The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-01-31

| ficer does not develop the enlc1ency
| of hospital writes the Countess o.
| Warwick about the English society
| butterfly.
The Countess, who is very widely
known in Europe and is prominen
| worker in womans interests, as wei
as an author of several well-knowr
| books, comes out strongly against the
monarchial form of government -ant
says it is the duty of the United state!
| to give the peoples Of the conbatan
nations a lead that will aid them tt
4 secure the same national liberty tina
we enjoy.
If the United States fails to do thi!
she asserts, the greatest republic ii
| the world will have failed in her SUI
| preme moment.
These and other interesting views
| she sets forth in her latest book, "a
Woman and the War In writing
| her scathing comments about society
/, women and nursing in war time thf
| Countess says:
! my thoughts turn back to the
| South African War, when certain
| scandals were supposed to have reach
| ed their zenith; look around me to-
| day. listen to the Observation-Disclosures
! stories brought to me by relatives and
| friends, and know that South Africa
| did not 1.-THE the possibi of folly
and excess.
Real Heroines of the War.
For once I am not pleading for my
| own sex; / plead for one part of it
against the other, for majority
against the minority, for those who
are doing what they are paid to do
against those who are voluntary
workers.
1.-THE position comes little strange
ly to, me when I look at it in this
light, but the highly trained consci-
entious, painstaking hospital nurse,
whose patient heroism proclaims her
a true follower of Florence Nightin-
gale, has been exposed to scandalous
annoyance for no good purpose and
to no useful end, and / feel that I
must plead her cause, since she is
in the last degree unlikely to plead it
for herself
"Socity women of a certain class
made themselves so notorious in the
military hospitals and elsewhere du-
ring the South African war that at
least one General threatened to send
them home and another refused to al
low any more to come out.
CAS- soon as the greatest struggle of
our history started in August 1914,
certain women of means and position
proceeded as silently and unostenta-
tiously as was possible. under the cir
cumstances to equip hospitals and to
set about their self-appointed work.
''They labored conscientiously and
sought no more publicity than was
necessary to enable them to collect
money from philanthropists and
friends. They did their best, some
were already qualified by previous ex-
perience, others acquired their knowl-
edge under the most trying conditions
possible.
erhey have worked since the war
began, well content to 'scorn delights
and live laborious days some who
are near and dear to me have said
that they have well-nigh forgotten the
ola lite and the comforts they deemed
indispensable only little while ago.
Seeking a New Sensation.
unfortunately, there is in Lon
don to- day a very large company OF
young women to whom war was little
more than a new sensation. They
are not old enough to understand or
young enough to be restrained. In
normal times they must be in the
movement however foolish that
movement MAY be, and a war that
stnggers the old world and the new
leaves them very much where they
were before.
finder the rose, they have not di-
minished their aforetime gayety; dan
ces and dinner parties have, been the
order of the hour. They have not
been trumreted by the section Of the
press that delights in recording vain
things, but those who view the cur
rents of LoI don's social life know
that / am writing simple truth.
"Lnfortunately. the people I have
in mind haze not been content to de-
vote themselves to brainless frivolity;
because they must sample every SEN
sation that the seasons provide, they
invaded the sanctuary Of the hospi-
tai nurse.
Scores found their way to the great
London hospitals in town to face what
they were pleased to regard as train
ing: I have known some who have
QaIt.eN I'LL :, a. III. anu nave IA CSCul-
ed themselves at the hospital at s
O'Clock.
Everybody knows that the train
irg OF a real hospital nurse is a serious
matter. that it makes full demand
upon pi1yGoal and mental capacity
and that a long period is required
to bring the seed of efficiency to flower
or fruit.
Plenty of Limelight.
"rhe social butterflies made no such
sac1 iEces; they acquired trifling and
superficial knowledge of nurses
work, and then set their social infiu-
ence to work in order to reach some
one OF the base hospitals where they
might sample fresh experience.
"If they were really useful there it
would be unkind to offer protest,
but the general opinion is that they
did more harm than good. They
subverted discipline, they were a law
unto themselves they were too highly
placed or protected to be called to
&C er promptly, they showed Meth
er the inclination nor the capacity
for sustained usefulness. To sit at
the end of a bed and smoke cigarettes
with a wounded officer does not de-
velop the efficiency of a hospital.
lone heard repeatedly in the early
months of the war that this girl or
that had gone to the front, and one
imagined devotion, self-sacrif1ce, self
restraint, and a dozen kindred virtues
Unfortunately it is chiefly in the realm
of Imagination that these virtues ex-