The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-05-07
Florence / Pioneer Of
Trained
Nightingale Nurses

man was done at the German deacon
esses' home with brave cheerfuIness by
Florence Nightingale
After her severe course Of training in
the house Of deaconesses the young
lady returned to England and founded
q hospital for poor and sick governess-
es, whose condition was worse IN those
days than It IS in this time of varied
occupation for women Miss Nightin-
gale ministered to the inmates Of her
hospital and largely supported il out OF
her private fortune
In 1854 came the Crimean war
France. England and Turkey against
Russia. The defective camp and field
military. hospitals. the lack Of santa
ton and appliances of comfort and
cleanliness for soldiers, the trying eli
mate OF the Crimea. caused the soldiers
Of the allies to sicIzen and die like poi
soned flies A great cry OF horror and
indignation rose in England Could
nothing be done for British soldiers ?
British patriots and philanthropfsts at
once set themselves to devise ways of
relief.
Florence Nightingale was one of
those who grieved intensely at this hor-
rible, useless pouring out Of human
life She felt that she herself could
stop it if she could get the backing of
the public and of the war department
She determined to write to the war de-
partnlent and offer to go to the Crfmea
to do what might be done to lessen the
fearful death rate She wrote
The British war secretary at that
time was Sir Sydney Herbert, a very
able. progressive and humane man. He,
too, had been sitting up nights to de-
wise means Of relief for the sick and
wounded. At length he said to him
self: There is one person in England.
a woman-F1orence Nightfngale-who
can cope with this situation. I will
write and ask her to go to the Crimea-'
It was the strangest sort of coinci-
dence that the letters crossed each 9TH
CT. and Miss Nightingale received the
war secretary's invitation to &c to the
front within the hour that he received
her letter asking permission to GO She
went, and her going marked an era in
military hospital work and another in
the industrial employment of women
Miss NiEhtingaIe's Iabors were stupen-
dous. No one not upborne by a great
heart and purpose could have endured
them
She possessed a brain for organizing
unequaIed by that Of any man in the
military hospital department of the
time In two weeks she had established
a sick diet kitchen, a laundry, wards
and beds for 4, 900 men and a school
room and library for convaleseents-
Every night she went through all the
wards. and there were six miles Of
these altogether. Critical cases she at
tended herself. With a little lamp In
her hand. night after night she gIided
nOiselessly up and down the long lanes
of cots, careful that no man should
want anything The soldiers called her
first the lady with the lamp, then the
angel OF the Crimea; then they turned
their faces and kissed her shadow as it
passed.
BY and by the angel Of the Crfmea
herself was stricken with camp fever
and nearly went over the borderIand
Weeks she struggled with death and
conquered, to return to her beloved
task Of providing sanitary nursing for
soldiers. At the close of the Crfmean
war she went back to England She
had saved the lives of thousands of
soldiers she had taught the govern
ments of the world how to construct
and equip military hospitals and how
to train men and women for nurses
and. Incidentally, she had ruined her