The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-05-15
BIRTHDAY OF FLORENCE
 NIGHTINGALE, MOST CELE-
 BRATED OF All WAR NURSES

Since mankind began it's upward climb from the depths of savagery toward the yet distant goal of civili- zation, men have marched forth in anger to slay each other, and women have followed in their track to bino up their wounds and to comfort the dying. In the present great struggle in Europe the opposing armies are accompanied by smaller armies of women whose mission is to give aid and succor to the victims of the hor- TOTS of war. There was time when England found it difficult to induce her sons to go forth and fight, but from the time the first gun goomed out it's message of destruction there has been no time when Britain's daughters were not ready and eager to respond to the call to enlist in the army of mercy. Women of all classes and ages and conditions offered their services, and vast multitudes were turned away because they were not trained to the grim business of caring for the maimed and the sick.
 This army of women enrolled under the banner of mercy has for it's pa inga1e, who is honored everywhere, but especially in Great Britain, as the greatest of all war nurses. Today marks the anniversary of the birthday of the Lady of the Lamp as she was born May 15, 1920, in Florence,
 
 ents. As a girl she exhibited an i1@ tenre devotion to the a11eviatioa Of suffering and she visited and inspect ed civil and military hospitals all over Great Britain and the continent Later she secured training as a nurse.
 It was during the Crimean war in 1854 that Miss Nightingale became an international heroine. In that. conflict England and France, as now. were allies, but they fought with the Turks against Russia The Red Cross was not then in existence, and it was not until five years later that the battle of Solferino so inspired Henri Dunant, a Swiss, to write a book urging the organization of so- ciety to aid the wounded in warfare. A relatively small number of sur- geonS and nurses were employed by the allied governments, and soon af- ter the outbreak of the Crimeans struggle the hospitals on the Bos- phorus were overflowing with the human wreckage of war. Lacking proper attention, men were dying like flies, when Miss Nightingale offered to go out and organize 3. nursing de- partment .at Scutari- Her offer was accepted. and she departed with thirty-four nurses for the front, She arrived at Constantinople on the eve of the battle of Inkermann, and when the wounded began to flow into. wards which already held 2,300 shattered wreclxs of humanity she manifested a genius for organization which saved hundreds of lives. With in a few months she had 10, 900 sick and wounded men under her care, and had greatly increased her staff. Tn 1855 she was prostrated with fever but ga11ant1y she refused to leave her post, and remained at Scutarf until Turkey was evacuated by the British troops.
 On her return to England Miss Nightingale was honored above all the warrior heroes of the titanic struggle in the Crimea. and a fund of $250,000 was raised to enable her to form institution for the training of nurses She continued active in humanitarian work until her death in 1910.
 Several memorials have been erect- ed to perpetuate the name and fame of the most celebrated of modern war nurses, The memorial of the city of London in the Gui1dhalI is a. statue showing Miss Nightingale setting out upon one of her heroic missions of mercy. She is depicted standing hareheaded and clad in the simple dress of the Victorian period, which preceded the crinoline. Tn her hand Pshe carries a candIestick, while the other hand she is shielding her eyes from the light