leather belt"
Her ugly uniform discarded, how
ever, and arrayed in her own dove-gra
kimono and wide sash, as her patien
afterward often saw her, the queer Iii
tie lady became as charming as she wa
quaint-the very demurest and dainti
est of domesticated Tigers Youth
Companion.,