The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-02
BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
FOR GIRLS.
xvII-FLoRENcE NIGHTINGALE
nS20O

GS20)
BY CHARLOTTE BREWSTER JOR-
DAN.
In Florence Nightingale is found that
rare combination Of heart and brain
which makes the ideal nurse. By
means of her wfnsome personality and
marked executive ability she dignified
the profession of nursing and raised it
from the makeshift employment Of the
degraded and ignorant up into the
realm of the fine arts.
Named for the beautiful Italian city
in which she was born in 1920, Flor
ence Nightingale passed much of her
happy and charitable childhood at her
fathers country seat at Leigh Hurst
Derbyshire. She was peculiarly fortu-
nate in her fOrbears. From her moth
ers father, William Smith, the great
philanthrOpist, she inherited her earn
est desire to be one Of the worlds help
ers, and from her father she derived
that mental equipment and broadmind-
edness which converted her ambition
into fact.
Charming stories are extant of her
sympathetic childhood in which the
nursing of wounded animals and sci
entific bandaging of dolls played an
absorbing part. Her studies of the
languages and higher mathematics de-
Neloped and strengthened her mind for
the scientific discipline in store for 1t,
and her facility as u musician and
needlewOman trained her delicate
touch to a nicely. To these early adj
vantages foreign travel added its
| broadening influence. Wherever she
went she studied the science of nurs-
ing, tending with her own hands some
wounded Arabs whom the family met
while travelling in Egypt studying for
! several months Pastor F'liedner'S Dea-
/ cOnesses at KaiserWerth, working with
/ the sisters of St. Vincent de Paul OF
/ Paris. serving altogether an appren-
! ticeShip of nine years of close study OF
/ the alienation of suffering before the
/ critical moment arrived that was to
/ test her life work. Meanwhile she had
/ greatly impaired her health by work
( ing night and day for three years, put
I ting the Harley street sanitarium upon
a sound financial and scientific foot
I ing. thus demonstrating indisputably
/ that self-sacrificing helpfulness was
] the first law of her being.
While recruiting from the bodily eX-
haustiOn incident to this work she
shared in the horror agitating all Eng
land, caused by the terrible pictures Of
/ suffering which William H. Eussel
/ sept to the London Times from tht
} Crimea. In these letters he demon
| strated SO clearly that the unsanitary
condition of the British army was kill
/ ing off more men than the deadly bat
/ ties Of the Crinea that England be
! came panic-stricken over the mortality
! list, yet seemed HELPLESS to curtail it
IN the hurry and enthusiasm at thC
| outbreak of the Crimean war 1854
Great Britain had dispatched shiplcad:
of men improperly provided with fooC
or clothing for the severe Russian eli
mate. Starvation, cholera and agoniz
ing suffering We're the results. Blu
two persons in England seemed to re
tain their cOmpOsuTe amid the genera
cOnsternation-Lord Herbert, minister
of war; and Florence Nightingale. The
+ former wrote a letter to his friend
Miss Nightingale. stating that he con
| Sidered her the only person in Grea
J Britain capable OF bringing order GU
of confusion, and imploring her to or
/ ganize and direct the reform of tn,
| military hospitals, and this letter wa:
! crossed by one from Miss Nightingale
| volunteering to place her strength anC
/ ability at the service Of her nation.
Good trained nurses were almost un
! known quantities in those days, We
| nothing daunted. Florence NightingGl,
sailed from England with thirty o
| the beat nurses that she could muste
within d week from her letter of vol
unteer. Letters Immediately appeared
in the Gdiiy papers inquiring who thi
patriot was and when it becam.
/ known that she was not the hospita
matrOn of tFe old regime, but a young
delicate and singularly accomplished
woman who was about to try to lesser
the hideOusness of war, popular graft
tude and enthusiasm became intense
/ When her mission became an accom-
pHShed fact and it was found that he
quiet good sense was able to over
come the popular prejudice agains
wOmanly prominence, to conciliate tn
general disapproyal Of medical an,
military officials: to train her staff in
10 the knowledge that mere kind heart
edness was not the only requisite 70
intelligent nursing and 20 keep al
around her up to the very highes
standards. the national support be
came immediate and practical. s.
sympathetic thai her grateful patient
declared their recovery to be due t
the compassion with which she dresses
their CHASTITY wounds she nevertheless
understood so we'll the art Of temperinj
her sympathy with measures for ulti
mate gain that outsiders sometime
lost sight of her tenderness in her phe
nOmenal executive energy.