Wallowa chieftain. [volume] (Joseph, Union County, Or.) 1884-1909, 1902-02-20
LADY WITH THE LAMP.
Florence \iEhtiugale,the Sweet-F Faced
Heroine of the Crimea.

Florence Nightingale, the Sweet Faced
Heroine of the Crimea.
In 81. Thomas Hospital. London
there stands the statue of woman
which is always proudly pointed Out
to the visitor She wears the dress OF
nurse. and carries in her hand 2
nurses night lamp. The figure is tai
and slender, not to say fragile; the face
is delicate and refined, with look OF
reserve upon it-a ''veiled and silent
woman" she has been called. The living
face. however, would kindle with i
strange luminousness 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 cherries corridors,
The cold and stony floors.
Lo, in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp see
Pass through the glimmerinG gloom
And fit from room 10 room.
And slow as in dream Of bliss
The speechless sufferer turns to kiss
Her shadow as it falls
Upon the darkening walls,
From the tragedy of the Crimean
. -, h,--
of glory. one is that of the great Rus
sian engineer, TOdleben. with power
ful brow and face of iron sternneSs
the other is this slender. modest Eng
lish lady with downcasl eyes and pen.
Sive brow. Ii is Florence Nightingale
whose womanly hand added 80 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 mas won the more enduring fame
Even after So many Years have pass
ed it 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 VINO died unat-
tended in the hospitals at Scuiari. or
persisted miserably of cold ana starva-
tion in the trenches about SebaStupo!.
while medicines and medical appli-
anceS lay wasted on the beach AT
Narna. and food in abundance was rot
ting in the holds OF vessels In Balaclava
harbOr. There We're 1900 sick in the
hospitals. The death rate was as nigh
as % per cent: four out Of every i've
patients who underwent amputation
died Of hospital gauGreue amidst filth
that would have diSgraced a tribe of
sayages. Such was the story that
stirred every wUman'S heart in the
three kingdoms as with trumpet note.
and Miss Florence Nightingale was
asked TO organize nursing service in
the great hospital Al Sculari
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 tine 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 a rich woman's
life. she Yet turned aside. and spent ten
years studying nursing as an art. first
a the great Moravian hospital ar Kai.
serwOrth, 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 TO the east.
On Oct. %. 1854. she sailed for Sen
tari with band of thirty-eight nurses,
Of whom ten were Roman Catholic Sis
ters OF Mercy and fourteen members of
an Anglican sis1erhoOd. She had a keen
horror OF parade and started with her
gallant band without public notice of
any kind arriving ar Scutari on Nov.
., the very day OF great battle.
What colossal task lay before these
gentle heroines. The hospital had
900 patients. and the wards were
rank with fever and cholera and the
odoT OF undresSed wounds. To this
army Of the sick and dying were added
ID a few hours the wounded from In