Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-01
National Convention of Army
Nurses Meet Here.
DR.. MCGEE'S ADDRESS
WANTS ANISH-AMERICAN WAR
HISTORY WRITTEN.
President and Mrs. Roosevelt Send
MISUNDERSTANDING Taft Unable
to Attend Ceremonies.

The National Association of Spanish
American War Nurses opened its fifth an
nual session in the parlor of the Ebbitt
House this morning with about 100 nurses
present a large number will arrive this
afternoon and evening, it is said, in time for
the banquet which will be given at the Eb-
bitt House.
DIR. Anita Newcomb MCGEE, national pres
idCnt. presided over the session, which was
private and devoted entirely to routine bust
ness connected with the reading of the min
utes of the national convention which was
hel. in st. Louis last year. DR.. MCGEE
made a short address, in which she spoke
of many things in which the nurses are In
terested. She particularly urged upon them
the necessity of writing the history of
nursing in the Spanish-American war as
they it.
She said that much of the interesting in
SIDE history of earlier wars had been lost
because the active participants had failed
to record what they knew of it. Each nurse,
she said, had had different experience,
and the telling of her story would help to
make up the whole history of the war,
which would otherwise lose something of
value
DIR. MCGEE also told of the difficulties en-
cCuntered in the erection of the monument
to the nurses who died while in service in
1898 Secretary Root, she said, had in
formed the committee which had the pro-
ject in hand that if they received permits
sion from the War Department to erect a
monument in Arlington that monument
must be large and handsome, and must be
designed by some sculptor of note, and
placed so many Instructions in the way of
the plans they had made that for time
they were in despair.
They went ahead with collections for the
monument, however, and Quartermaster
General Humphreys of the War Depart
ment was enlisted to assist them. From him
they secured the privilege of erecting such
monument as they could procure funds
for. with no stipulation as to cost, design
Or anything else. The contributions have
been confined entirely to the members of
the aSsocia ton.
Messages of Regret.
Messages of regret were read in execu-
tive session from the President and Mrs.
Roosevelt, Secretary Taft, whom pressure
of business will keep from delivering an ad-
dress at Arlington tomorrow and from
Surgeon General ORiely and Past Surgeon
General Sternberg both of whom are out
of the city. Regrets and letters were also
read from a number of prominent people
who wish the nurses well in their work.
This afternoon reports and other business
Will take up the time till adjournment for
the banquet. The sessions will continue
through tomorrow.
At o'clock tomorrow afternoon the
monument in Arlington will be unveiled
lin memory of the women who gave their
lives dS army nurses III 1898, winch is
the inscription on the reverse side of the
beautiful granite boulder which COM
memorates the death of the following:
Miss Margaret Greenfield, who died at
Camp Sternberg, November 81 1898; Miss
Ellen May Tower. who died at San Juan,
December 9, 1898; Miss Margaret Trioche
MD. who died at Animation, Ala, Novem-
Der IL. 1898: Miss Clara Ward. who died
at Fort Myer Va. October %. 1898; Miss
Irene s. Toland MD. who died at Santi-
ago. September %, 1898; five Sisters OF
Charity from Mt Washington Convent
Md, and from Emmittsburg; one white
immune nurse, Miss Isabel r. Bradford
and one colored nurse, Miss Minerva
Turnbuil, both of New Orleans: five Sis
tiers of Charity from the Charity Hospital
in New Orleans. and Miss Emma Wake
field of New Orleans.
1t is explained that those Spanish war
nurses who sleep in Arlington died year
or more after the close of the war, and
were not then connected with the service
The monument is to commemorate only
those who fell in line of duty.
Unwilling Ceremonies.
At the unwilling the Fort Myer band will
play the Star Spangled Banner" and
America The invocation will be pro-
nounced by Rev. Father McGonigal. The
opening address will be made by DR.. Anita
Newcomb MCGEE. The other address will
be made by DR.. Clifford Cox, department
commander of the District of Columbia
Pierce and Mrs. Donald Mclean, president
general of the Daughters of the American
Revolution. The closing prayer will be
made by Chaplain Robinson, L. S. A, re-
tired.
Miss frances West, who served in the
18th Army Corps: Miss McCrea of the Dis
trict and Miss Joanna Schmidt were de-
tailed to attend the funeral of Gen. t1tz-
hugh Lee and TO lay the flowers sent by
the nursese upon his casket.
Since war began TO devastate and the
sword TO devour. women have been the
angels of the battlefield Ancient and me-
dieval history is filed with the heroism of
devoted women who followed the men they
loved to the field of carnage and bound up
the broken limbs buried the dead. The
maid who binds her warriors SASH and
sends him to face death on the field of bat
tie is brave, but she who follows him TO
the scenes of fray and with his sash binds
up his wounds, and nurses him through
sickness back to health, is even Drawer.
While the wars of the United States have
not been numerous, the list of those women
who have taken their lives in their hands
and gone as nurses .nto the field and camp
hospitals to care Tor the sick and wounded
who were lighting the battle of the country
is long and illustrious. There were hun
dreds of these brave women during the war
of the rebellion. and the records they made
are among the brightest on the pages of
history. Several of these nurses were
wounded while helping to care for the sick
and injured while the battle was going on.
They were all volunteer" nurses, and went
into the service. the most of them without
thought of emolument and few of them
wrecked health and happiness through eX-
posture. While history of wars is read, the
names of Clara Barton. Mother Bickerdyke
Mother Pomeroy, Dorothy Dix, Mary Nor
riss Husband, DIR. Sarah p. Edison. Mary
A. Iivermore, and those associated with
them will he remembered. They suffered
everything but death, and few of them
went down to death in the grand work they
were doing.
When the war with Spain began it was
found that the heroic spirit among women
was just as strong then as II was half a
century one, two, or ten centuries ago, for
that matter. 1t must be admitted, how
ever that the women OF 1898 who offered
their services to the army and navy were
much more "forehanded" than the women
of any other war of which history speaks.
BY the lamp of experience they had learned
their lesson well. They recognized the fact
that 10 achieve results they must have a
compact and businesslike Organization.
Their first effort was to get recognition
from the War and Navy Departments and
then to systematic their labors. Thus IL is
that there Is record in the government
archives of every woman who wore the
nurses badge in the war with Spain.
Dorothy Dix was the ruling spirit in the
organization and employment of nurses in