The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1922-01-05
SAVING THE CHILDREN
OF VERMONT
Dorothy Garfield Fisher Tells How the
Children in One Town Were Helped.

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We I'll know in our communities the
service and value Of the district nurse.
Her little car, with the small red cross
painted on the door, is familiar sight
these days, on our highways, and
standing in front of our farmhouses.
No one can estimate what her effic-
iency, her helpfulness, her encourage
ment means to the woman at the head
of these country households, and what
present and future benefits the little
children reap from her surveillance.
The nurse advises and suggests what
should be done in each individual case.
She usually has the entire cooperation
of the village doctor and the village
authorities; and wherever there is
hospital in the vicinity, its staff and
equipment are generally at the dispos-
al of the district nurse and her most
urgent patients.
In our Vermont communities, the
nurse has greater obstacles to over
come than in many other parts OF the
country. Our settlements are very
old, lying along the water courses, and
also frequently hugging the stony
sides Of the mountains; antedating the
railroads, which thread the valleys, by
many, many years. This is a very
different environment to one near the
great cities, or in the fiat lands, in
tersected everywhere by the inter
urban trolleys of the Middle West; and
il makes very different task.
Dorset is one Of Vermont's lowell
est villages-but it is eight miles from
the railway. Perhaps that indisput-
able fact, those extra eight miles may
tell the tale Of the cause and effect Of
the One-Day Dorset Emergency Hos
pital, last summer. Take a busy
farmers wife, with her house and her
life full of small children-it may
seem almost impossible for her TO get
hold Of the Ford, or the horse, and
then Of the children who need it-and
most Of them dol-for the drive over
to the railway, on their first lap OF the
wearying journey towards getting rid
of offending tonsils and adenoids.
Doctors cannot conscientiously oper-
ate, except in emergency cases in the
usual conditions Of any home; and the
nurse, Miss Clark, found that
il was beyond her power to do what
she realized was necessary.
With the earnest cooperation OF
DR.. Liddle Of Dorset, committee was
formed Of interested women: Mrs. f.
n. West. Mrs. W. L. Haven, Mrs. H. /
p. Gilbert, Mrs. w. G. Barrows, Mrs.
c. A. Atkinson and Mrs. Harrington.
There was one man on the committee,
w. NJ. BatcheIder, not only Of partie-
ular help in advising and directing the
whole movement; but who also did
valiant yeomen service In carrying and .
moving cots and the required equip 4
nent. They promptly found an ideal
ocation for their work, in the base
nent Of the Congregational church,
he large audience room 70 be used as
. ward. the kitchen for operating, and
he little library FOR the ehildren's
lressing room. The women q the
.ommittee made themselves rcspon-
.Ible for the cots and bedding, the
heets and towels. all the old. soft rags
hey could get together. and with Mrs .
.iddle's help, whatever nourishment
gould be required for the little
,atients Of a day. Miss Clark attend
4 to the thorough sterilization of the
oors and dressings. And the com
nittee also made some half dozen
title night gowns for the children, ,
rhich proved a very present help IN