The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-16
NURSES HERO|SM ! ONE OF FEATURES
 OF THE WORLD WAR
Real Horrors of War Are Brought Home to the
 English Hospitals
By PHILIP H. PATCHIN

London, July 1-(Special Correspond
 ence)-War has it's terrible mixture of horror and glory, the first for those who
 died and who are maimed, the second
 for those lucky enough to live
 l The horror transcends the glory. But | the essence of the evil things does not come out on the battlefields-there men
 died and are wounded in the heat of bat tie, are quickly removed by comrades | hardened. It is in the hospitals that the | grim war parade in it's most terrible | form, and here it is, too, that some Of the | finest heroism of the war comes-from | the women nurses whose courage ana 1 gallantry, in it's own way, IS more tnah | equal to that of the men who, few miles further on, use powder, steel and gas against the enemy
 The heroism comes out in the hospitals, too in the delirium of wounded and fevered patients who fight their battles
 over again, with the nurses holding them
 down to their beds, their subconscious selves devoted to one thing alone-de- feating the enemy.
 Not long after the war, there began to appear on London streets women in uniforms of volunteer aid associations, some in blue, others in neat khaki with brass buttons shoulder insigia and felt hats turned up on one side. One was inclined to scoff tt first, looking upon
  it not right. Recently l have talked with
 a man who came down at the front with a fever and who for weeks lay Tn hos pitals on the other side of the channel and on this. He used to be a little intor- erant of these volunteer nurses but he never will be again, nor will 1 after what he told me of the things that hap pen in hospitals and now these nurses with absolute self-sacrifices and marvel
 ous courage do their work. It isn't all simple nursing; some of them scrub floors
 do scullery duty and whatnot, nothing
 being too menial, nothing too hard. They
 slave to keep men alive, they gently make their death as easy as possible.
 There was lowly army tailor merely an enlisted man without d romantic past, d fever victim who came to a base hos pital in France. He was dying. In his deiirium he made clothes and stitched blankets, going endlessly through his daily routine He came to d bit of work which he had to finish, the making of coat or something of the sort. Stitch by stitch his brain carried him through the operation, and his voice uttered every thought. Presently he finished and With the last stitch he died, his nurse, by his side, comforting him as she could A gallant young officer, wounded be- l yond repair, came to a ward. He lln- geled and finally worked into d delirium | terrible and holy. He went aSain to the | trenches. and then into a bayonet charge. His nurse was with him constantly, pressing him down as with his shouted orders and imprecations he rose in his bed leading his men on. He knew, too, | that the nurse was there and as he | glipped her hand he cried:
 l Come on, nursel We'll give them the bayonet now. Come on, nurse, over the parapet. Come on, nurse, we'll charge l 'em!'
 1 And he took her through the charge where he was wounded to die, and at the | end of the charge, in the hospital there' | he did die, his nurse at his side.
 1 The finest of England's young Woman- l hood is engaged in this task of nursing, How these young girls who 20 months ago had all theidr lives been carefully protected from even the mild horrors or | peace life can stand the strain is question, the way they do it is mar vel. They live in world of death, blood and pain, and with fortitude they do l their duty well. The shrieks of the de- lrous sounding through the ward, the gasps of those who have been "gassed, | the insanity of the shell shock patients whose minds are blank, the eyes that | cannot see-a medley of suffering. In this the nurses live. In the story of the hospitals lies the truest story of the ter l rihIenesS of war