Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1916-06-08
THE WAR nurse
MERCY HERCU|D|NGSTAR
Woman, Since the First Faint Dawn
of Time Has Been Mercy's
Chief Dispens er.
FROM wOMANHOOD OF A NATION
Springs Strength Of Empires---Suffer-
ing Makes the Whole World KIM
And Hearts Of the People Blend
in Tribute to THE War
Nurse -

Nurse
By r. Hammond Elliott. Annapolis)
Part l.
.THE WAR NURSE
.sfhe quality of mercy is not strained;
II droppeth rs the gentle rain from
Heaven.
Upon the place beneath:. 1t is twice
blessed;
IL bIesseth him that gives and him that
takes
Ills mightiest i'm the mightiest.s
Could il have been possible that, as
the great bard of Stratford-upon-Ayon
penned the above immortal lines, he
could have been granted one of those
moments of prophetic foresight, which
sometimes come to genius, and. gazing
far through the veil of centuries yet to
come; have seen how conclusively his
words were to be proven upon the
stricken fields of death of generations
then unborn For they have been
proven.
Never before in the annals of his
tory has the call of the suffering been
so great A world has been stricken
by catastrophe, and is writing in
anguish beneath the stroke. From
hundred battlefields and thousands of
devastated homes, the cries of the
wounded and destitute arise in heart
rending plea to the mercy of humanity
This tragic appeal has not gone for
naught, Christianity has risen to the
need, with mercy as it's guiding star,
and this virtue, along with its kindred
qualities OF sympathy, self-sacrifice'
love and courage, which it engenders,
has found expression adequately and
nobly in the one persOnality-"The
War Nurse" and she has come for
ward from among the women of the
world.
Since the first faint dawn of time
the woman has been the chief dispen-
ser of mercy Even in those primal
days when the savage pregenitors of
the present race of man, met midst the
exotic verdure of the prehistoric forest
and fought in their fierce tribal bat
ties of stone, axe and club their mates
accompanied them, to assist and re
ioice in their victories, console them i'll
their defeats and to minister to them
as they lay wounded or dying. So has
this heritage been handed down the
ages. Man, from his physical con-
struction has been the personification
of force, the fighter the pioneer, the
breadwinner, representing the fighting
unit of dependence of his State; wo-
man, embodying the finer qualities, has
| been the inspirer, the consider the
| hclpmeet the great unmeasured source
| of energy and encuoragemnt which
has stood back of all the great moves
of history. Their is an old maxim
which states that behind every nation
stands the embabttled array of it's men
who are ready to serve it in it's needs,
but behind the rank of armed men
stands the united womanhood OF that
nation, and that from this indirect
source springs the strength of empires.
This power of influence of woman is
not founded upon physical force; it is
based on that intangible but much
firmer force-respect. Respect, re-
ceived because the race of men rec
ogniZe and pay homage to the finer
qualities which exist and have found
expression in the race of woman. This
position as guardian of the finer feel
ings of life has been faithfully kept.
Springing, as it does, from the divine
fount of mother-love; originally seer
as in times of first day-break among
those ancestors of ours who were but
savages, ii has been kept inviolate
through all the lapse of time. Condi-
tions of life have not changed it, but,
as the world has moved along the
paths of progress, the women deriving
even more encouragement from the re-
spect shown them by all have intensi-
fed the spirit of succor and mercy I'M
til now it shines with brilliance I'M
equalled before.
In every great disaster which has
ever befallen the world the women
heave responded to spread the spirit
of mercy among the stricken; and,
when, during the Crimean War, Flor
ence Nightingale created the Society
of the Red Cross and THE War Nurse"
she but gave concrete and systematic
organization to a spirit among women
which had existed for centuries. Lit
tie did she realize how her infant So
ciety would grow, nor could she have
conceived how it was destined to dis
seminate in every quarter of the glob :
the glory of mercy, and the beauty
of service
When the mighty kinetic power of
war was again unleashed and the clash
of arms rang through the startled
world with its attendant trail of
wounded. sick and dying, the call of
mercy was linked with the sound. and
again the daughters of the race rallied
to the CALL And such a response
from over the seven seas they came.
from every walk of life, Processes
and Queens laid aside the robes of
State to mingle shoulder to shoulder
with the girls from the streets of
Paris, the pride of convention and
caste laid aside, the thought of ma
tionality forgot, social position ignor-
ed, they met as sisters in the common
cause,rallying to the banner of mercy
and actuated by the spirit inherent
with them, to serve humanity. The
response of the men to the call of