New-York tribune., 1910-01-02
NURSING THE POOR
THIS CAREER is NOT
DEVOID OF THRILLS.
Excitement and Peril Daily
Comrades of Women
Caring for Sick.

The system of visiting nursing in New
York, i'm existence among the sick poor for
about seven years, has now been called into
special prominence because of it's recent
adoption as a regular feature in the in
dustriai department of one of the largest
life insurance companies in the United
States.
1t was suggested only few months ago
by the head of the Nurses Settlement in
New York that through the weekly visits
of the company's collecting agents among
the 80 cent" policyholders there would
be an easy and sure way to reach many
persons especially among the foreign popu-
lation, who. either from ignorance or fear.
would not at that time avail themselves OF
the free services of the visiting nurse.
The company to which the suggestion was
made considered the matter thoroughly. saw
advantages from business point. of view,
and informed all its Industrial policy
holders that the services of a visiting nurse
would be supplied by the company free of
charge when needed.
These nurses are supplied from the
Nurses Settlement at the expense of the
insurance company. Postal cards are left
at the homes of all holders of the industrial
policies. The address of the Nurses Set
tlement is printed one side. and for
nlula, requiring merely the filling in of the
name and address of the one desiring at
tendance on the other. Upon receipt of one
of these cards nurse is dispatched TO the
patient at once. The method works out
simply and quickly. But the way the pro-
posed benefciaries themselves have taken
to the scheme is varied
rs it a bit Of charity. them ASKED an
old Irish woman with whom an agent was
trying to leave a postal card. An if IL
is. you needn't be ravin' it,
On the other hand. a telephone message
was received at one OF the company's
branch Offices from a laboring man few
days ago. He said he was at work on
building uptown and he had just got
word from his home that his wife had
become suddenly very sick Would the
company kindly telephone down to the
settlement for a nurse and be sure to
have her at his home at least as soon as
he got there, which would be fifteen min
utes at the most? This demand was re-
sponded to. as the only way TO get along
in business with certain elements of the
population is to do what they want.
An agent of the same insurance COM
pany was "ham-boned'' playfully a few
weeks ago down in the very neighborhood
that the telephoning man came from. and
because he resented it the whole neigh
borhood turned out for vengeance. Ex-
perience showed that acquiescence was
good business.
No one knows the value of this maxim
better than the nurse herself, for her career
among the poor and suspicious has been
anything but smooth.
Away back in 1893. when the Nurses Set.
tlement was founded. nurse had 10 go out
and create confidence. 1t was her first
move in the role of nurse. From the faint
est beginning, when one trained nurse
Miss Lillian Wald, went around TO pave
the way for work in the homes OF the
poor, the movement has grown until now
there are between five hundred and six
hundred young women working in every
district of the city, and not only under
the direction of the Henry street Nurses
settlement. but under that OF sixty three
other organizations as well.
From the days when the tenement family
screamed with fear at the sight of the
Cool stranger coming in ION the pretence