The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-27
Visiting Nurses
 Association Is
 A. Worthy Charity
Communicated.


 It has ceased to be truism that "one half the world doesn't know how the other half lives"
 During the past twenty-five years society newspapers on the one hands social settlements and societies for improving the condition of the poor; on the other hand, have laid bare all the mysteries popularly supposed to exist between class and class. One half the world may not care how tfs other half lives but it certainly knows
 So many doors have been thrown open that it is difficult to believe that any more skeletons lie hidden, even in Newport closets.
 So many charitable investigators have given their discoveries to the world that the untutored immigrant can never more conceal that he keeps his coal in the bath-tub, while every child knows that he eats fried food. doesn't know the first principles of hygiene.
 Has this knowledge brought the two halves any nearer to being a ho- mogeneous whole?
 Alast Lazarus is still on the wrong side of the argument, and in this fife it is Dives who cries out to him from luxurious ease. Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed"
 A few great hearts here and there are trying to bridge this chasm by bringing to those less favored by For tune than themselves some of the knowledge of right living with the means of applying it and thus not only to point out the evil but to effect a cure.
 Such bridge across the great gulf which separates the healthy, happy and we'll to do from the sick sorrow full and hard up is the Visiting Nurses fe I<-fd fd>x< by sympathetic women whose heads, as we'll as their hearts are in the right place. For the present, the entrance to the bridge, Cor the headquarters of the association) is practically con- cealed on the top floor of our mar vellous Charities building.
 There isn't any elevator to get to it but any one who will make the effort to visit the interesting rooms, will find them worth the climb,
 Although originally intended to SUD- ply skilled attendance to tubercu1ous patients only, the nurses of the asso- citation now respond to all calls except from persons suffering from contagi- ous diseases.
 While the bureau is maintained and the nurse salaries guaranteed by the Visiting Nurses association, it is not to be considered altogether a charity, but bridge to maintain self-respect
 
 to- health and renewed vfsor. Pa tients are expected to pay from five cents to fifty cents a visit, az their circumstances will allow" q quote from the official card). To quote again: ''The nurse is for the public and it is desired that the physicians and all who are interested in the sick shall send for her."
 The nurses hours are from s:30 to 12 a. m., and from 1:30 to ?. m. They may be reached by telephone, (No. 397G, personal application or through physician. On Sundays only such cases are visited whose need is imperative.
 The Nurses association also holds a free clinic for tuberculous patients on Saturdays from to 6, conducted by pr. F. H. Stevens. Connected with this is a dispensary, where sim pie remedies are furnished.
 Milk and eggs, so necessary in tns treatment of tuberculosis, may be ob- tained free of charge by those pa< tients who are unable to buy them. There are at present two nurses con% nected with the association, Misses Cullen and Sherman. The fact that week is sufficient evidence that their services are appreciated.
 The president of this associations Mrs. H. M. Knapp, has been untiring in doing all she can to make ths foundation of this bridge across ths gulf of i'll health, bad luck and ignor- ance of physical laws strong and en- during, but, like Horatius, she cannot stand alone.
 Generous contributions of money to maintain and enlarge this good work are much needed as props and would be greatly appreciated Just now, in the torid heat of summer it is earn I.e %O work" by establishing a series Of milk stations" but the wherewithaI is sadly lacking Nothing does more to lessen infant mortality than pure milk supply. Surely there are many generous souls who will respond to the "cry of the children" for at leasc an even chance at the beginning of Life'a Journey.