The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-06-30
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
Angel of the crimea is Still Alive at
Ninety Years.

Ninety Years.
Florence Nightingale, the "angel Of
the Crimea" and the most famous Of
the worlds living heroines, was nine
| ty years old on May 12, and it was
upon this anniversary that the fol-
lowing reminiscence of the great wo-
mans golden aging and the leaning
toward suffrage was told recently by
Miss Nightingale's godmother,' Mrs.
Florence Howe Hall.
1T was only the briefest visit,
said Mrs. Hall at the Hotel Judson,
in New York city, made in 1902 to
Miss Nightingale's pretty home IN
Mayfeld, London, where she had lain
bedridden invalid for many years.
But to me it has always seemed like
a pilgrimage to holy shrine.
strangely enough, you know It
was partly upon the advice of my
father, DR.. Samuel Howe, that she
undertook that great work to the
Crimea forty years before.
MY mother, Mrs. Julia Ward
Howe, and my father had just been
married in the early forties and were
back in England on their honeymoon
after visiting the scenes where father
Thad fought and 'nursed' in the Gre
clan war.
Miss Nightingale, hearing of his
presence, came to him and asked If
a great work for humanity did not lie
in the foundation of such move
ment as has since developed into the
Red Cross. I think so, and l think
it is a weman's place to lead it, said
my father, and two years later Miss
Nightingale was away at the German
hospitals preparing for the events
that even she could not then have
foreseen.
"NIeanwhile she had become firmly
attached to my mother, and when
some years later l was born she ask
ed that 1 be given her name. She
sent me a beautifully bound volume
of Shakespeare as birth gift, and
think it the most treasured heirloom
in our family to-day.
Long, long afterward, when her
fame had become worldwide in the
Crimea and after mother had also
won note through the writing of the
Battle Hymn of the Republic Miss
Nightingale wrote to send lock of
her hair to mother and to ask that
her godmother visit her if ever |
came to London. And years after
that when I finally did get to London,
l recalled that invitation which I had
heard of as a girl and went upon the
pilgrimage to Mayfair.
LAS remember now Miss Nightin-
gale was sitting propped in bed facing
window that looked out upon 2
long vista of pretty cottages, tiny
groves and their gardens. -.
"She was eighty-two then, and
even as she lay in bed could see
that before disease wasted her form
she must have been very tall and a
very beautiful woman. Il am very
glad to see you, godmother,' she said,
putting forth her hand and smiling
sweetly.
Then she asked me after my
mother; said she had never heard
such an inspiring anthem as The
Battle Hymn and wished me to con-
vey hep dearest love to my parent,
whom she remembered to be. just a
little more than year older than
herself.
II did not press her to tell me of
her Crimea experience, for that was
subject which she had long since
put by. But did discover that she
believed in suffragism-not the mill
tant suffragism ofs the English radi-
Gals, but in a peaceful campaign that
should go on gathering volume peace
fully through the years until it should
conquerifrom the sheer weight of its
business. =
81 think we talked together half an
hour. Then I said good-by. l left her
home with one idea of her that has
never faded-her perfect serenity,
the serenity of a great woman who
has done a great lies work and is
content to await the end"
Mrs. Hall, herself woman of many
literary accomplishments, has been a
resident at the Hotel Judson for sew
eral years. She says she believes
that Miss Nightingale has entirely
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