Omaha daily bee., 1919-10-05

Of Europe who have come to ou
country, the people in our crowded
tenement districts who regard thu
visiting nurse with perfect trust
there turks trace of the old super
stitution that doctor is witch Of
a magic person who cures illness by
the magic of his presence or by
scrap of paper. When Syrian
mother or a Russian mother realizes
that her baby has a fever and Is
probably sick, she calls doctor, Of
her own race if she can get him.; al
any rate the cheapest doctor she has
been told of by her neighbors, who
arrives, writes out prescription
and departs with 81 of the woman's
hard-earned money, if she had it to
give him.
Then she lays the prescription on
the shelf and thinks the baby is bet
ter. Next time she is worried she
calls another doctor, pays another
81 and adds another written pre-
scription to the collection. The
advice of the different doctors con-
flicts and the mother follows none
of it. Instead she goes out and calls
in the visiting nurse, if she can find
her on the street. The nurses first
impulse is to sweep all the bottles
and the untitled prescriptions on
the shelf into the garbage can,
but she knows that she cannot use
such rough methods. Instead she usu-
ally applies as much soap and water
and fresh air to the situation as she
can with her hands, and with per-
suasion.
The powers of persuasion which
the nurse acquires in the course of
her duties are little short of marvel
Gus. Some families are very hest
tant about visiting doctors, but if
nurse gets mother to promise
that she will take little Mario to the
doctor to find out what the measly
rash on his face means, she will
keep her promise. But dint of con-
slant coaxing she gets impossible
floors washed and windows open
which have been nailed tight all win
ter.
The children love the visiting
nurse and her path down some
squalid little street is made glad with
shouts and waves of the hand.
Smudgy little hands creep into hers
and equally grimy fists tug at her
skirts. When she enters the room
whence walls of anger or hunger
have been coming. the complaints
often cease and the toothless grin
greets her as the baby stretches out
fat arms to her. Many of the moth
ers are won over to the nurse and
her point of view by the confidence
and friendliness which their chill
dren lavish up on her.
Calling on Old Ladies.
But the duties of the district
nurse are not all for the saving and
preservation of life through the de-
velopment of health common
sense. Sometimes the nurse just
feels like resting and listening to
some one else talk, so she drops into
see one of her "o1d ladies'" And one
there is living in three rooms down
near the bank of the Missouri
river, who would delight the heart
of anyone who likes a bit of gossip
in the afternoon.
Through a rickety wooden gate
down a narrow broken walk to her
open kitchen door at the back of
gray and somewhat tumble-down
tenement the nurse goes. She is
greeted at the steps by two out
stretched withered hands and num-
berless blessings are called down
upon her head as the old lady draws
her in the kitchen and pulls out the
one rocking chair for her. On the
kitchen table are withered bunch
of violets and a dish of oranges,
visible signs that the Girl Scouts
have visited their grandmother re-
Gently
She talks. Her first husband died
shortly after the close Of the Civil
war, although he paid his $500 for
substitute SO as not to have to die