Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-07-15

oouiy enough, hers was the only character
tnat ne did not create, since her strange case
had been reported and had been verified in
VIII contest and came to Dickens notice
through the newspapers of the day.
A woman i know said she could never see
play that was as exciting as the things
Ihat mad happened in her own, family; and
l., for one, am always turning the corner Of
life on some little drama that seems too
strange, or too good. or too exactly balanced
to be true.
heard of rather n beautiful and beauti-
iully worked out little drama not long ago
tiat mas stuck in my mind to wonder about.
THERE was a certain lady Of this city
Il who was given" to that somewhat old /.
fashioned virtue, hospitality. To entertain
guests was MS natural to her as to provide
Tor her own large family. She was in a
rer.ain reuan sense in society but she was
never very formally Of society. The per
sons sons that she entertained might be fashion
aole. might be plain, might be stupid and
might be clever, they might also be rich. or
Just as likely poor--the point with her was,
taiittsy au sssey W, for any reason need her hospi.
santy! would 1t be convenient or both
convenient and pleasant, or only convenient
ana pleasant but also in a sense necessary,
because they were poor or lonely or i'll or
troubied, or wanting good time without
knowing how to get it, Or were they going
somewhere, or coming from somewhere and
her friends, or just as likely as not no ones
irlendsf Her house was not q large house,
ner income was not large income and her
iife was an immensely active one outside her
nome, but the great passion of her life was
Hospitality.
II she had to choose the kind of guess
she got the greatest satisfaction out Of, Il
would be one who was ILL., She liked DO
feel that every possible thing that could be
devised to make that person comfortable was
eelng done: She sometimes sacrificed her
family on the altar of this enthusiasm, and
sometimes they rebelled l have been told.
Not when she asked people in to die that
she could make them feel wanted and cared
for up to the last moment-that they seemed
to have understood; but she sometimes had
very inconvenient illnesses harborcd in her
spare bedroom, with nurses spilling over into
the family rooms; illness such as insanity,
that brought even a dangerous element,
certainly very disturbing one, into the
house Perhaps the reason she herself took
even such disturbances calmly was she was
very much interested in trained nurses. and
was always helping persons Of ability to go
into the profession. She had score Of
trained nurses who were her devoted and
grateful friends, on whom she could call for
help for her friends. So well was this
known, indeed, that even doctors relied on
her to get them one or another of her good
nurses IL they were put to It for q specially
skilled one for a difficult case.
NOW It 80 happened that when this
~ bounteously hospitabe woman came to
die she was stricken very suddenly away
from home and in a place where there were
no nurses available except one charity nurse
employed to work among the poor who
could only come by the hour. So that this
woman. who had been so noted for minis
tering to i'll and to dying persons in her own
home, was a guest when she died, and was
beholden for the skilled care that she got to
the kind ministrations of a visiting nurse.
And l am told by her family that all the
sweetness and care she had given to others
in her own house were, it seemed to them,
given back with unmeasured kindness in the
two short days she lay unconscious and
dying in some ones else house.
II she had had any premonition of what
was to be her fate in going out of the world
she could not have devised her life more
aptly to prepare for it. But she had had no
premonition; she had only followed the good
and eagerly generous desires of her heart.
0NE aftermath of the little drama-or
~ shall say epologue-at all events what
an outsider observes as the direct conse.
Quences Of the way that woman happened
to live, and die, is that all her children are
in one way or another interested in help
ing Ill people, especially those who are
emergency cases and need emergency
nursing. My attention was called to the
luCl tHul iuoEe LHuH one OF tlem was Keen
about visiting nurse organizations-and
then the possible reason for this keen in
terest came to me.
NATE SOMETIMES have to have n poipn.
w ant lesson which touches our own
safety or comfort or happiness or that of
those near to us in order to enter into even
the obvious needs of other persons, but the
need Of public nurses, upon whom the pub.
lie can call for part time service, that very
ufr Nd srnn l..
ent to need any prodding of personal danger
or sorrow.
l received from the Director of Public
Health today, or from his Office, plea that
is to be send broadcast for larger staff of
city nurses to be used in connection with
thought out plan. After reading it over
my eye fell on a blue book that has lain
on my desk for two months or more--the
years story of the Visiting Nurse Society.
There are certain things on a hot and
sitting evening In town, when the people in
the little streets escape to the deserted pave
ments of the larger empty streets for a
chance to breathe, that one is thankful for
certain chances one has to help, even if the
help is only vicarious-that is done with
ones money by some one else.
At such times l find myself thanking the
men and women who are keeping open the
public baths in Philadelphia and the men
and the women, but especially the nurses,
who are supporting the Visiting Nurse So
ciety.
Their record last year. which they will
exceed this year, was over 10000 visits
made by sixty five nurses in the eight CEN
tiers in the town-branching out from the
main center at Thirteenth and Lombard
streets. The cost Of nurse for an hour
is seventy five cents, and the cost of run
ming the society is STE, 900 a year Over
1000 patients are cared for in this way out
Of population of something over n mil
lion. There is no State aid, and IL the pa
tients cannot pay the full amount, the nurse
goes anyway and some one else pays--somC
one who cares, which 10 where you and
myself can come in.
THERE is in Italy an age old society
l. known as the Misericordia. The per-
sons who belong to 1t are from all ranks Of
life and are volunteers. Their services arc
rendered in secret, for during the time they
are on duty they wear covering on the
face that only shows the general outline
and the eyes. They bury the pauper dead
and in time of pestience or calamity of