The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-01-15
The Lady With the Lamp.

Florence Nightingale was the daughter
Of a wealthy English household but born
in Florence and taking her name from
that city. In St. Thomass Hospital.
London. stands her statue. She wears the
dress OF a nurse. and carries in her hand
a nurse night lamp. The figure is tall
and slender. not TO say fragile: the face
is refined. with look Of reserve upon it,
"a yelled and silent woman" she has been
called
Florence Nightingale practiced what she
preached Born 10 the ease and luxury
OF a rich womans life. she yet turned
aside and spent ten years studying nurs-
ing as an art, first at the great Moravisn
Hospital AT Kaiserwerth. next with the
Sisters OF St. Vincent de Paul in Paris.
Then she organized Home for Sick
Governesses IN London. Then came the
opportunity Of her life in the call 10 he
East
On October p. 1854. she sailed with a
band OF thirty-eight nurses-of whom ten
we're Roman Catholic Sisters OF Mercy
and fourteen members of an Anglican
sfsteThood-fOr Scutsri. II am naturally
very shy person" she says: certainly
she has a keen horror Of parade. and shc
started with her gallant band without
public notice or farewell. Al BoulOgue.
however, it became known that this com
pany Of ladies. with their uniform dark
dress. were nurses on their way 10 the
Crimea. and the white-capped fisher
women OF the place thronged around
them. and carried their luggage 10 the
railway station. scornfully refusing 10 let
man SO much as touch an article. The
band Of heroines reached Scutari on
November g. the very day of Inkermann.
The great barrack hospital there was
huge quadrangle. a quarter OF a mile on
each face; its corridors rising story above
story had a linear extent OF four miles
The hospital when the nurses landed held
2s0 patients, no less than two miles. that
Is OF sick beds-beds foul with every kind
of vieneSs. The mattresses were streWn
two deep in the corridors. the wards were
rank with fever and cholera and the odOr
OF undressed wounds. And 10 this great
army Of sick and dying the wounded from
Inkermann In a few hours We're added
bringing the number up 20 500. Into
what Russell calls "the hell" OF this great
temple OF pain and foulness moved the
slight and delicate form of this English
lady, with her band of nurses.
Clumsy male devices were dismissed al
most with a gesture, into space. Dirt n
came a crime. fresh air and clean linen
sweet food. and soft hands a piety \
great kitchen was organized which pro-
vided well cooked food for thousand
men. Washing was q lost art In the hos
pital; but this band OF women created. as
with a breath. a great laundry. and a
strange cleanliness crept along the walls
and beds Of the hospital. In their war
fare with disease and pain these women
showed a resolution as high as the men
of their race showed against the grey
coated battalions of Inkermann. or IN the
e.
dle-headed male routine was swept ruth
lessly aside. II the commissariat failed
TO supply requisites. Florence Nightiu-
gale. who had great funds az her dis
posal, instantly provided them herself !
and the heavy-fCoted officials found the /
swift feet Of these women Outrunning (
them in every path Of help and pity. /
Only one fash Of anger is reported 90 have /
broken the serene calm which served as
a mask for the steel-like and resolpte
will OF Florence Nightingale. Some stores
had arrived from England; sick men were
languishing for them. But routine re-
quired that they should be inspected /
b va board before being issued and the f
board. moving with heavy-footed slow !
ness, had not completed its work when f
night fell. The stores were. therefore.
with official phlegm. locked up. and their /
use denied to the sick. Between the needs /
OF hundreds Of sick men. that is and the /
comforts they required was the locked 4
door. the symbol OF red-tape. Florence /
Nightingale called a couple OF Orderlles
walked TO the door. and quietly ordered /
them to burst it open and the stores 70
be distributed,
Kinglake says that the part played by /
the male officials and by Florence Night !
ingale's band Of nurses IN the hospitals
of the Crimea constituted an Interesting
trial Of both brain power and speed be-
tween the two sexes: and he is Inclined To- t
pronounce. with emphasis that IN this
duel OF its wits the feminine brain comes
out best. Women supplied exactly that I
agile brain-power. that organizing or
governing faculty" which the state need
ed, but which its male officials al the
moment failed 10 supply. "The males
at the time in England" he SAYS 'suf-
fered from a curious lamcncss 10 tho use
OF brain-pOwer' They had lost the
faculty Of initiative. and were slaves to
custOm.-Coruhill Magazine