Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-10-18
The Heart of a Woman.

pouring out it's most secret. its most
tumultous emotions, barring to the
world its ignorance, it's desire, its
| passionate demand for that which ma
ture silently tells her is the need Of
her being. Since Balzac wrote La
/ Lys Dams La Vallee" no writer Of
fiction has more boldly painted the
feyerish, Overwhelming curiosity of
the woman who has passed her first
youth without a knowledge Of the
nature of the love of the sexes.
| Ruth Anne is twenty-six when her
mother dies. The mother was beau
tiful woman, even in her declining
years. She left behind her a letter
that told of her love for a man not
/ her husband, who had been unfaith-
full to her. She had offered herself TO
the one upon whom her desire CEN
| tired and he had declined her ad-
vances, passionately made, to save
| her honor. This letter seemed to
awaken the spirit of Ruth Anne.
The girl had been left with small pro-
vision and she determined to be
nurse. She consulted physician, one
of those men to whom the heart of
woman at once opens as to a confess
sor. He advises her to enter the
probationers' class Of nurses OF the
| City Hospital There she encounters
all those terrors known only to men
who are acquainted with the interior
workings Of such institutions. These
are pictured in the novel with won
derful truth of description. The sad
scenes of the wards, the unfeminine
character of the unenlightened, mid
die class nurses, the rough, indlf-
ferent attitude of the orderlies all
are strongly delineated. But Ruth
Anne finds that, as in New York, or
| Chicago, or Philadelphia, these evils
are in large part due to the "sys-
tenn" which, athirst for graft,
makes one nurse do the work Of three
and one orderly do the work OF TOUR.
Only a few months ago Well
known physician of New York met
with an accident which necessitated
e major operation. He went al once
to a hospital, notable for the wealth
of it's private foundation, as pay
ing patient, his own son an inferno
/ in the institution This particular
hospital had for years been pet OF
the physician and to II he had sent
all his patients who needed hospital
attention. Yet there he found such
neglect, such Indifferent service, thai
lin his weakened condition he sc
nearly lost his mind that his wife nae
to rescue him, doing the duty OF ooth
nurse and orderly until he could be
removed to his home. This is only one
instance of hundreds that could be
cited. not alone of city or county hos
lpitals, but of richly endowed instl-
tutions as we'll And, out OF the
depth of knowledge of such condi'
tions Rose Cullen Bryant has writ
ten.
Ruth Anne leaves her hospital serv'
ice after a fatal incident involving tins
death of an insanely delirious patien
rather than confess a fault OF a lei
low nurse. She fees to house whicf
was part Of her small estate pu
which, without her knowledge, hel
. agent had leased as a house Of i'll
fame. From this horrible trap she Ii
rescued by an inferno of the hospita
! she had left, a kind-hearted, efficien
young surgeon
/, With her freedom there comes L
, HER a anse of pride that she mad sac
,, irificed her career for her friend ant
/. lir an exalted mood she hastens I
DR.. Hollander, her first adviser. In
lstead az praise she finds only con
. domination He tells her that for tn
! comfort and ease Of her own mis-
! priceless opportunity Of unselisl
service, that for self she had failed a
woman of the highest type-th
only hope in social regeneration-thi
poor. pallid. wretched suffering, hal
: cared-for and neglected men ant
women and children" a prey to tn
horrors of that pesthouse Of graft
and cruelty-a city hospital
Ruth Anne is stunned, but Their
is a stronger influence DOMINATING
her-the thought of love and of he
rescuer. young DR.. Webster. Sh'
J is twenty-six and no man has We
: spoken to her of love.
| One day a beautiful young woman
J entered an editorial office in Man
; haitian and offered to sell me trans
lation of Mantegazza' Love Sh
| saw the astonishment in my eye
and asked me if I had read tn
: book without shadow of falls
shame or self consciousness. Whel
; told her I had read the work il
the original. she said;
, "Ohi 1 wish every woman couil
read it, then they would know thei
; own souls and their own bodies
Ruth Anne neither knew her owl
soul or her body. but she wished L
know, and she invited the love an
i
7 that she might be instructed A
she said, 81 love you. perhaps, bu
: wait, l must know first what Low
is" The physician, deeply interestet
: in sex phenomena, was frightenei
, at this strange experience of a lady
a modest woman. seeking unresery
eddy the mysteries of life. But h
was young and a tr1e man at hear
t and he waited. taking no advantag
in the dangerous drama the womal
r was playing.
f At last Ruth Anne, the condem
! nation of DR.. Hollander ranking il
! her mind. POUNDS a social home II
the very house which had been con
taminated by the presence of tn
outcasts of society. Here she in
stalls Dr. Webster, but not befor
, she had awakened to the essentia
immodesty of her use of him as
surgeon would of a subject 10 oh
; serve the symptoms of a disease
5 Here, in the retreat she estab
lished, Ruth Anne's life is spent
. until she becomes engaged to Johl
{ Hunt, a man whom she finds is Vi
faithful to her and who leaves he
after his exposure with brutal re
proaches for her GOODNESS. Then sh
meets with a tragic accident and i
placed under the care of DR. Hollan
der, who is the means of her recov
cry and whom she learns to love a
,, he had loved her always.
, The story of Ruth Anne" canno
be dismissed without speaking of tn
, feminine characters of the book: othe
than the heroine herself. There ar
several of these that are delineatei
! with mastery strokes. The characte
of Ruth Anne herself resolves itsel
, into that OF the woman who again
land again tries to love and fails, an,
then attempts to fill her life witt
other interests. But, as Barbara, he
friend, said. this would not do for her
This same Barbara, the unhapp,
: 1 lot