Omaha daily bee., 1919-10-05
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE-

fighting For a second husband she
married veteran of the war who
was i'll and unable to work from the
day she married him. For IS years
she supported him and two years age
lie died, lust when his pension had
got up to sos a month";" she said
regretfully. The pension was held
up for almost two years, but in
March the Visiting Nurse associa-
ton by communication with Wash
ington succeeded in getting back the
pay for her. Now she has 5000 "up
to the bank, to bury me right and
proper" She lives alone and buys
her pork chop and pint of milk every
day and beams with joy when the
nurse stops into see her.
Grandmother Goes Washing.
Another one of her "old ladies"
the nurse meets on the street corner.
She is little, withered and misshapen
with rheumatism; her dark eyes are
sunken in the wrinkled folds of her
rut-brown countenance, which is
strongly Roman in cast. She hob
bles rapidly along leaning on stout
staff, which she plants firmly in front
of her at every step. A wide smile re-
veals her toothlessness, as she
catches sight of the nurse, and
when they meet she pats the nurses
hand, murmuring indeterminate
greetings.
The old lady's daughter in-law
does not give her enough to eat, so
she goes out washing two days
week to earn little money, in spite
of her rheumatism and sc years.
Through the thin cotton of her we'll
worn shirtwaist there CLEANS some
thing suggestive Of Mardi Gras. The
nurse pulls back her dress at the
throat to investigate, and the old
lady glows with pride. She is wear
ing as near the outside as possible
her gorgeous sea-blue corsets with
Kelly green trimmings, which came
all the way from Italy, and although
she is almost swallowed into the
tall, stiff steels of the corset, her
step is lighter and she carries her
head higher in the knowledge of her
glory.
Babies are Greatest Care.
The babies of the district are the
nurses chief interest and worry.
She stops mothers on the street
whom she has not visited recently to
cast a critical eye at the infant in
arms to urge the mother to bring
baby to the clinic next Thursday
afternoon to be weighed and meas
ured. Also in other parts of the city
the nurses pay more and more atten-
ton to the welfare of the little ones
as the hot weather approaches.
The visiting nurse deals in trouble,
but she never becomes blase or pro-
fessional. She is on her feet from
8 in the morning until 5 at night and
indeed it is all | can do to get my
bath and my supper before | go out
in the evening, and holiday means
a little longer sleep in the morning,
for me"
litO CVCly Holle oie eutcio oiS
brings fresh interest and the influ-
ence of her own personality and i'll
her eagerness to help people she
never thinks how tired she is until
her day is done. There is friendly
rivalry among the district nurses
concerning certain difficult families
or groups of families and
each nurse who works in the
district is anxious to see if she can
not be the one who will clean up
those people and make them stay
clean.
The district nurse does not work
for money. although her salary is
somewhat larger than that of the
average school teacher or many of
her sisters in some other profess
sions. A nurse who has one of the
most difficult sections of the city
to look after recently refused the
offer of a position outside which
would pay far better, because she
said she could not leave her "peo-
pie"