Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-15
ANGEL OF THE
CRIMEA" DEAD
Florence Nightingale, Most Be-
loved English Woman, Sue
cumbs at 81.
GAVE LIPE TO AFFLICTED
Took Nurses to Front During the
Crimean War and Earned
Lasting Reputation.

London, Aug. 15.-Miss Florence
Nightingale, 'the angel of the /Cri-
mea," died here last night. She was
81 years old.
Death came quietly to the woman
who gave up her life to the caring
for the sick and wounded. Few
knew that in the big mansion in the
West end taps were being sounded
for the Good Samaritan whose deeds
of mercy made her name almost hall
lowed by every race and country.
Death resulted from complications
brought about by her extreme old
age.
was Idol of England.
Florence Nightingale was the idol
of England. The reputation she
achieved at the bedside of England's
sick, wounded and dying soldiers in
the war of the Crimea in 1854 has
grown with the passing years. The
modest, useful life she led and her
continued works of mercy proved
bestowed upon her.
Miss Nightingale was born in Flor
ence, Italy, May IL, 1920, and 1t was
in honor of the "city of flowers" that
she was named. Although her father
was a very wealthy man, she insist
ed on learning all that there was to
be learned about the profession of
nursing and became famous as a
"probationer" in London hospitals.
Later on she went to France and
subsequently to Germany. A few
years later she was in Africa nursing
Arabs with such effect, says one of
her biographers. that the Moslems
were almost convinced that the wo-
man had a SOUL"
England Makes Mistake.
When the war of the Crimea broke
out the British army sent to the front
to help the French in the struggle
with the Russians was not accom-
panied by the usual corps of women
nurses.
The struggle had been going on
only a few months, however, when
"Bul Run. Russell began sending
to his English newspaper heartrend-
ing account OF the frightful condi-
| tions that prevailed in the British
hospitals and the horrible state of
the wounded men. Instantly all
England was In an uproar, and for
time the British ministry seemed
tottering.
Volunteered to Aid.
Then, almost at the same moment,
for their letters crossed each other,
Florence Nightingale volunteered to
take a corps OF nurses to the front,
and Herbert Sydney, the secretary
of war, suggested to her such COM
mission.
Oct. Is, 1854, Miss Nightingale set
forth on her errand of mercy at the
head of corps of "a women nurses
and equipped with most of the ma
terial for setting up first-class field
hospital.
Four Miles of wounded.
Establishing herself on the heights
of Scutari, near Constantinople, Miss
Nightingale and her aids began the
organization of a field hospital. At
one time she had four miles of
wounded-four miles of cots, side by
side-with only "a women to nurse
her patients.
Soon after this letters began. COM
| ing in hundreds into the homes of
England which established perma-
nently in the hearts. of the people
the supremacy of Florence Nightin-
gale among all English women. She
was ''the angel of the battlefield -
''the angel of the Crimea," and these
communications, written by soldiers
as they lay i'll and dying in the rough,
barracklike hospitals she had put up.
/