New Britain herald., 1918-06-08
WOMEN NECESSARY
 ID ENSURE VICTORY
Can Perform Nursing Work
 Where Men Are PoWerleSs

mat me real ana much neeOed
 power behind the lines in the great
 struggle for world peace which is go-
 ing now is the American trained
 nurse and that in doing her share she
 is performing q duty no less import
 ant than the fighting men them selves,
 IS the message brought to the nurses
 of America hy Lady Anne Azgapetian, who has returned 10 America after two years service with a hospital unit
 attached to the army of the Caucasus under Grand Duke Nikolai Nil olai- vitch
 Born in Russian Poland. Lady Anne lived in Indiana for eight years. But at the outbreak of the war with her husband, General Azgapetian, who was once Aide e-Camp to Moz- affer- Din shah, grandfather of the present boy Emperor of Persia, she enlisted in the Imperial Red Cross SO ciety from whence she was assigned to duty among the wounded for the Russian army in Central Persia. It was hero among the lovly men of Persia. the Cossacks the moujiks
 and the soldiers of the Ural Noun tains. that Lady Aga petian came to know how vital and peculiar a part in the worlds salvation the Red Cross nurse is playing.
 'They are performing a task that cannot be performed by men," she says in speaking of ii. No matter how expert DOT how delft the hand of a, man nurse may be, it lacks that tenderness. that odd gift of the moth CT instinct which every man craves and needs when he is wounded on the battlefield
 Especially is this so." continues l Lady Anne. "in the wilder and more ! isolated countries where help is at far i distant points. Even where there is | sufficient and efficient medical care ] tho work of caring for the wounded ] cannot be complete unless there is the woman's hand to round out the cor 1 ners and to take the sting of lonlness I from the sufferers life. Even the l Cossacks and I speak of them only l because they are supposed to be the most untamed of all troops except 1 the Turks--become as children under 1 the softening influence of the Red 1 Cross nurse. And this is just 9. psy- 1 cho1ogical truism based on mans fine l instincts
 As an interesting example of this Lady Anne cites a strapping young ! Cossack named Vassille. When his ! regirn ent was first stationed with the Russians in the district he was con- sidered the Beau Brummel of the en- tire village. He knew it too. And he swa aggered down the streets armed to the teeth. He was so pleased with himself and his height that he scorned boots with heels. AS for the girls in the village. He spurned even the prettiest of them. This dlsda1n
 reached even to the Red Cross nurses. o1,o xx-1,n 1n was wounded" Lady Anne exclaimed at this point in her narrative "I was one of his nurses and he used to fol- low me with his eyes all over the ward. And when, in answer, to the pleading in his glance, I would go to his bed just to give him a pat on the hand or a smile the joy in those dark eyes of his in which I knew the light would soon go out, more than paid for any sacrifice or hardship I might have gone through.
 And when Vassille the Cossack was near his end he called to Lady Anne and she answered and just he slip ped from life he took her wrists and pulled her toward him, whispering, 'Matushka. Matushka Moya (Mother, Mother mine).'
 See" added this little Russian mo- blGWOnlan, Even tue idSI "ol liS UT (" burly Cossack whom everyone feared in life, told of the human hankerlng after the mother heart. There was another Cossack from the Ura1s, brought in suffering from gangrened leg. His first words on coming from under the anaestlletic after it's am mutation was "Sisteritza" (Little Sis ter).
 Another touching story and one which is 8 tribute to the Am merlcan nurse is that of a young Armenian who was fighting with the Russian forces. Of him Lady Anne tells, As
 a result of exposure and fever he was sent to the hospital in delirium' The interpretors of eight languages tried in vain to discover his nahonal- itv, was standing by his bed talking when a weak and pleading Volce asked in very good English 'SlsteE' please give nae a drink.
 Ha proved to be an Armenia by the name of Marcotjian For hNe
 years he had lived in St. Louis where he had worked in box factory. tlat
 of his s2o weekly wages he had saved enongh to return to Armenia where
 he bought a farm and cattle and built
 a. good home for his wife, and chll-
 dren. He prospered until the war
 broke out and the Turks came, burn-
 ing his home, stealing his cattle and
 killing his wife and two children.
 ''It was from there he came to the
 village of khosroVa where he was
 stationed bringing his old father, all
 that was left of his family. It was
 winter. they had no place to stay no 1s iSeoplnG