The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-06
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

me to thinking about the first great
 heroine of the Red Cross and that meas
 ures to put the American Red Cross on a
 footing for active war relief fin view of
 present events and possible developments"
 have been ordered by the society's head
 quarters. The 265 chapters throughout
 the country were directed to organize
 first aid classes, prepare for assembling
 hospital equipment and surgical sup
 plies, list volunteer doctors and nurses
 and take any other steps necessary to insure complete preparedness for relief work.
 The first I ever knew of this great hu- manitarian movement came to me on a trip I took down the Danube to the Black sea and thence to Constantinople It's true, I had read "Kinglakes History of the Crimean War" and knew some- thing of Florence Nightingale, but it was only in Turkey that I realized what the war had meant to England.
 More than threescore years ago in the London Times, war correspondent is- sued this challenge: Are there no de- to go forth to minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the east in the hos pitals of Scutari? Are none of the daugh- ters of England at this extreme hour of need ready for such work of rnercy?' Florence Nightingale answered the call With her went 3S nurses, called by Punch ''The Nightingales," but by Kinglake, the historian, "The Angel Band"
 She and her little group of nurses reached Scutari just before the battle of Inkerman. It is said in the vast barrack hospital lay four miles of human mis- cry. The buildings were little better than pest houses. Open sewers under meath breathed their poisonous odors up through the corridors and wards Miss Nightingale, reporting this condition to the royal commission of 1857, said:
 Tt is impossible to describe the state of atmosphere of the barrack hospital at night. I have been well acquainted with the dwellings of the worst parts of most of the great cities of Europe, but have never been in any atmosphere I could compare with it." I remember reading geons went around with cane in hand and all the windows to let in air and got for himself the title of "crazy Eng lishman" Miss Nightingale was a woman with a mothers heart Here is to prove it: From sundown until day. break the wounded soldiers were left alone in the dark barracks. It is said that she changed this, and that as she passed through the gloomy wards. with lamp in hand, the men kissed her shadow low says of her:
 "A lady with lamp shall stand In the great history of the land noble type of good,
 Heroic womanhood."
 It was true then. as it is now, that the various war offices were overwhelmed with offers to go out to nurse from women influenced by sentiment and emo- tion. but totally unfit for the hard and serious work. Now it is a profession which takes discipline and the severest kind of training. It took a Florence Nightingale to realize that nursing was work.
 Here is funny bit from a speech to Miss Nightingale of a silly nurse who volunteered without understanding what it meant. It has the real feminine touch: T came out. ma'am. prepared to sub- init to anything; to be put upon in every one can't submit to. There's the caps, ma am, that suit one face, and some that suit another; and if I'd known ma'am. about the caps, great as was my desire to come out and nurse at Scutari, I would not have come, ma'am.' I'm glad the costume has been made more appeal ing. The trouble now it is so attractive that many women are willing to don 1t for looks sake
 I went over to Scutari to see the Eng fish dead. I had strange experience. took rooms while at Constantinople with an Englishwoman, I asked her why she had chosen it for a residence Said she My husband was killed in the Crimean war, and Is buried in tho English ceme- tery at Scutari. As I had no near rela- tives I got lonesome in England and so came down here to be near my husband for company" Some women are not so easily satisfied. It takes a live one to do it. She told it to me without realiz- ing that she was making an unusual statement. I've never forgotten it.