Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-10
NeWbooK:S5,|H
& In ReWeWza
FLORENCE Nightingale.


Those who have watched the nurses
in the amphitheatre at u clinic while
some capital operation is going
on have seen their unconcerned
looks as the knife or the forceps or
the saw performs its forbidding
task under the guiding hand of the
surgeon. Their apparently hearriess
attitude is shown as cruel eXcision
goes on under their very eyes, while,
in the midst OF the horrors oil the
operating pit, the glances OF some of
thenl-those who especially pride
themselves on their fair faces-seek
the eyes of the young surgeons gath
cred about them with the languishing
glance of a coquette.
Florence Nightingale weighed her
sex well, and her avowed opinion
was that they were wanting in
moral and mental balance. She de-
elared that her work or her views
had never induced one woman to
alter her own opinions or her mode
of life, but, said this observant or
nament of her sex, lone great states
man at least, out of sympathy with
me, remodels his whole life and pol
ICY" Then she adds:
"NoW look at the degree in which
women have sympathy. No woman
has excited passions among women
more than ! have Yet ] leave no
school behind me. And l attribute
this to want Of sympathy. Women
crave for being loved, not for loving.
They scream out at you all day long
for sympathy, but they are incapable
of giving any in return. They can
not remember your affairs long
enough to do So"
This opinion of q woman who was
more of q logician than a sentiment
talist might have been slightly modi-
fed If she had lived until this time,
but she was ever an object OF worship
to the women who followed her and
of admiration to the men who came
within her vast sphere Of influence.
She was, indeed, the Maitresse
Femme at all times. This is clearly
shown in the biography of Sir Ed
ward Cook, who with broad, effective
strokes paints the portrait Of a truly
great character
The most exalted among women
sought the aid and influence of Flor
ence Nightingale and queens and
princesses daily pleaded with her to
indicate for them the right path In
their aim to establish a Nightingale
Training School and to place the Red
Cross movement firmly on its feet.
If these great personageS meant bust
ness advice was instantly forthcom-
ing. if they were seen to be only
triflers they were as quickly dis
missed.
Full of hope for the discontinued
man or woman-the failure" in life
is the record of Florence Nightingale.
TN my thirty=first year" she said,
II see nothing desirable but death!"
These were the words of q woman
who lived to add lustre to the century
in which she existed and to illuminate
the pages of the history of her own
country.
She had early learned that lesson
of life that here we have no contin-
uing city," a lesson which has made
popes and emperors resign the sceptre
and daily moves some of the fortu-
nate ones of the earth to cast aside
all their riches and accessories and
seek content in the lowliest retreats
of the earth.
While she tried to satisfy herself
with metaphysics Florence Nightin-
gale was seized with divine discon-
tent which led her to the rock whence
she could shower blessings upon hu
manity and wreathe about her own
brows a crown Of bays of imperish-
able quality. In intellectual power
Florence Nightingale was superior to
the ordinary woman, but the cuitiva-
ton of her intellect gave her no par
ticular comfort. The restraints OF her
magnificent home she regarded mere
ly as an evaporation. feeling which
In this day not infrequently leads
women to divorce, even sometimes to
flight and self-destruction. While her
whole heart was a seething furnace of
love Of the divine type, the pas
sionap or sexual type Florence
Nightingale dismissed as not meant
for her and her trivial affairs of the
heart came to naught.
Finally, as Sir Edward Cook shows,
the thought that action was her only
salvation dawned in the mind of
Florence Nightingale. Thencefor-
ward, the field of activity having been
chosen the difficulties that presented
themselves were only SO many obsta-
cles to be overcome.
But the woman OF whom Queen
Victoria and others said that as a
business man" she was difficult to
approach and Impossible to beat, was
not the one to attempt to teach what
she had not learned, and in the thor
oughness of the preparation OF Flo
renee Nightingale and in her passion
ate desire to search for knowledge in
her chosen sphere are found the
secret Of her immortal triumph.
1.-THE LIFE OF FLORENCE NIGHT
INGALE." BY Sir Edward Cook
Macmillan and Company, London and
New York, etc.