Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1902-02-07
LADY WITH THE LAMP.

LADY WITH THE LAMP.
Florence Nightingale, the Sweet-F Faced
Heroine of the Crimea.
In st. Thomas Hospital, London,
there stands the statue OF woman
which Is always proudly pointed out
to the visitor. She wears the dress OF
q nurse, and carries in her hand n
nurses night lamp. The figure Is tall
and slender, not to say fragile; the face
is delicate and refined, with look or
reserve upon tia 'yeiled and silent
woman" she has been called. The living
face, however, would kindle with Il
strange lumlnousness in conversation,
and the dark and steady eyes glow
with what keen observer has describ-
ed as "star-like brightness 1t Is OF
the original of this statue that Long
fellow has written:
The wounded from the battle plain
In dreary hospitals of pain,'
The cheeress corridors,
The cold and stony floors.
Lo! in that house of misery
A lady with lamp | see
Pass through the glimmering gloom
And fit from room to room.
And slow as in a dream of bliss
The speeches. sufferer turns to kiss
Her shadow as 1t falls
Upon the darkening walls!
From the tragedy of the Crimean
war this figure energies with nimbus
of glory One is that of the great Rus
sian engineer, Todleben, with power
full brow and face of iron sternness;
the other is this slender, modest Eng
lish lady with downcast eyes and pen
sive brow. 1t is Florence Nightingale,
whose womanly hand ,,aded SO gra-
cious an element TO the memory OF
those sad days. And of the two, who
will doubt that the ''angel of the hospi-
tai has won the more enduring fame!
Even after so many years have pass
ed 1t is difficult for US to read without
being Overcome by flood OF mingled
wrath and pity the story of the thou
sands of brave men who died unat-
tended In the hospitals at Scutari, or
persisted miserably Of cold and starva-
tion in the trenches about Sebastopol,
while medicines and medical appll-
ances lay wasted on the beach at
Varna, and food in abundance was rot
ting in the holds of vessels in Balaclava
harbor. There were $4,000 sick In the
hospitals. The death rate was as high
as 81 per cent; four out of every five
patients who underwent amputation
died of hospital gangrene amidst filth
that would have disgraced tribe OF
savages. Such was the story that
stirred every woman's heart in the
three kingdoms as with trumpet note,
and Miss Florence Nightingale was
asked to organize n nursing service In
the great hospital at Scutari.
Florence Nightingale was the daugh-
ter of wealthy English household, but
born In Florence, Italy, from which
city she derived her name. That she
was woman of fine intellect, clear
Judgment, and heroic will, cannot be
doubted. Dean Stanley indeed has
called her "a woman of commanding
genius Most certainly she proved
herself In the Crimea TO have great
powers Of administration. But all her
genius ran in womanly channels, espe-
cially in that of nursing. Every woman,
she said, has, sooner or later, some 9th
er human life dependent upon her skill
as nurse; and nursing she insisted
was an art one Of the finest of all arts.
Florence Nightingale has always
practiced what she preached. Born to
the ease and luxury of rich woman's'
life, she yet turned aside, and spent ten
years studying nursing as an art, first
at the great Morayian hospital at Kali
serworth, next with the Sisters of st.
Vincent de Paul, In Paris. Then she
organized n home for sick geyernesses
in London. Then came the opportunity
Of her life in the call to the east
On Oct. %, 1854, she sailed for Scu-
tart with band of thirty-eight nurses,
of whom ten were Ronsa;n Catholic Sis
ters of Mercy and fcre5een members of
an Anglican slsterhooG. She had keen
horror of parade and started with her
gallant band without public notice of
any kind, arriving at Scutari on Nov.
8, the very day of great battle.
What a colossal task lay before these
gentle heroines! The hospital had
$500 patients, and the wards were
rank with fever and cholera and the
odor of undressed wounds. To this
army of the sick and dying were added