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diff --git a/old/65762-0.txt b/old/65762-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index db46c8c..0000000 --- a/old/65762-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7284 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Florence Nightingale, by Annie Matheson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Florence Nightingale - A Biography - -Author: Annie Matheson - -Release Date: July 4, 2021 [eBook #65762] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Brian Coe and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE *** - - - - - -[Illustration: Florence Nightingale. - -(_From a model of the statue by A. G. Walker. By kind permission of the -Sculptor._)] - - - - - FLORENCE - NIGHTINGALE - - A BIOGRAPHY - - BY - ANNIE MATHESON - AUTHOR OF - “THE STORY OF A BRAVE CHILD (JOAN OF ARC)” - - THOMAS NELSON AND SONS - LONDON, EDINBURGH, DUBLIN, AND NEW YORK - - - - -[Illustration: “The Lady with the Lamp.” - -(_From the statuette in the Nightingale Home._)] - - - - -PREFACE. - - -It is hardly necessary to say that this little biography is based -mainly upon the work of others, though I hope and believe it is honest -enough to have an individuality of its own and it has certainly cost -endless individual labour and anxiety. Few tasks in literature are in -practice more worrying than the responsibility of “piecing together” -other people’s fragments, and “the great unknown” who in reviewing my -“Leaves of Prose” thought I had found an easy way of turning myself into -respectable cement for a tessellated pavement made of other people’s -chipped marble, was evidently a stranger to my particular temperament. -Where I have been free to express myself without regard to others, to use -only my own language, and utter only my own views, I have had something -of the feeling of a child out for a holiday, and of course the greater -part of the book is in my own words. But I have often, for obvious -reasons, chosen the humbler task, because, wherever it is possible, it -is good that my readers should have their impressions at first hand, and -in regard to Kinglake especially, from whose non-copyright volumes I -have given many a page, his masculine tribute to Miss Nightingale is of -infinitely more value than any words which could come from me. - -My publisher has kindly allowed me to leave many questions of copyright -to him, but I wish, not the less—rather the more—to thank all those -authors and publishers who have permitted use of their material and whose -names will, in many instances, be found incorporated in the text or in -the accompanying footnotes. I have not thought it necessary in every -instance to give a reference to volume and page, though occasionally, for -some special reason of my own, I have done so. - -Of those in closest touch with Miss Nightingale during her lifetime, -whose help with original material has been invaluable, not more than -one can be thanked by name. But to Mrs. Tooley for her large-hearted -generosity with regard to her own admirable biography—to which I owe far -more than the mere quotations so kindly permitted, and in most cases so -clearly acknowledged in the text—it is a great pleasure to express my -thanksgiving publicly. - -There are many others who have helped me, and not once with regard to -the little sketch have I met with any unkindness or rebuff. Indeed, so -various are the acknowledgments due, and so sincere the gratitude I feel, -that I scarcely know where to begin. - -To Miss Rickards, for the pages from her beautiful life of Felicia -Skene, I wish to record heartfelt thanks; and also to Messrs. Burns -and Oates with regard to lengthy quotations from the letters of Sister -Aloysius—a deeply interesting little volume published by them in 1904, -under the title of “A Sister of Mercy’s Memories of the Crimea;” to Dr. -Hagberg Wright of the London Library for the prolonged loan of a whole -library of books of reference and the help always accessible to his -subscribers; and to the librarian of the Derby Free Library for aid in -verifying pedigree. Also to Lord Stanmore for his generous permission to -use long extracts from his father’s “Life of Lord Herbert,” from which -more than one valuable letter has been taken; and to Mr. John Murray for -sanctioning this and for like privileges in relation to the lives of -Sir John MacNeill and Sir Bartle Frere. To Messrs. William Blackwood, -Messrs. Cassell, Messrs. G. P. Putnam and Sons, as well as to the editors -and publishers of the _Times_, _Daily Telegraph_, _Morning Post_, and -_Evening News_, I wish to add my thanks to those of my publisher. - -To any reader of this book it will be clear how great a debt I owe to -General Evatt, and he knows, I think, how sincerely I recognize it. Mr. -Stephen Paget, the writer of the article on Miss Nightingale in the -Dictionary of National Biography, has not only permitted me to quote from -that—a privilege for which I must also thank Messrs. Smith Elder, and Sir -Sidney Lee—but has, in addition, put me in the way of other priceless -material wherewith to do honour to the subject of this biography. I -have long been grateful to him for the inspiration and charm of his own -“Confessio Medici”—there is now this other obligation to add to that. - -Nor can I forgo cordial acknowledgments to the writer and also the -publisher of the charming sketch of Miss Nightingale’s Life published -some years ago by the Pilgrim Press and entitled “The Story of Florence -Nightingale.” - -To my friend Dr. Lewis N. Chase I owe the rare privilege of an -introduction to Mr. Walker, the sculptor, who has so graciously permitted -for my frontispiece a reproduction of the statue he has just completed as -a part of our national memorial to Miss Nightingale. - -I desire to thank Miss Rosalind Paget for directing me to sources of -information and bestowing on me treasures of time and of memory, as well -as Miss Eleanor F. Rathbone and the writer of Sir John MacNeill’s Life -for help given by their books, and Miss Marion Holmes for permission to -quote from her inspiring monograph; and last, but by no means least, to -express my sense of the self-sacrificing magnanimity with which Miss -E. Brierly, the present editor of _Nursing Notes_, at once offered me -and placed in my hands—what I should never have dreamed of asking, -even had I been a friend of old standing, instead of a comparative -stranger—everything she herself had gathered together and preserved as -bearing on the life of Florence Nightingale. - -When, under the influence of certain articles in the _Times_, I -undertook to write this volume for Messrs. Nelson, I knew nothing of the -other biographies in the field. Nor had I any idea that an officially -authorized life was about to be written by Sir Edward Cook, a biographer -with an intellectual equipment far beyond my own, but who will not -perhaps grudge me the name of friend, since his courteous considerateness -for all leads many others to make a like claim, and the knowledge that -he would put no obstacle in my path has spared me what might have been -a serious difficulty. Had I known all this, a decent modesty might have -prevented my undertaking. But in every direction unforeseen help has been -showered upon me, and nothing but my own inexorable limitations have -stood in my way. - -If there be any who, by their books, or in any other way, have helped me, -but whom by some unhappy oversight I have omitted to name in these brief -documentary thanks, I must earnestly beg them to believe that such an -error is contrary to my intention and goodwill. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - Introductory Chapter 15 - - I. Florence Nightingale: her home, her birthplace, and her - family 25 - - II. Life at Lea Hurst and Embley 41 - - III. The weaving of many threads, both of evil and of good 55 - - IV. The activities of girlhood—Elizabeth Fry—Felicia Skene - again 62 - - V. Home duties and pleasures—The brewing of war 71 - - VI. Pastor Fliedner 90 - - VII. Years of preparation 101 - - VIII. The beginning of the war—A sketch of Sidney Herbert 117 - - IX. The Crimean muddle—Explanations and excuses 134 - - X. “Five were wise, and five foolish” 142 - - XI. The expedition 162 - - XII. The tribute of Kinglake and Macdonald and the Chelsea - Pensioners 172 - - XIII. The horrors of Scutari—The victory of the Lady-in-Chief—The - Queen’s letter—Her gift of butter and treacle 200 - - XIV. Letters from Scutari—Kinglake on Miss Nightingale and her - dynasty—The refusal of a new contingent 216 - - XV. The busy nursing hive—M. Soyer and his memories—Miss - Nightingale’s complete triumph over prejudice—The - memories of Sister Aloysius 235 - - XVI. Inexactitudes—Labels—Cholera—“The Lady with the Lamp”—Her - humour—Letters of Sister Aloysius 247 - - XVII. Miss Nightingale visits Balaclava—Her illness—Lord - Raglan’s visit—The Fall of Sebastopol 261 - - XVIII. The Nightingale Fund—Miss Nightingale remains at her - post, organizing healthy occupations for the men off - duty—Sisters of Mercy—The Queen’s jewel—Its meaning 274 - - XIX. Her citizenship—Her initiative—Public recognition and - gratitude—Her return incognito—Village excitement—The - country’s welcome—Miss Nightingale’s broken health—The - Nightingale Fund—St. Thomas’s Hospital—Reform of - nursing as a profession 292 - - XX. William Rathbone—Agnes Jones—Infirmaries—Nursing in - the homes of the poor—Municipal work—Homely power - of Miss Nightingale’s writings—Lord Herbert’s death 312 - - XXI. Multifarious work and many honours—Jubilee Nurses—Nursing - Association—Death of father and mother—Lady Verney and - her husband—No respecter of persons—From within four - walls—South Africa and America 331 - - XXII. India—Correspondence with Sir Bartle Frere—Interest - in village girls—The Lamp 346 - - XXIII. A brief summing up 360 - - APPENDIX 367 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - Statue of Florence Nightingale by A. G. Walker _Frontispiece_ - - “The Lady with the Lamp.” Statuette _Facing p._ 8 - - Embley Park, Romsey, Hants ” 16 - - Florence Nightingale’s Father ” 32 - - Florence Nightingale (after Augustus Egg, R.A.) ” 88 - - Florence Nightingale in 1854 ” 112 - - At the Therapia Hospital ” 176 - - At Scutari ” 192 - - Miss Nightingale’s Medals and Decorations ” 280 - - The Nightingale Nursing Carriage ” 296 - - At the Herbert Hospital, Woolwich ” 304 - - A Letter from Miss Nightingale ” 320 - - Miss Nightingale’s London House ” 344 - - Florence Nightingale in her Last Days ” 352 - - - - -INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER FOR THE ELDERS IN MY AUDIENCE. - - -It is my hope that my younger readers may find this volume all the -more to their liking if it is not without interest to people of my own -generation. Girls and boys of fourteen to sixteen are already on the -threshold of manhood and womanhood, but even of children I am sure it -is true that they hate to be “written down to,” since they are eagerly -drinking in hopes and ideas which they cannot always put into words, and -to such hopes and ideas they give eager sympathy of heart and curiosity -of mind. - -[Illustration: Florence Nightingale’s Home, Embley Park, Romsey, Hants.] - -For one of her St. Thomas’s nurses, among the first nine women to be -decorated with the Red Cross, the heroine of this story wrote what might -well be the marching orders of many a good soldier in the divine army, -and not least, perhaps, of those boy scouts and girl guides who would -like better a life of adventure than the discipline of a big school or -the “duties enough and little cares” of a luxurious home; and as the -words have not, so far as I am aware, appeared in print before, it may be -worth while to give them here:— - - “Soldiers,” she wrote, “must obey orders. And to you the - ‘roughing’ it has been the resigning yourself to ‘comforts’ - which you detested and to work which you did not want, while - the work which wanted you was within reach. A severe kind - of ‘roughing’ indeed—perhaps the severest, as I know by sad - experience. - - “But it will not last. This short war is not life. But all will - depend—your possible future in the work, we pray for you, O my - Cape of Good Hope—upon the name you gain here. That name I know - will be of one who obeys authority, however unreasonable, in - the name of Him who is above all, and who is Reason itself—of - one who submits to disagreeables, however unjust, for the - work’s sake and for His who tells us to love those we don’t - like—a precept I follow oh so badly—of one who never criticizes - so that it can even be guessed at that she has criticism in her - heart—and who helps her companions to submit by her own noble - example.... - - “I have sometimes found in my life that the very hindrances - I had been deploring were there expressly to fit me for - the next step in my life. (This was the case—hindrances of - _years_—before the Crimean War.)” And elsewhere she writes: “To - have secured for you all the _circumstances_ we wished for your - work, I would gladly have given my life. But you are made to - rise above circumstances; perhaps this is God’s way—His ways - are not as our ways—of preparing you for the great work which I - am persuaded He has in store for you some day.” - -It is touching to find her adding in parenthesis that before her own work -was given to her by the Great Unseen Commander, she had ten years of -contradictions and disappointments, and adding, as if with a sigh from -the heart, “And oh, how badly I did it!” - -There we have the humility of true greatness. All her work was amazing -in its fruitfulness, but those who knew her best feel sometimes that the -part of her work which was greatest of all and will endure longest is -just the part of which most people know least. I mean her great labour -of love for India, which I cannot doubt has already saved the lives of -millions, and will in the future save the health and working power of -millions more. - -Florence Nightingale would have enriched our calendar of uncanonized -saints even if her disciplined high-hearted goodness had exercised an -unseen spell by simply _being_, and had, by some limitation of body or -of circumstance, been cut off from much active _doing_: for so loving -and obedient a human will, looking ever to the Highest, as a handmaiden -watches the eyes of her mistress, is always and everywhere a humane -influence and a divine offering. But in her life—a light set on a -hill—being and doing went hand in hand in twofold beauty and strength, -for even through those years when she lay on her bed, a secluded -prisoner, her activities were world-wide. - -In addition to the work for which she is most widely revered and loved, -Miss Nightingale did three things—each leaving a golden imprint upon the -history of our time:— - -She broke down a “Chinese wall” of prejudice with regard to the -occupations of women, and opened up a new and delightful sphere of hard, -but congenial, work for girls. - -She helped to reconstruct, on the lines of feminine common sense, -the hygiene and the transport service of our army—yes, of the entire -imperial army, for what is a success in one branch of our dominions -cannot permanently remain unaccepted by the rest. And in all her work for -our army she had, up to the time of his death, unbounded help from her -friend, Lord Herbert. - -Last, and perhaps greatest of all, she initiated, with the help of Sir -Bartle Frere, Sir John Lawrence, and other enlightened men of her time, -the reform of insanitary and death-dealing neglect throughout the length -and breadth of India, thus saving countless lives, not only from death, -but from what is far worse—a maimed or invalid existence of lowered -vitality and lessened mental powers. - -One of her friends, himself a great army doctor holding a high official -position, has repeatedly spoken of her to me as the supreme embodiment -of citizenship. She did indeed exemplify what Ruskin so nobly expressed -in his essay on “Queens’ Gardens”—the fact that, while men and women -differ profoundly and essentially, and life would lose in beauty if they -did not, the state has need of them both; for what the woman should be -at her own hearth, the guardian of order, of health, of beauty, and of -love, that also should she be at that wider imperial hearth where there -are children to be educated, soldiers to be equipped, wounded lives to be -tended, and the health of this and future generations to be diligently -guarded. - -“Think,” she said once to one of her nurses, “less of what you may -gain than of what you may give.” Herself, she gave royally—gave her -fortune, her life, her soul’s treasure. I read in a recent contemporary -of high standing a review which ended with what seemed to me a very -heathen sentence, which stamped itself on my memory by its arrogant -narrowness. “Woman,” wrote the reviewer, “is always either frustrate -or absorbed;” and there leaped to my heart the exclamation, “Here in -Florence Nightingale is the answer; for in her we have one, known and -read of all men, who was neither the one nor the other.” That there was -supreme renunciation in her life, none who is born to womanhood can -doubt; for where could there be any who would have been more superbly -fitted for what she herself regarded as the natural lot of woman as wife -and mother? But she, brilliant, beautiful, and worshipped, was called -to a more difficult and lonely path, and if there was hidden suffering, -it did but make her service of mankind the more untiring, her practical -and keen-edged intellect the more active in good work, her tenderness to -pain and humility of self-effacement the more beautiful and just. - -It has been said, and said truly, that she did not suffer fools gladly, -and she knew well how very human she was in this and in other ways, as -far removed from a cold and statuesque faultlessness as are all ardent, -swift, loving natures here on earth. But her words were words of wisdom -when she wrote to one dear to her whom she playfully named “her Cape of -Good Hope”: “Let us be persecuted for righteousness’ sake, _but not for -unrighteousness_.” - -The italics are mine, because in their warning they seem so singularly -timely. And the entire sentence is completely in tune with that fine note -with which she ends one of her delightful volumes on nursing— - -“I would earnestly ask my sisters to keep clear of both the jargons -now current everywhere (for they are equally jargons): of the jargon, -namely, about the ‘rights’ of women which urges women to do all that men -do, including the medical and other professions, merely because men do -it, and without regard to whether this _is_ the best that women can do; -and of the jargon which urges women to do nothing that men do, merely -because they are women, and should be ‘recalled to a sense of their duty -as women,’ and because ‘this is women’s work,’ and ‘that is men’s,’ and -‘these are things which women should not do,’ which is all assertion and -nothing more. Surely woman should bring the best she has, _whatever_ that -is, to the work of God’s world, without attending to either of these -cries. For what are they, both of them, the one _just_ as much as the -other, but listening to the ‘what people will say,’ to opinion, to the -‘voices from without’? And as a wise man has said, no one has ever done -anything great or useful by listening to the voices from without. - -“You do not want the effect of your good things to be, ‘How wonderful -for a _woman_!’ nor would you be deterred from good things by hearing -it said, ‘Yes, but she ought not to have done this, because it is not -suitable for a woman.’ But you want to do the thing that is good, -whether it is ‘suitable for a woman,’ or not. - -“It does not make a thing good, that it is remarkable that a woman should -have been able to do it. Neither does it make a thing bad, which would -have been good had a man done it, that it has been done by a woman. - -“Oh, leave these jargons, and go your way straight to God’s work, in -simplicity and singleness of heart.” - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - _Florence Nightingale: her home, her birthplace, and her - family._ - - -In the heart of Derbyshire there is a quaint old church, once a private -chapel, and possessing, instead of a churchyard, a bit of quiet -greenness, of which the chief ornament, besides the old yew tree at the -church door, is a kind of lovers’ bower made by two ancient elder trees -which have so intertwined their branches as to form an arbour, where in -summer-time sweethearts can gossip and the children play. It belonged to -a world far away from the world of to-day, when, in the high-backed pews -reserved for the “quality,” little Florence Nightingale, in her Sunday -attire that was completed by Leghorn hat and sandal shoes, made, Sunday -after Sunday, a pretty vision for the villagers, in whose cottages she -was early a welcome visitor. It was just such a church as we read of in -George Eliot’s stories, clerk and parson dividing the service between -them, and the rustic bareness of the stone walls matched by the visible -bell-ropes and the benches for the labouring people. But the special -story that has come down from those days suggests that the parson was -more satirical than Mr. Gilfil or Mr. Tryan, and it is to be feared that -when he remarked that “a lie is a very useful thing in trade,” the people -who quoted him in Derby market-place merely used his “Devil’s text” as -a convenience and saw no satire in it at all. Have we really travelled -a little way towards honesty since those days, or have we grown more -hypocritical? - -The little girl in the squire’s pew grew up in a home where religious -shams were not likely to be taken at their face value. - -Her father, who was one of the chief supporters of the cheap schools -of the neighbourhood, had his own ways of helping the poor folk on his -estate, but used to reply to some of the beseeching people who wanted -money from him for local charities that he was “not born generous.” -Generous or not, he had very decided views about the education of his -two children, Florence and Parthe. They enjoyed nearly a hundred years -ago (Florence was born in 1820) as liberal a course of study as any High -School girl of to-day, and no doubt it is true that the orderliness of -mind and character, at which his methods aimed, proved of countless value -to Florence in those later days, when her marvellous power in providing -for minutest details without unnecessary fuss or friction banished the -filth and chaos of the first Crimean hospitals, and transformed them -into abodes of healing and of order. She grew up to be a beautiful and -charming woman, for whom men would gladly have laid down their lives; yet -her beauty and her charm alone could not have secured for our wounded -soldiers in the Crimea, tortured by dirt and neglect, the swift change to -cleanness and comfort and good nursing which her masterly and unbending -methods aided her commanding personal influence to win. - -But this is leaping too far ahead. As yet she is only Parthenope’s -little playfellow and schoolfellow in the room devoted to “lessons” at -Lea Hall, the small maiden who climbs the hill on Sundays to the church -where the yew tree guards the door, and on week-days is busy or at play -in the house that has been the home of her father’s family through many -generations, and in the grounds of the manor that surround it. - -Lea Hall is in that part of the country which Father Benson has described -in his novel, “Come Rack, come Rope,” and the Nightingale children -were within easy reach of Dethick Hall, where young Anthony Babington -had lived. It must have added zest to their history lessons and their -girlish romancings to hear of the secret passage, which was supposed to -lead right into Wingfield Manor, from the underground cellar close to -the old wall that showed still where Dethick had once reared its stately -buildings. The fact that the farm bailiff now kept his potatoes there -and could not find the opening, would only make it a constant new ground -for adventure and imagination. For they would be told of course—these -children—how Mary Stuart had once been a prisoner at Dethick, and Anthony -had vowed to be her servant in life or death and never cease from the -struggle to set her free so long as life was in him. Nor did he; for he -died before her, and it was not at Wingfield, but at Fotheringay, as -these little students very well knew, no doubt, that her lovely head soon -afterwards was laid upon the block. - -Enviable children to have such a playground of imagination at their -doors! But, indeed, all children have that, and a bare room in a slum, -or a little patch of desert ground, may for them be danced over by Queen -Mab and all her fairies, or guarded by the very angel who led St. Peter -out of prison. Still, it is very exciting to have history written beside -the doorstep where you live, and if you grow up in a home where lesson -books are an important part of the day’s duties, it is pleasant to find -them making adventures for you on your father’s own estate. It mattered -nothing that the story would all be told by those contending against -Anthony’s particular form of religion, who would be ready to paint him -with as black an ink as their regard for justice would allow. To a child, -that would rather enhance the vividness of it all. And there was the -actual kitchen still standing, with its little harmless-looking trapdoor -in the roof that leads into the secret chamber, where the persecuted -priests used to hide when they came to celebrate a secret Mass. No -wonder the two children delighted in Dethick, and wove many a tale -about it. For had they not seen with their very own eyes the great open -fireplace in that kitchen, where venison used to be roasted, and the very -roasting-jack hanging from its central beam where all the roof-beams were -black with age and dark with many tragic memories? - -Dethick is but one of the three villages included in the ancient manor, -the other two are Lea and Holloway; and in the days of King John, long -before it came to the Nightingales, the De Alveleys had built a chapel -there. Those who have read Mr. Skipton’s life of Nicholas Ferrar and know -their John Inglesant, will be interested to hear that half this manor had -passed through the hands of the Ferrars among others, and another portion -had belonged to families whose names suggest a French origin. But the -two inheritances had now met in the hands of the Nightingales. - -It is a very enchanting part of the Midlands. The silvery Derwent -winds through the valleys, keeping fresh the fields of buttercups and -meadowsweet and clover, and in the tall hedges wild roses mingle their -sweetness with the more powerful fragrance of the honeysuckle, until both -yield to the strange and overwhelming perfume of the elder tree. The -limestone hills, with their bold and mountainlike outline, their tiny -rills, and exquisite ferns, had been less spoiled in those days by the -tramp of tourists; and the purity of the air, the peacefulness of the -upland solitudes, would have a wholesome share in the “grace that can -mould the maiden’s form by silent sympathy.” - -[Illustration: Florence Nightingale’s Father.] - -It was a very youthful little maiden as yet who had been transplanted -into these English wilds from the glory and the sunshine of the Italy -where she was born. After the valley of the Arno and the splendours of -Florence, it may have seemed somewhat cold and bracing at times. Rightly -or wrongly, the father of the little girls—for our heroine’s sister, -named after another Italian city, shared all her life at this time—seems -to a mere outsider a little cold and bracing too. He came of a very old -family, and we hear of his “pride of birth.” His wife, on the other -hand, whom Florence Nightingale resembled, lives before us in more warm -and glowing colours, as one who did much to break down the barriers of -caste and, with a heart of overflowing love, “went about doing good.” -Both were people of real cultivation—good breeding being theirs by a -happy inheritance—and each seems to have had a strong and distinctive -personality. It might not be easy to say to which of the two the little -daughter, who grew to such world-wide fame, owed most; but probably -the equipment for her life-work was fairly divided between the two. -There is no magnet so powerful as force of character, and it is clear -that her father possessed moral and intellectual force of a notable -sort. Love, in the sense of enthusiasm for humanity, will always be the -heaven-born gift of one in whom religion is such a reality as it was with -Florence Nightingale, but religious ardour may be sadly ineffective -if defeated by the slack habits of a lifetime, or even by a moral and -mental vagueness that befogs holy intentions. Mr. Edward Nightingale’s -daughters were disciplined in a schoolroom where slackness and disorder -were not permitted, and a somewhat severe training in the classics was -supplemented by the example of Mrs. Nightingale’s excellent housewifery, -and by that fine self-control in manners and behaviour which in the -old-fashioned days used to be named “deportment.” Sports and outdoor -exercises were a part—and a delightful part—of the day’s routine. - -But let us go back a few years and give a few pages to the place of -Florence Nightingale’s birth and the history of her family. Her name, -like that of another social reformer among Englishwomen, was linked -with Italy, and she took it from the famous old Italian town in -whose neighbourhood she was born. I have tried in vain to trace the -authorship[1]—was it Ruskin or some less known writer?—who said of -that town, “if you wish to see it to perfection, fix upon such a day as -Florence owes the sun, and, climbing the hill of Bellosguardo, or past -the stages of the Via Crucis to the church of San Miniato, look forth -upon the scene before you. You trace the course of the Arno from the -distant mountains on the right, through the heart of the city, winding -along the fruitful valley toward Pisa. The city is beneath you, like a -pearl set in emerald. All colours are in the landscape, and all sounds -are in the air. The hills look almost heathery. The sombre olive and -funereal cypress blend with the graceful acacia and the clasping vine. -The hum of the insect and the carol of bird chime with the blithe voices -of men; while dome, tower, mountains, the yellow river, the quaint -bridges, spires, palaces, gardens, and the cloudless heavens overhanging, -make up a panorama on which to gaze in trance of rapture until the spirit -wearies from the exceeding beauty of the vision.” - -When on May 12, 1820, Florence Nightingale was born, her parents were -staying at the Villa Colombaia, near to this beautiful City of Flowers; -and when the question of a name for her arose, they were of one mind -about it—she must be called after the city itself. They had no sons, and -this child’s elder sister, their only other daughter, having been born at -Naples, had taken its ancient and classical name of Parthenope.[2] - -Their own family name had changed. Mr. Nightingale, who was first known -as William Edward Shore, was the only son of Mr. William Shore of Tapton, -in Derbyshire, and the child who was to reform England’s benighted views -of nursing, and do so much for the health, not only of our British -troops, but also of our Indian Army, was related through that family -to John Shore, a famous physician in Derby in the reign of Charles the -Second, as well as to the Governor-General of India who, twenty-three -years before her birth, took the title of Baron Teignmouth. It was -through her father’s mother, the only daughter of Mr. Evans of Cromford, -that she was linked with the family of the Nightingales, whose name her -father afterwards took. Mary Evans, her paternal grandmother, was the -niece of “Old Peter,” a rich and roystering squire, who was well liked -in his own neighbourhood, in spite of his nickname of “Madman Peter” -and the rages that now and then overtook him. Florence Nightingale -was, however, no descendant of his, for he never married, and all his -possessions, except those which he sold to Sir Richard Arkwright, the -famous cotton-spinner, came to his niece, who was the mother of Miss -Nightingale’s father. When all this landed property came into the -hands of Mr. Edward Shore, three years before his marriage and five -years before Florence was born, his name was changed under the Prince -Regent’s sign manual from Shore to Nightingale, in accordance with Peter -Nightingale’s will. But he continued to live in Italy for a great part of -every year until Florence was nearly five years old, though the change of -ownership on the English estate was at once felt under the new squire, -who was in most ways the very opposite of that “Old Peter,” of whom we -read that when he had been drinking, as was then the fashion, he would -frighten away the servant-maids by rushing into the kitchen and throwing -the puddings on the dust-heap. - -Mr. Edward Nightingale, our heroine’s father, bore a character without -fear or reproach. Educated at Edinburgh and at Trinity, Cambridge, he had -afterwards travelled a good deal, at a time when travel was by no means -the commonplace that it is now. - -He is described as “tall and slim,” and from the descriptions we have of -him it is clear that no one, even at a glance, could have missed the note -of distinction in his bearing, or mistaken him for other than that which -he was proud to be, the cultivated and enlightened son of a fine old -family. - -When we read that the lady he married was daughter of a strong -Abolitionist, Mr. William Smith of Parndon, in Essex, we feel that the -very name of Abolitionist belongs to a bygone past. - -In those days the American Civil War was still to come, but the horizon -was already beginning to blacken for it, just as in Europe, while two -happy little girls were playing hide-and-seek in the gardens of Lea Hall -and racing with their dogs across the meadows to Dethick, the hush -before the tempest did not blind wise statesmen to those dangers in the -Near East which were to overwhelm us in so terrible a war. - -Mr. Smith, in desiring ardently the abolition of slavery, was ahead of -many Englishmen of his day. He was an eager philanthropist, who for half -a century represented Norwich in Parliament, and had therefore real power -in urging any good cause he had at heart. His daughter Frances, when she -became Mrs. Nightingale, did not cease to labour among the poor in the -spirit of her father and of her own benevolent heart. She was a beautiful -and impressive woman, and in her untiring service of others seems to have -been just the wife for Mr. Nightingale, who was ready to further every -good work in his own neighbourhood. He, in his artistic and scholarly -tastes, was as humane and enlightened as was the woman of his choice in -her own skill of hand and charm of household guidance. - -For Mrs. Nightingale was not only a notable housekeeper and her -husband’s companion in the world of books, she was also a woman whose -individuality of thought and action had been deepened by her practical -faith, so that even at a time when England was still tied and bound by -conventions of rank, from which the last fifty years have released many -devotees, she felt the call of the Master to a deeper and wider sense of -brotherhood, and had a great wish to break through artificial barriers. - -As a matter of fact, she found many innocent ways of doing so. But she -did not know in these early days that in giving to the world a little -daughter who was akin to her in this, she had found the best way of all; -for that daughter was to serve others in the very spirit of those great -ones of old—S. Teresa and S. Catharine and the Blessed Joan of Arc—to -whom the real things were so real and so continually present that the -world’s voices were as nothing in comparison. This was true also of Mrs. -Browning, whose memory has already come to mind, as linked, like that -of Florence Nightingale, though for quite other reasons, with the City -of Flowers; and although a life of action in the ordinary sense was -impossible for the author of “Aurora Leigh,” yet it is remarkable how -much she also did to arouse and set free her sisters, for she too, like -the others, was a woman of great practical discernment. - -The little peasant maid of France, who was born to be a warrior and the -deliverer of her people, had this in common with the little English girl -born to a great inheritance and aiming at a higher and humbler estate -wherein she was the queen of nurses, that both cared so much for the -commands from above as to be very little influenced by the gossip round -about. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - _Life at Lea Hurst and Embley._ - - -Florence was between five and six years old when the Nightingales moved -from Lea Hall into their new home at Lea Hurst, a house commanding a -specially beautiful outlook, and built under Mr. Nightingale’s own -supervision with much care and taste, about a mile from the old home. It -is only fourteen miles out of Derby, though there would seem to be many -sleepy inhabitants of that aristocratic old town—like the old lady of -Hendon who lived on into the twentieth century without having been into -the roaring city of London hard by—who know nothing of the attractions -within a few miles of them; for Mrs. Tooley tells an amusing story of a -photographer there who supposed Lea Hurst to be a distinguished man and a -local celebrity. - -To some it seemed that there was a certain bleakness in the country -surrounding Lea Hall, but, though the two dwellings are so short a -distance apart, Lea Hurst is set in a far more perfect landscape. Hills -and woodlands, stretching far away to Dovedale, are commanded by the -broad terrace of upland on which the house stands, and it looks across to -the bold escarpment known as Crich Stand, while deep below, the Derwent -makes music on its rocky course. Among the foxglove and the bracken, the -gritstone rocks jutting forth are a hovering place for butterflies and a -haunt of the wild bee. - -The house itself—shaped like a cross, gabled and mullioned, and -heightened by substantial chimney-stacks—is solid, unpretending, -satisfying to the eye. Above the fine oriel window in the drawing-room -wing is the balcony pointed out to visitors where, they are told, after -the Crimea “Miss Florence used to come out and speak to the people.” - -The building of the house was completed in 1825, and above the door that -date is inscribed, together with the letter N. The drawing-room and -library look south, and open on to the garden, and “from the library -a flight of stone steps leads down to the lawn.” In the centre of the -garden front an old chapel has been built into the mansion, and it may -be that the prayers of the unknown dead have been answered in the life -of the child who grew up under its shadow, and to whom the busy toiling -world has owed so much. - -The terraced garden at the back of the house, with its sweet -old-fashioned flowers and blossoming apple trees, has doubtless grown -more delightful with every year of its advancing age, but what an -interest the two little girls must have had when it was first being -planted out and each could find a home for her favourite flowers! -Fuchsias were among those loved by little Florence, who, as has already -been noted, was only six years old when she and her sister and father and -mother moved into Lea Hurst, and there was a large bed of these outside -the chapel. The old schoolroom and nursery at the back of the house -look out upon the hills, and in a quiet corner of the garden there is a -summer-house where Florence and her only sister, who had no brothers to -share their games, must often have played and worked. - -Lea Hurst is a quiet, beautiful home, characteristically English and -unpretending, with a modest park-gate, and beyond the park those Lea -Woods where the hyacinths bloom and where it is still told how “Miss -Florence” loved to walk through the long winding avenue with its grand -views of the distant hills and woods. - -But the Nightingales did not spend the whole year at Lea Hurst. In the -autumn it was their custom to move to Embley, in Hampshire, where they -spent the winter and early spring. They usually sent the servants on -ahead with the luggage, and drove by easy stages in their own carriage, -taking the journey at leisure, and putting up at inns by the way. -Sometimes, of course, they travelled by coach. Those of us who only know -the Derby road in the neighbourhood of towns like Nottingham and Derby -now that its coaching glories are past, find it difficult to picture -its gaiety in those old coaching days, when the very horses enjoyed -the liveliness of the running, and the many carriages with their gay -postilions and varied occupants were on the alert for neighbour or friend -who might be posting in the same direction. - -Whether in autumn or in spring, the drive must have been a joy. The -varied beauty of the Midlands recalls the lines in “Aurora Leigh” which -speak of - - “Such nooks of valleys lined with orchises, - Fed full of noises by invisible streams; - And open pastures where you scarcely tell - White daisies from white dew, ... - ... the clouds, the fields, - The happy violets hiding from the roads - The primroses run down to, carrying gold; - The tangled hedgerows, where the cows push out - Impatient horns and tolerant churning mouths - ’Twixt dripping ash-boughs,—hedgerows all alive - With birds and gnats and large white butterflies - Which look as if the May-flower had caught life - And palpitated forth upon the wind; - Hills, vales, woods, netted in a silver mist, - Farms, granges, doubled up among the hills; - And cattle grazing in the watered vales, - And cottage-chimneys smoking from the woods, - And cottage-gardens smelling everywhere, - Confused with smell of orchards.” - -Derbyshire itself, with its wild lilies of the valley, its ferns and -daffodils and laughing streams, is hardly more “taking” than the country -through which winds the silver Trent, past Nottingham Castle, perched -on its rock and promontory above the fields where the wild crocus in -those days made sheets of vivid purple, and the steep banks of Clifton -Grove, with its shoals of blue forget-me-not, making a dim, tree-crowned -outline, with here and there a gleam of silver, as seen by the chariots -“on the road.” Wollaton Park, with its great beeches and limes and -glimpses of shy deer, would give gold and crimson and a thousand shades -of russet to the picture. - -And farther south, at the other end of the journey, what miles of -orchards and pine woods and sweet-scented heather—what rolling Downs and -Surrey homesteads along the turnpike roads! - -Though Parthenope and Florence had no brothers to play with them, they -seem to have had a great variety of active occupations, both at Lea -Hurst and at Embley. Of course they had their dolls, like other little -girls; but those which belonged to Florence had a way of falling into the -doctor’s hands—an imaginary doctor, of course—and needing a good deal of -tender care and attention. Florence seemed never tired of looking after -their various ailments. In fact, she had at times a whole dolls’ hospital -to tend. She probably picked up a little amateur knowledge of medicine -quite early in life; for the poor people in the neighbourhood used to -come to her mother for help in any little emergency, and Mrs. Nightingale -was, like many another Lady Bountiful of her generation, equipped with a -certain amount of traditional wisdom and kindly common sense, aided in -her case by wider reading and a better educated mind than the ordinary. - -Florence, having somehow escaped measles and whooping-cough, was not -allowed to run into infection in the cottages, but that did not prevent -the sending of beef-teas and jellies and other helpful and neighbourly -gifts, which could be tied to her pony’s saddle-bow and left by her at -the door. She learned to know the cottagers with a frank and very human -intimacy, and their homely wit touched her own, their shrewdness and -sympathy met their like in her, and as she grew older, all this added -to her power and her charm. She learned to know both the north and -the south in “her ain countree,” and when, later in life, she was the -wise angel of hope to the brave “Tommies,” recruited from such homes, -meeting them as she did amid unrecorded agonies that were far worse -than the horrors of the battlefield, she understood them all the better -as men, because she had known just such boys as they had been and was -familiar with just such homes as those in which they grew up. According -to Mrs. Tooley’s biography, the farmhouse where Adam Bede fell in love -with Hetty was just the other side of the meadows at Lea Hurst, and the -old mill-wheel, where Maggie Tulliver’s father ground the corn of the -neighbourhood, was only two or three miles away. Marian Evans, of whom -the world still thinks and speaks by her pen-name of George Eliot, came -sometimes to visit her kinsfolk in the thatched cottage by Wirksworth -Tape Mills, and has left us in her earlier novels a vivid picture of the -cottage life that surrounded our heroine during that part of the year -which she spent in the Derbyshire home. The children, of course, had -their own garden, which they dug and watered, and Florence was so fond -of flowers and animals that that again was an added bond with her rustic -neighbours. Flower-missions had not in those days been heard of, but she -often tied up a nosegay of wild flowers for invalid villagers, or took -some of her favourites out of her own garden to the sick people whom she -visited. - -The story of her first patient has already been told several times in -print, but no biography would be complete without it. - -She had nursed many dolls back to convalescence—to say nothing of -“setting” their broken limbs—tempted their delicate appetites with -dainties offered on toy plates, and dressed the burns when her sister let -them tumble too near the nursery fire; but as yet she had had no real -human patient, when one day, out riding with her friend the vicar over -the Hampshire Downs near Embley, they noticed that Roger, an old shepherd -whom they knew very well, was having endless trouble in getting his sheep -together. - -“Where’s Cap?” asked the vicar, drawing up his horse, for Cap was a very -capable and trusted sheep-dog. - -“T’ boys have been throwing stones at ‘n and they’ve broken t’ poor -chap’s leg. Won’t ever be any good no more, a’m thinkin’. Best put him -out of ‘s misery.” - -“O Roger!” exclaimed a clear young voice, “poor Cap’s leg broken? Can’t -we do anything for him?” - -“Where is he?” added Florence eagerly, for the voice was that of the -future “Queen of Nurses.” “Oh, we can’t leave him all alone in his pain. -Just think how cruel!” - -“Us can’t do no good, miss, nor you nayther. I’se just take a cord to him -to-night; ’tis the only way to ease his pain.” - -But Florence turned to plead with the vicar, and to beg that some further -effort should be made. - -The vicar, urged by the compassion in the young face looking up to his, -turned his horse’s head in the right direction for a visit to Cap. In a -moment Florence’s pony was put to the gallop, and she was the first to -arrive at the shed where the poor dog was lying. - -Cap’s faithful brown eyes were soon lifted to hers, as she tenderly tried -to make him understand her loving sympathy, caressing him with her little -hand and speaking soothingly with her own lips and eyes; till, like the -suffering men whose wounds would in the far-off years be eased through -her skill, the dog looked up at her in dumb and worshipping gratitude. - -The vicar was equal to the occasion, and soon discovered that the leg was -not broken at all, but badly bruised and swollen, and perhaps an even -greater source of danger and pain than if there had merely been a broken -bone. - -When he suggested a “compress,” his child-companion was puzzled for a -moment. She thought she knew all about poultices and bandages, and I -daresay she had often given her dolls a mustard plaster; but a “compress” -sounded like something new and mysterious. It was, of course, a great -relief when she learned that she only needed to keep soaking cloths in -hot water, wringing them out, and folding them over Cap’s injured leg, -renewing them as quickly as they cooled. She was a nimble little person, -and, with the help of the shepherd boy, soon got a fire of sticks kindled -in a neighbouring cottage and the kettle singing on it with the necessary -boiling water. But now what to do for cloths? Time is of importance in -sick-nursing when every moment of delay means added pain to the sufferer. -To ride home would have meant the loss of an hour or two, and thrifty -cottagers are not always ready to tear up scant and cherished house-linen -for the nursing of dogs. But Florence was not to be baffled. To her great -delight she espied the shepherd’s smock hanging up behind the door. She -was a fearless soul, and felt no doubt whatever that her mother would -pay for a new smock. “This will just do,” she said, and, since that -delightful vicar gave a nod of entire approval, she promptly tore it into -strips. - -Then back to Cap’s hut she hastened, with her small henchman beside -her carrying the kettle and the basin; for by this time he, the boy -shepherd, began to be interested too, and the vicar’s superintendence was -no longer needed. A message of explanation was sent to Embley that Mr. -and Mrs. Nightingale might not be anxious, and for several hours Florence -gave herself up to nursing her patient. Cap was passive in her hands, and -the hot fomentations gradually lessened the pain and the swelling. - -Imagine the wonder and gratitude of old Roger when he turned up with -the rope in his hand and a leaden weight on his poor old heart! Cap, -of course, knew his step and greeted him with a little whine of -satisfaction, as if to be the first to tell him the good news. - -“Why, missy, you have been doing wonders,” he said. “I never thought to -see t’ poor dog look up at me like that again.” - -“Yes,” exclaimed the happy young nurse; “doesn’t he look better? Well, -Roger, you can throw away the rope. I shall want you to help me make -these hot compresses.” - -“Miss Florence is quite right, Roger,” interposed the vicar; “you’ll -soon have Cap running about again.” - -“I’m sure I cannot thank you and the young lady enough, yer riv’rence. -And I’ll mind all the instrooctions for he.” - -As the faithful dog looked up at him, eased and content, it was a very -happy man that was old Roger. But the doctor-nurse was not prepared to -lose her occupation too quickly. - -“I shall come and see him again to-morrow, Roger,” she said; “I know -mamma will let me, when I just explain to her about it all.” - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - _The weaving of many threads, both of evil and of good._ - - -While Florence Nightingale and her sister were working hard at history -and languages and all useful feminine arts, romping in the sunny -Hampshire gardens, or riding amongst the Derbyshire hills, the big world -outside their quiet paradise was heaping fuel for the fires of war, -which at last, when after a quarter of a century it flared up out of its -long-prepared combustibles, was “to bring to death a million workmen and -soldiers, consume vast wealth, shatter the framework of the European -system, and make it hard henceforth for any nation to be safe except by -sheer strength.” And above all its devastation, remembered as a part of -its undying record, the name of one of these happy children was to be -blazoned on the page of history. - -Already at the beginning of the century the first Napoleon had said that -the Czar of Russia was always threatening Constantinople and never taking -it, and by the time Florence Nightingale was twelve years old, it might -be said of that Czar that while “holding the boundless authority of an -Oriental potentate,” his power was supplemented by the far-reaching -transmission of his orders across the telegraph wires, and if Kinglake -does not exaggerate, “he would touch the bell and kindle a war, without -hearing counsel from any living man.” - -The project against Constantinople was a scheme of conquest continually -to be delayed, but never discarded, and, happen what might, it was -never to be endured that the prospect of Russia’s attaining some day to -the Bosphorus should be shut out by the ambition of any other Power. -Nicholas was quite aware that multitudes of the pious throughout his -vast dominions dwelt upon the thought of their co-religionists under -the Turkish rule, and looked to the shining cross of St. Sophia, symbol -of their faith above the church founded by Constantine, as the goal of -political unity for a “suppliant nation.” - -And Kinglake tells us with an almost acid irony of Louis Napoleon, that -he who was by the Senatus-Consulte of 1804 the statutory heir of the -great Bonaparte, and after his exile and imprisonment had returned to -France, laboured to show all men “how beautifully Nature in her infinite -wisdom had adapted that same France to the service of the Bonapartes; -and how, without the fostering care of these same Bonapartes, the -creature was doomed to degenerate, and to perish out of the world, and -was considering how it was possible at the beginning of the nineteenth -century to make the coarse Bonaparte yoke of 1804 sit kindly upon her -neck.” - -The day was drawing near when a great war would seem to him to offer just -the opportunity he wanted. - -Far away as yet was that awful massacre of peaceful citizens in Paris in -1851, with which the name of Louis Napoleon was associated as responsible -for the _coup d’état_—a massacre probably the result of brutal panic on -the part of the soldiers, the civilians, and that craven president, -Louis Napoleon himself, whose conscience made a coward of him, and whose -terror usually took the form of brutality—but long before that date, by -his callous plotting and underhand self-seeking, he was preparing forces -which then made for death and terror, and by that time had more or less -broken the manhood of his beautiful Paris. - -Yet all over the world at all times, while the enemy is sowing tares in -the field, the good seed is ripening also in the ground for the harvest; -and through these same years far-off threads were being woven, ready to -make part of the warp and woof of a life, as yet busied with the duties -and joys of childhood, but one day to thrill the hearts of Europe and be -remembered while time shall last. - -Elizabeth Fry, who was to be one of its decisive influences, was bringing -new light and hope into the noisome prisons of a bygone century, and we -shall see how her life-work was not without its influence later on the -life of the child growing up at Embley and Lea Hurst. - -And a child nearly of Florence Nightingale’s own age, who was one day to -cross her path with friendly help at an important crisis, was playing -with her sister Curlinda—Sir Walter Scott’s nickname for her real name -of Caroline—and being drilled in manners in French schools in Paris and -Versailles, before her family moved to Edinburgh and her more serious -lessons began. This was Felicia Skene, who was afterwards able to give -momentary, but highly important help, at a critical moment in Florence -Nightingale’s career. Like Florence herself, she was born amid romantic -surroundings, though not in Italy but in Provence, and was named after -her French godmother, a certain Comtesse de Felicité. Her two earliest -recollections were of the alarming and enraged gesticulations of Liszt -when giving a music lesson to her frightened sisters, and the very -different vision of a lumbering coach and six accompanied by mounted -soldiers—the coach and six wherein sat Charles the Tenth, who was soon -afterwards to take refuge in Holyrood. That was in Paris, where her -family went to live when she was six years old, but at the time of Cap’s -accident they had already moved to Edinburgh, where her chief friends and -playmates were the little Lockharts and the children of the murdered Duc -de Berri. It was there that Sir Walter Scott, on the day when he heard of -his bankruptcy, came and sat quietly by the little Felicia, and bade her -tell him fairy stories, as he didn’t want to talk much himself. He was an -old and dear friend of her father, one link between them being the fact -that Mr. Skene was related by marriage to the beautiful Williamina Stuart -with whom Scott in his early days had fallen deeply and ardently in love. - -The little Felicia was at this time a very lively child and full of -innocent mischief. Her later devotion to the sick and poor did not -begin so early as was the case with Florence Nightingale, though there -came a time when she and Florence met in after life as equals and -fellow-soldiers in the great campaign against human suffering. Her -travels and adventures in Greece and her popularity at the Athenian -court were still hidden in the future, and while Florence at Embley -and Lea Hurst was gradually unfolding a sweetness of nature that was by -no means blind to the humorous side of things, and a highly practical -thoroughness in all she undertook, Felicia was enjoying a merry home-life -under the governorship of Miss Palmer, whom she nicknamed Pompey, and -being prepared for confirmation by her father’s friend, Dean Ramsay. We -are told of her that she might have said with Coppée, “J’ai eu toujours -besoin de Dieu.” Full of fun and of interest in life’s great adventure, -for others quite as much as for herself, religion was the moving force -that moulded the soul of her to much unforeseen self-sacrifice as yet -undreamed. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - - _The activities of girlhood—Elizabeth Fry—Felicia Skene again._ - - -But we are wandering away from Embley and from the two daughters of the -squire, who were already the delight of the village. - -Cap was by no means the only animal who owed much to Florence, and Peggy, -a favourite old pony, now holiday-making in the paddock, looked for -frequent visits and much sport between lesson hours. - -“Poor old Peggy, then; would she like a carrot?” - -“Well, where is it, then? See if you can find it, Peggy.” - -And then a little game followed, to which the beloved pony was quite -accustomed—snuffing round her young mistress and being teased and -tantalized for a minute or two, just to heighten the coming pleasure, -until at last the pocket was found where the precious delicacy was -hidden, and the daily feast began, a feast not of carrots only, for -caresses were of course a part of the ritual. - -Florence had much good fellowship also with the wild squirrels of the -neighbourhood, especially in one long avenue that was their favourite -abode. They were not in the least afraid of her, and would come leaping -down after the nuts that she dropped for them as she walked along. -Sometimes she would turn sharp round and startle them back into their -homes, but it was easy to tempt them down again. She was quick at finding -and guarding the nests of brooding birds, and suffered very keenly as a -child when the young ones were taken away from their mothers. - -Lambs and calves soon learned that she was fond of them, and the -affection was not on her side only. But among the pets that the two girls -were allowed to have, the ailing ones were always the most interesting to -the future nurse. - -It cannot, however, be too strongly stated that there was nothing -sentimental or lackadaisical in the very vigorous and hard-working life -that she led. It was not by any means all songs and roses, though it -was full of the happiness of a well-ordered and loving existence. Her -father was a rigid disciplinarian, and nothing casual or easygoing was -allowed in the Embley schoolroom. For any work carelessly done there was -punishment as well as reproof, and no shamming of any sort was allowed. -Hours must be punctually kept, and, whether the lesson for the moment was -Latin, Greek, or mathematics, or the sewing of a fine and exquisite seam, -it must come up to the necessary standard and be satisfactorily done. The -master-mind that so swiftly transformed the filthy horrors of Scutari -into a well-ordered hospital, and could dare to walk through minor -difficulties and objections as though they did not exist, was educated -in a severe and early school; and the striking modesty and gentleness of -Florence Nightingale’s girlhood was the deeper for having grappled with -enough real knowledge to know its own ignorances and limitations, and -treat the personality of others with a deference which was a part of her -charm. - -And if study was made a serious business, the sisters enjoyed to the -full the healthy advantages of country life. They scampered about the -park with their dogs, rode their ponies over hill and dale, spent long -days in the woods among the bluebells and primroses, and in summer -tumbled about in the sweet-scented hay. “During the summer at Lea Hurst, -lessons were a little relaxed in favour of outdoor life; but on the -return to Embley for the winter, schoolroom routine was again enforced on -very strict lines.”[3] - -In Florence Nightingale’s Derbyshire home the experiments in methods of -healing which dispensed with drugs could not fail to arouse attention -and discussion, for Mr. John Smedley’s newly-built cure-house stood at -the foot of the hill below Lea Hurst, and before Florence Nightingale -was twenty she had already begun to turn her attention definitely in the -direction of nursing. Everything tended to deepen this idea. She was -already able to do much for the villagers, and in any case of illness -they were always eager to let her know. The consumptive girl whose room -she gladdened with flowers was but one of the many ailing folk who found -comfort and joy in her presence. “Miss Florence had a way with her that -made them feel better,” they said. - -In those days nursing as a profession did not exist. When it was not done -wholly for love by the unselfish maiden aunt or sister, who was supposed, -as a matter of course, to be always at the disposal of the sick people -among her kinsfolk, it had come to be too often a mere callous trade, -carried on by ignorant and grasping women, who were not even clean or -of good character. The turning of a Scutari hell into a hospital that -seemed heaven by comparison, was a smaller miracle than that which Miss -Nightingale’s influence was destined later to achieve in changing a -despised and brutalized occupation throughout a whole empire into a noble -and distinguished art. - -Of course it must never be forgotten that through all the centuries since -the Christian Church was founded, there had been Catholic sisterhoods -with whom the real and the ideal were one—Sisters of Mercy, who were -not only refined and cultivated gentlewomen, but the most devoted and -self-sacrificing of human souls. - -And now in England, in that Society of Friends, which among Christian -communities might seem outwardly farthest away from a communion valuing -as its very language the ancient symbols and ritual of the Catholic -Church, yet was perhaps by its obedience to the inward voice more in -sympathy with the sisterhoods of that Church than were many other -religious groups, there had been lifted up by Elizabeth Fry a new -standard of duty in this matter, which in her hands became a new standard -of nursing, to be passed on in old age by her saintly hands into the -young and powerful grasp of the brilliant girl who is the heroine of -our story. The name of Elizabeth Fry is associated with the reform of -our prisons, but it is less commonly known that she was also a pioneer -of decent nursing. She understood with entire simplicity the words, “I -was sick and in prison, and ye visited me.” Perhaps it was not mere -coincidence that the words occur in the “lesson” appointed for the 15th -of February—the day noted in Elizabeth Fry’s journal as the date of that -visit to Newgate, when the poor felons she was yearning to help fell on -their knees and prayed to a divine unseen Presence. In a recent number of -the _Times_ which celebrates her centenary a quotation from her diary is -given which tells in her own words:— - - “I heard weeping, and I thought they appeared much tendered; - a very solemn quiet was observed; it was a striking scene, - the poor people on their knees around us, in their deplorable - condition.” - -And the _Times_ goes on to say, “nothing appears but those qualities of -helpfulness, sympathy, and love which could tame the most savage natures, -silence the voice of profanity and blasphemy, and subdue all around her -by a sense of her common sisterhood even with the vilest of them in the -love of God and the service of man.... But the deepest note of her nature -was an intense enthusiasm of humanity. It was this which inspired and -sustained all her efforts from first to last—even in her earlier and more -frivolous days—for the welfare and uplifting of her fellow-creatures; -and it is only right to add that it was itself sustained by her deep and -abiding conviction that it is only by the love of God that the service -of man can be sanctified and made to prosper.” A letter followed next -day from Mr. Julian Hill, who actually remembers her, and tells how the -Institution of Nursing Sisters which she organized grew out of her deep -pity for the victims of Sairey Gamp and her kind. - -All this was preparing the way for the wider and more successful nursing -crusade in which her memory and influence were to inspire the brave young -soul of Florence Nightingale. Speaking of all the difficulties that a -blindly conventional world is always ready to throw in the way of any -such new path, her old friend writes: “Such difficulties Mrs. Fry and -Miss Nightingale brushed contemptuously aside.” - -But in our story Miss Nightingale is as yet only lately out of the -schoolroom. And Elizabeth Fry’s life was by no means alone, as we have -seen, in its preparation of her appointed path, for about the time that -Florence Nightingale was taking her place in the brilliant society that -met about her father’s board, and Felicia Skene was “coming out,” a new -experiment was being made by a devout member of the Lutheran Church, an -experiment which was to play an important part in the world’s history, -though so quietly and unobtrusively carried out. - -We must not anticipate—we shall read of that in a later chapter. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - _Home duties and pleasures—The brewing of war._ - - -Florence was very happy as her mother’s almoner, and in her modest and -unobtrusive way was the life and soul of the village festivities that -centred in the church and school and were planned in many instances by -her father and mother. It is one of the happy characteristics of our time -that much innocent grace and merriment have been revived in the teaching -of beautiful old morris dances and other peasant festivities that had -been banished by the rigour of a perverted Puritanism, and the squire of -Lea Hurst and his wife were before their time in such matters. There was -a yearly function of prize-giving and speech-making and dancing, known -as the children’s “Feast Day,” to which the scholars came in procession -to the Hall, with their wreaths and garlands, to the music of a good -marching band provided by the squire, and afterwards they had tea in -the fields below the Hall garden, served by Mrs. Nightingale and her -daughters and the Hall servants, and then ended their day with merry -outdoor dancing. For the little ones Florence planned all kinds of games; -the children, indeed, were her special care, and by the time the evening -sun was making pomp of gold and purple in the sky above the valley of -the Derwent, there came the crowning event of the day when on the garden -terrace the two daughters of the house distributed their gifts to the -happy scholars. - -Mrs. Tooley in her biography calls up for us in a line or two a vision -of Florence as she was remembered by one old lady, who had often been -present and recalled her slender charm, herself as sweet as the rose -which she often wore in her neatly braided hair, brown hair with a glint -of gold in it, glossy and smooth and characteristic of youth and health. -We have from one and another a glimpse of the harmonious simplicity also -of her dress—the soft muslin gown, the little silk fichu crossed upon -her breast, the modest Leghorn bonnet with its rose. Or in winter, riding -about in the neighbourhood of Embley and distributing her little personal -gifts at Christmas among the old women—tea and warm petticoats—her -“ermine tippet and muff and beaver hat.” - -She helped in the training of young voices in the village, and was -among the entertainers when the carol-singers enjoyed their mince-pies -and annual coins in the hall. The workhouse knew her well, and any -wise enterprise in the neighbourhood for help or healing among the -poor and the sad was sure of her presence and of all the co-operation -in the power of her neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert, with whom -for some years before the Crimea she shared much companionship in such -work. This friendship was an important influence in our heroine’s life, -for Mr. Herbert was of those who reveal to the dullest a little of the -divine beauty and love, and his wife was through all their married life -his faithful and devoted friend, so that they made a strong trio of -sympathetic workers; for “Liz,” as her husband usually called her in his -letters to their common friend Florence Nightingale, seemed to have fully -shared his unbounded faith in the noble powers and high aims of the said -Florence, whom she too loved and admired. She was a daughter of General -Charles Ashe à Court, and she and Sidney Herbert had known one another as -children. Indeed, it was in those early days, when she was quite a little -child, that Elizabeth, who grew up to be one of the most beautiful women -of her day, said of Sidney, then, of course, a mere boy, that that was -the boy she was going to marry, and that she would never marry any one -else. Many a long year, however, had rolled between before he rode over -to Amington from Drayton, where he often met her, though no longer such -near neighbours as in the early Wiltshire days, and asked the beautiful -Elizabeth to be his wife. The intimacy between the two families had never -ceased, and General à Court, himself member for Wilton, had worked hard -for Sidney’s first election for the county. We shall hear more of these -dear and early friends of Florence Nightingale as her story unfolds, but -let us turn now for a moment to herself. - -Her life was many-sided, and her devotion to good works did not arise -from any lack of knowledge of the world. She was presented, of course, -like other girls of her order, and had her “seasons” in London as well -as her share in country society. A young and lovely girl, whose father -had been wise enough to give her all the education and advantages of -a promising boy, and who excelled also in every distinctive feminine -accomplishment and “pure womanliness,” had her earthly kingdom at her -feet. But her soul was more and more deeply bent on a life spent in -service and consecrated to the good of others. Her Sunday class, in the -old building known as the “Chapel” at Lea Hurst, was but one of her many -efforts in her father’s special domain in Derbyshire, and girls of every -faith came to her there without distinction of creed. They were mostly -workers in the hosiery mills owned by John Smedley, and many of them, -like their master, were Methodists. She sang to them, and they still -remember the sweetness of her voice and “how beautifully Miss Florence -used to talk,” as they sat together through many a sunny afternoon in the -tiny stone building overlooking Lea Hurst gardens. Cromford Church, built -by Sir Richard Arkwright, was then comparatively new, and time had not -made of it the pretty picture that it is now, in its bosoming trees above -the river; but it played a considerable part in Florence Nightingale’s -youth, when the vicar and the Arkwright of her day—old Sir Richard’s -tomb in the chancel bears the earlier date of 1792—organized many a kind -scheme for the good of the parish, in which the squire’s two daughters -gave their help. - -But Miss Nightingale was not of a type to consider these amateur -pleasures a sufficient training for her life-work, and that life-work was -already taking a more or less definite shape in her mind. - -She herself has written:— - - “I would say to all young ladies who are called to any - particular vocation, qualify yourselves for it as a man does - for his work. Don’t think you can undertake it otherwise. - Submit yourselves to the rules of business as men do, by which - alone you can make God’s business succeed, for He has never - said that He will give His success and His blessing to sketchy - and unfinished work.” And on another occasion she wrote that - “three-fourths of the whole mischief in women’s lives arises - from their excepting themselves from the rules of training - considered needful for men.” - -It has already been said that her thought was more and more directed -towards nursing, and in various ways she was quietly preparing herself to -that end. - -Her interview with the Quaker-saint, Elizabeth Fry, though deliberately -sought and of abiding effect, was but a brief episode. It was about -this time that they met in London. The serene old Quakeress, through -whose countenance looked forth such a heavenly soul, was no doubt keenly -interested in the ardent, witty, beautiful girl who came to her for -inspiration and counsel. They had much in common, and who knows but the -older woman, with all her weight of experience, her saintly character, -and ripened harvest, may yet in some ways have felt herself the younger -of the two; for she had come to that quiet threshold of the life beyond, -where a soul like hers has part in the simple joys of the Divine Child, -and looks tenderly on those who are still in the fires of battle through -which they have passed. - -Her own girlhood had defied in innocent ways the strictness of the Quaker -rule. Imagine a young Quakeress of those days wearing, as she had done on -occasion, a red riding habit! - -She had been fond of dancing, and would have, I suspect, a very healthy -human interest in the activities of a girl in Society, though she would -enter into Florence Nightingale’s resolve that her life should not be -frittered away in a self-centred round, while men and women, for whom her -Master died, were themselves suffering a slow death in workhouses and -prisons and hospitals, with none to tend their wounds of soul and body. - -Be this as it may—and without a record of their conversation it is easy -to go astray in imagining—we do know that like all the greatest saints -they were both very practical in their Christianity, and did not care -too much what was thought of their actions, so long as they were right -in the sight of God. In their common sense, their humility, their warm, -quick-beating heart of humanity, they were kindred spirits. - -The interview bore fruit even outwardly afterwards in a very important -way. For it was from Elizabeth Fry that Florence Nightingale first heard -of Pastor Fliedner and his institute for training nurses at Kaiserswerth, -as well as of Elizabeth Fry’s own institute for a like purpose in London, -which first suggested the Kaiserswerth training home, thus returning in -ever-widening blessing the harvest of its seed. - -Her desire was for definite preparatory knowledge and discipline, and -we of this generation can hardly realize how much searching must have -been necessary before the adequate training could be found. Certificated -nursing is now a commonplace, and we forget that it dates from Miss -Nightingale’s efforts after her return from the Crimea. We have only -to turn to the life of Felicia Skene and her lonely labour of love at -the time when the cholera visited Oxford—some twelve years later than -Florence Nightingale’s seventeenth birthday, that is to say, in 1849-51, -and again in 1854—to gain some idea of the bareness of the field. Sir -Henry Acland, whose intimate friendship with Felicia dates from their -common labours among the cholera patients, has described one among the -terrible cases for which there would, it seems, have been no human aid, -but for their discovery of the patient’s neglected helplessness. - - “She had no blanket,” he says, “or any covering but the ragged - cotton clothes she had on. She rolled screaming. One woman, - scarcely sober, sat by; she sat with a pipe in her mouth, - looking on. To treat her in this state was hopeless. She was - to be removed. There was a press of work at the hospital, and - a delay. When the carriers came, her saturated garments were - stripped off, and in the finer linen and in the blankets of a - wealthier woman she was borne away, and in the hospital she - died.” - -This is given, it would seem, as but one case among hundreds. - -Three old cattle-sheds were turned into a sort of impromptu hospital, to -which some of the smallpox and cholera patients were carried, and the -clergy, especially Mr. Charles Marriott and Mr. Venables, did all they -could for old and young alike, seconding the doctors, with Sir Henry -at their head, in cheering and helping every one in the stricken town; -and Miss Skene’s friend, Miss Hughes, Sister Marion, directed the women -called in to help, who there received a kind of rough-and-ready training. -But more overwhelming still was Miss Skene’s own work of home nursing -in the cottages, at first single-handed, and afterwards at the head of -a band of women engaged by the deputy chairman as her servants in the -work, of whom many were ignorant and needed training. “By day and by -night she visited,” writes Sir Henry. “She plied this task, and when she -rested—or where as long at least as she knew of a house where disease had -entered—is known to herself alone.” - -Meanwhile a critical moment had arisen in the affairs of Europe. Our -own Premier, Lord Aberdeen, had long been regarded as the very head and -front of the Peace Movement in England, and when he succeeded the wary -Lord Palmerston, it is said that Nicholas, the Czar of Russia, made no -secret of his pleasure in the event, for he saw tokens in England of -what might at least leave him a chance of pulling Turkey to pieces. -He seems also to have had a great personal liking for our ambassador, -Sir Hamilton Seymour, who was fortunately a man of honour as well as a -man of discretion and ready wit. The account given by Kinglake of the -conversations in which the Emperor Nicholas disclosed his views, and -was not permitted to hint them merely, makes very dramatic reading. The -Czar persisted in speaking of Turkey as a very sick man, whose affairs -had better be taken out of his hands by his friends before his final -dissolution. Sir Hamilton courteously intimated that England did not -treat her allies in that manner; but Nicholas was not to be put off, and -at a party given by the Grand Duchess Hereditary on February 20, 1853, he -again took Sir Hamilton apart, and in a very gracious and confidential -manner closed his conversation with the words, “I repeat to you that the -sick man is dying, and we can never allow such an event to take us by -surprise. We must come to some understanding.” - -The next day he explained how the partition should in his opinion -be made. Servia and Bulgaria should be independent states under his -protection. England should have Egypt and Candia. He had already made -it clear that he should expect us to pledge ourselves not to occupy -Constantinople, though he could not himself give us a like undertaking. - -“As I did not wish,” writes Sir Hamilton Seymour, “that the Emperor -should imagine that an English public servant was caught by this sort -of overture, I simply answered that I had always understood that the -English views upon Egypt did not go beyond the point of securing a safe -and ready communication between British India and the mother country. -‘Well,’ said the Emperor, ‘induce your Government to write again upon -these subjects, to write more fully, and to do so without hesitation. I -have confidence in the English Government. It is not an engagement, a -convention, which I ask of them; it is a free interchange of ideas, and -in case of need the word of a “gentleman”—that is enough between us.’” - -In reply, our Government disclaimed all idea of aiming at any of the -Sultan’s possessions, or considering the Ottoman Empire ready to fall to -bits; and while accepting the Emperor’s word that he would not himself -grab any part of it, refused most decisively to enter on any secret -understanding. - -All through 1853 these parleyings were kept secret, and in the meantime -the Czar had failed in his rôle of tempter. In the interval the Sultan, -who perhaps had gained some inkling of what was going on, suddenly -yielded to Austria’s demand that he should withdraw certain troops that -had been harassing Montenegro, and thereby rousing the Czar’s religious -zeal on behalf of his co-religionists in that province. Everything for -the moment lulled his previous intention of a war against Turkey. - -But the Emperor Louis Napoleon had in cold blood been driving a wedge -into the peace of the world by reviving a treaty of 1740, which had given -to Latin monks a key to the chief door of the Church of Bethlehem, as -well as the keys to the two doors of the Sacred Manger, and also the -right to place a silver star adorned with the arms of France in the -Sanctuary of the Nativity. That the Churches should fight for the key to -the supposed birthplace of the Prince of Peace is indeed grotesque. But -the old temple had in His day become a den of thieves; and even the new -temple, built through His own loving sacrifice, is ever being put to uses -that are childish and greedy. - -It is not difficult to understand that, by means of this treaty, -awakening the vanity and greed that cloak themselves under more decent -feelings in such rivalries, Louis Napoleon made his profit for the -moment out of the powers of evil. - -The Czar’s jealousy for his own empire’s Greek version of the faith made -the triumph of this treaty wormwood to him and to his people. “To the -indignation,” Count Nesselrode writes, “of the whole people following the -Greek ritual, the key of the Church of Bethlehem has been made over to -the Latins, so as publicly to demonstrate their religious supremacy in -the East.” ... - - “A crowd of monks with bare foreheads,” says Kinglake, “stood - quarrelling for a key at the sunny gates of a church in - Palestine, but beyond and above, towering high in the misty - North, men saw the ambition of the Czars.” - -The Czars did not stand alone: “some fifty millions of men in Russia held -one creed, and they held it too with the earnestness of which Western -Europe used to have experience in earlier times.... They knew that in the -Turkish dominions there were ten or fourteen millions of men holding -exactly the same faith as themselves ... they had heard tales of the -sufferings of these their brethren which seemed,” they blindly thought, -“to call for vengeance.” - -Nicholas himself was a fanatic on such questions, and the end of it -was that his rage hoodwinked his conscience, and he stole a march upon -England and France, which destroyed their trust in his honour. He had -already gathered troops in the south, to say nothing of a fleet in the -Euxine; and having determined on an embassy to Constantinople, he chose -Mentschikoff as his messenger, a man who was said to hate the Turks and -dislike the English, and who, according to Kinglake, was a wit rather -than a diplomat or a soldier. Advancing with much of the pomp of war, and -disregarding much of the etiquette of peace, his arrival and behaviour -caused such a panic in the Turkish capital that Colonel Rose was besought -to take an English fleet to the protection of the Ottoman Empire. -Colonel Rose’s friendly willingness, though afterwards cancelled by our -Home Government, at once quieted the terror in Constantinople; but the -Emperor of the French cast oil upon the smouldering flame by sending a -fleet to Salamis. This greatly angered Nicholas, and, although he was -pleased to find England disapproved of what France had done, Mentschikoff -offered a secret treaty to Turkey, with ships and men, if she ever needed -help, and asked in return for complete control of the Greek Church. This -broke all his promises to the Western Powers, and England at once was -made aware of it by the Turkish minister. - -Prince Mentschikoff meanwhile drew to himself an army, and the English -Vice-consul at Galatz reported that in Bessarabia preparations were -already made for the passage of 120,000 men, while battalions from all -directions were making southward—the fleet was even then at Sebastopol. - -[Illustration: Florence Nightingale. - -(_From the painting in the National Portrait Gallery by Augustus Egg, -R.A._)] - -The double-dealing of Russia was met by a gradual and tacit alliance -between England and the Sultan; and Lord Aberdeen, whose love of peace -has been described by one historian as “passionate” and “fanatical,” was -unknowingly tying his own hands by the advice he gave in his despatches -when consulted by Turkey. Moreover, in Turkey, our ambassador, Lord -Stratford de Redcliffe, stiffened the back of Ottoman resistance against -the Czar’s wily handling of “the sick man.” Lord Stratford’s tact and -force of character had moulded all to his will, and our admiral at Malta -was told to obey any directions he received from him. Our fleets were -ordered into the neighbourhood of the Dardanelles, and Lord Stratford -held his watch at Therapia against the gathering wrath of the Czar. Only -a very little kindling touch was needed to light the fires of a terrible -conflict in Europe. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - _Pastor Fliedner._ - - -A pebble thrown into a lake sends the tiny circling ripples very far, -and one good piece of work leads to others of a quite different kind. -Pastor Fliedner, inspired by love to his Master and deeply interested -in Elizabeth Fry’s efforts, began to help prisoners. Finding no nurses -for those of them who were ill, he was led to found the institution at -Kaiserswerth, where Miss Nightingale afterwards received a part of her -training. - -His story is a beautiful one. His father and grandfather had both been -pastors in the Lutheran Church, and, like so many sons of the Manse, he -was exceedingly poor, but he lived to justify his name of Theodor. He was -born twenty years before Miss Nightingale, in the village of Eppstein, -and perhaps he was the more determined to prove to himself and others -that he had a soul, because he was one of those plump children who -get teased for looking like dumplings, and when his father laughingly -called him the “little beer-brewer” he didn’t like it, for he was a bit -thin-skinned. He worked his way bravely through school and college, -Giessen and Göttingen, and not only earned his fees by teaching, but also -his bread and roof; and when teaching was not enough, he had the good -sense to turn shoeblack and carpenter and odd man. He valued all that -opens the eyes of the mind and educates what is highest and best. Many -a time, heedless of hardship and privation, he would, in his holidays, -tramp long distances that he might see more of God’s world and learn -more of men and things. He taught himself in this way to speak several -languages, learned the useful healing properties of many herbs, and -other homely knowledge that afterwards helped him in his work among the -sick. Then, too, the games and songs that he picked up on his travels -afterwards enriched his own kindergarten. While tutoring at Cologne, -he did quite informally some of the work of a curate, and, through -preaching sometimes in the prison, became interested in the lot of -discharged prisoners. It was at Cologne too that he received from the -mother of his pupils kindly suggestions as to his own manners, which -led him to write what is as true as it is quaint, that “gentle ways and -polite manners help greatly to further the Kingdom of God.” - -He was only twenty-two when he became pastor of the little Protestant -flock at Kaiserswerth, having walked there on foot and purposely taken -his parishioners by surprise that they might not be put to the expense -of a formal welcome. His yearly salary was only twenty pounds, and he -helped his widowed mother by sharing the parsonage with a sister and two -younger brothers, though in any case he had to house the mother of the -man who had been there before him. Then came a failure in the business -of the little town—the making of velvet—and though there were other rich -communities that would have liked to claim him, he was true to his own -impoverished flock, and set forth like a pilgrim in search of aid for -them. In this apostolic journey he visited Holland and England as well -as Germany, and it was in London that, in Elizabeth Fry, he found a noble -kindred spirit, much older, of course, than himself, as we count the time -of earth, but still full of all the tender enthusiasm of love’s immortal -youth. Her wonderful work among the prisoners of Newgate sent him back to -his own parish all on fire to help the prisoners of his own country, and -he began at once with Düsseldorf, the prison nearest home. Through him -was founded the first German organization for improving the discipline of -prisons. - -Most of all he wanted to help the women who on leaving the prison doors -were left without roof or protector. - -With his own hands he made clean his old summer-house, and in this -shelter—twelve feet square—which he had furnished with a bed, a chair, -and a table, he asked the All-father to lead some poor outcast to the -little home he had made for her. - -It was at night that for the first time a poor forlorn creature came -in answer to that prayer, and he and his wife led her in to the place -prepared for her. Nine others followed, and, by the time the number had -risen to twenty, a new building was ready for them with its own field and -garden, and Fliedner’s wife, helped by Mademoiselle Gobel, who gave her -services “all for love and nothing for reward,” had charge of the home, -where many a one who, like the woman in the Gospel, “had been a great -sinner” began to lead a new life and to follow Christ. - -For the children of some of these women a kindergarten arose; but the -work of all others on which the pastor’s heart was set was the training -of women to nurse and tend the poor; for in his own parish, where there -was much illness and ignorance, there was no one to do this. Three years -after his earlier venture, in 1836 when Miss Nightingale in her far-away -home was a girl of sixteen still more or less in the schoolroom, this new -undertaking was begun, this quiet haven, from which her own great venture -long afterwards took help and teaching, was built up by this German saint. - -The failure of the velvet industry at Kaiserswerth, in the pastor’s -first year, had left an empty factory which he turned into a hospital. - -But when it was opened, the faith needed was much like the faith of -Abraham when great blessing was promised to a son whom the world thought -he would never possess; for the Deaconess Hospital, when the wards were -fitted up by its pastor with “mended furniture and cracked earthenware,” -had as yet no patients and no deaconesses. - -There is, however, one essential of a good hospital which can be bought -by labour as well as by money; and by hard work the hospital was kept -admirably clean. - -The first patient who knocked at its doors was a servant girl, and -other patients followed so quickly that within the first year sixty -patients were nursed there and seven nurses had entered as deaconess and -probationers. All the deaconesses were to be over twenty-five, and though -they entered for five years, they could leave at any moment. The code -of rules drawn up by the pastor was very simple, and there were not any -vows; but the form of admission was a solemn one and included the laying -on of hands, while the pastor invoked the Threefold Name, saying: “May -God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, three Persons in one God, -bless you; may He stablish you in the Truth until death, and give you -hereafter the Crown of Life. Amen.” - -It all had a kind of homely grace, even in outward things. The -deaconesses wore a large white turned-down collar over a blue cotton -gown, a white muslin cap tied on under the chin with a large bow, and a -white apron—a dress so well suited to the work that young and old both -looked more than usually sweet and womanly in it. - -The story of how the deaconesses found a head, and Fliedner a second -helper after the death of his first wife, reads rather like a Hans -Andersen fairy tale. - -He travelled to Hamburg to ask Amalie Sievekin to take charge of the -Home, and as she could not do so, she advised him to go to her friend and -pupil Caroline Berthean, who had had experience of nursing in the Hamburg -Hospital. - -The pastor was so pleased with Miss Caroline that he then and there -offered her the choice of becoming either his wife or the Superintendent -of the Deaconesses’ Home. - -She said she would fill _both_ the vacant places, and their honeymoon was -spent in Berlin that they might “settle” the first five deaconesses in -the Charité Hospital. - -Caroline, young though she was, made a good Deaconess Mother,[4] and she -seems also to have been an excellent wife, full of devotion to the work -her husband loved, through all the rest of her life. The deaconesses give -their work, and in a sense give themselves. They do not pay for their -board, but neither are they paid for their work, though they are allowed -a very simple yearly outfit of two cotton gowns and aprons, and every -five years a new _best_ dress of blue woollen material and an apron of -black alpaca. Also their outdoor garb of a long black cloak and bonnet -is supplied to them, and each is allowed a little pocket money. Their -private property remains their own to control as they please, whether -they live or die. - -The little account of Kaiserswerth which Miss Nightingale wrote is most -rare and precious, having long been out of print, but from the copy in -the British Museum I transfer a few sentences to these pages, because of -their quaintness and their interest for all who are feeling their way in -the education of young children:— - - “In the Orphan Asylum,” wrote Miss Nightingale, “each family - lives with its deaconess exactly as her children. Some of - them have already become deaconesses or teachers, some have - returned home. When a new child is admitted, a little feast - celebrates its arrival, at which the pastor himself presides, - who understands children so well that his presence, instead of - being a constraint, serves to make the little new-comer feel - herself at home. She chooses what is to be sung, she has a - little present from the pastor, and, after tea, at the end of - the evening, she is prayed for.... - - “One morning, in the boys’ ward, as they were about to have - prayers, just before breakfast, two of the boys quarrelled - about a hymn book. The ‘sister’ was uncertain, for a moment, - what to do. They could not pray in that state of mind, yet - excluding them from the prayer was not likely to improve them. - She told a story of her own childhood, how one night she had - been cross with her parents, and, putting off her prayers till - she felt good again, had fallen asleep. The children were quite - silent for a moment and shocked at the idea that anybody should - go to bed without praying. The two boys were reconciled, and - prayers took place....” - -In the British Museum also is a copy of the following letter:— - - “MESSRS. DUBAW,—A gentleman called here yesterday from you, - asking for a copy of my ‘Kaiserswerth’ for, I believe, the - British Museum. - - “Since yesterday a search has been instituted—but only two - copies have been found, and one of those is torn and dirty. I - send you the least bad-looking. You will see the date is 1851, - and after the copies then printed were given away I don’t think - I have ever thought of it. - - “I was twice in training there myself. Of course, since then - hospital and district nursing have made great strides. Indeed, - district nursing has been invented. - - “But never have I met with a higher love, a purer devotion than - there. There was no neglect. - - “It was the more remarkable because many of the deaconesses had - been only peasants (none were gentlewomen when I was there). - - “The food was poor—no coffee but bean coffee—no luxury but - cleanliness. - - “FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.” - - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - _Years of preparation._ - - -Florence Nightingale, like Felicia Skene, had that saving gift of humour -which at times may make bearable an otherwise unbearable keenness of -vision. - -Here, for instance, is her account of the customary dusting of a room -in those days (is it always nowadays so entirely different as might be -wished?):— - - “Having witnessed the morning process called ‘tidying the - room’ for many years, and with ever-increasing astonishment, - I can describe what it is. From the chairs, tables, or sofa, - upon which ‘things’ have lain during the night, and which are - therefore comparatively clean from dust or blacks, the poor - ‘things’ having ‘caught it,’ they are removed to other chairs, - tables, sofas, upon which you could write your name with your - finger in the dust or blacks. The other side of the things is - therefore now evenly dirtied or dusted. The housemaid then - flaps everything or some things not out of her reach with a - thing called a duster—the dust flies up, then resettles more - equally than it lay before the operation. The room has now been - ‘put to rights.’” - -You see the shrewd humour of that observation touches the smallest -detail. Miss Nightingale never wasted time in unpractical theorizing. In -discussing the far-off attainment of ideal nursing she says:— - - “Will the top of Mont Blanc ever be made habitable? Our answer - would be, it will be many thousands of years before we have - reached the bottom of Mont Blanc in making the earth healthy. - Wait till we have reached the bottom before we discuss the top.” - -Did she with her large outlook and big heart see our absurdity as -well as our shame when, pointing a finger of scorn at what we named -the superstition of other countries, we were yet content to see Spain -and France and Italy sending out daily, in religious service to the -poor, whole regiments of gentle and refined women trained in the arts -of healing and the methods of discipline, while even in our public -institutions—our hospitals and workhouses and prisons—it would hardly -have been an exaggeration to say that most of the so-called “nurses” of -those days were but drunken sluts? - -She herself has said:— - - “Shall the Roman Catholic Church do all the work? Has not the - Protestant the same Lord, who accepted the services not only of - men, but also of women?” - -One saving clause there is for England concerning this matter in the -history of that time, in the work of a distinguished member of the -Society of Friends, even before Florence Nightingale or Felicia Skene -had been much heard of. We read that “the heavenly personality of -Elizabeth Fry (whom Miss Nightingale sought out and visited) was an -ever-present inspiration in her life.” From Elizabeth Fry our heroine -heard of Pastor Fliedner’s training institute for nurses at Kaiserswerth, -already described in the foregoing chapter; but, before going there, -she took in the meantime a self-imposed course of training in Britain, -visiting the hospitals in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, though, so far -as the nursing was concerned, the criticisms in her own _Nursing Notes_ -of later years would certainly suggest that what she learned was chiefly -what _not_ to do. Her gracious and winning dignity was far indeed from -the blindness of a weak amiability, and it can hardly be doubted that -what she saw of the so-called “nurses” in our hospitals of those days, -went far to deepen her resolve to devote herself to a calling then in -dire neglect and disrepute. Dirt, disorder, drunkenness—these are the -words used by a trustworthy biographer in describing the ways of English -nurses in those days—of whom, indeed, we are told that they were of a -very coarse order—ill-trained, hard-hearted, immoral. There must surely -have been exceptions, but they seem to have been so rare as to have -escaped notice. Indeed, it was even said that in those days—so strong -and stupefying is the force of custom—decent girls avoided this noble -calling, fearing to lose their character if found in its ranks. - -But whatever were Florence Nightingale’s faults—and she was by no means -so inhuman as to be without faults—conventionality of thought and action -certainly cannot be counted among them; and what she saw of the poor -degraded souls who waited on the sick in our hospitals did but strengthen -her resolve to become a nurse herself. - -Since she found no good school of nursing in England, she went abroad, -and visited, among other places, the peaceful old hospital of St. John -at Bruges, where the nuns are cultivated and devoted women who are well -skilled in the gentle art of nursing. - -To city after city she went, taking with her not only her gift of -discernment, but also that open mind and earnest heart which made of her -life-offering so world-wide a boon. - -I do not think I have used too strong a word of the gift she was -preparing. For the writer of an article which appeared in _Nursing -Notes_[5] was right when, at the end of Miss Nightingale’s life, she -wrote of her:— - - “Miss Nightingale belongs to that band of the great ones of - the earth who may be acclaimed as citizens of the world; her - influence has extended far beyond the limits of the nation to - which she owed her birth, and in a very special sense she will - be the great prototype for all time to those who follow more - especially in her footsteps, in the profession she practically - created. We must ever be grateful for the shining example she - has given to nurses, who in her find united that broad-minded - comprehension of the ultimate aim of all their work, with a - patient and untiring devotion to its practical detail, which - alone combine to make the perfect nurse.” - -But as yet she was only humbly and diligently preparing herself for the -vocation to which she had determined, in face of countless obstacles, to -devote herself, little knowing how vast would be the opportunities given -to her when once she was ready for the work. - -During the winter and spring of 1849-50 she made a long tour through -Egypt with Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge. On her way there she met in Paris -two Sisters of the Order of St. Vincent de Paul, from whom she took -introductions to the schools and “miséricorde” in Alexandria. There she -saw the fruits of long and self-denying discipline among the Nursing -Sisters, and in the following year she visited Pastor Fliedner’s -Institute at Kaiserswerth, where, among Protestant deaconesses, the life -of ordered simplicity and service showed some of the same virtues. - -Miss Nightingale’s first visit to Kaiserswerth was comparatively short, -but in the following year, 1852, she went there again and took four -months of definite training, from June to October. - -A deep and warm regard seems to have arisen between the Fliedners and -their English pupil, and the pastor’s friendship for Miss Nightingale’s -revered counsellor, Elizabeth Fry, must have been one pleasant link in -the happy bond. - -Fliedner was certainly a wonderful man, and Miss Nightingale’s comment on -the spirit of his work was as true as it was witty. “Pastor Fliedner,” -she said, “began his work with two beds under a roof, not with a castle -in the air, and Kaiserswerth is now diffusing its blessings and its -deaconesses over almost every Protestant land.” This was literally true. -Within ten years of founding Kaiserswerth he had established sixty -nurses in twenty-five different centres. Later he founded a Mother-house -on Mount Zion at Jerusalem, having already settled some of his nurses -at Pittsburg in the United States. The building for the Jerusalem -Mother-house was given by the King of Prussia, and, nursing all sick -people, without any question of creed, is a school of training for nurses -in the East. - -Alexandria, Beyrout, Smyrna, Bucharest—he visited them all, and it is due -to his efforts nearer home that to-day in almost all German towns of any -importance there is a Deaconess Home, sending out trained women to nurse -in middle-class families at very moderate fees, and ready to nurse the -poor without any charge at all. - -When, in 1864, “he passed to his glorious rest”—the words are Miss -Nightingale’s—there were already one hundred such houses, and during part -of Miss Nightingale’s visit to Kaiserswerth, Pastor Fliedner was away a -good deal on the missionary journeys which spread the Deaconess Homes -through Germany, but they met quite often enough for each to appreciate -the noble character of the other. In all his different kinds of work for -helping the poor she was eagerly interested, and it may be that some of -her wise criticisms of district visiting in later years may have been -suggested by the courtesy and good manners that ruled the visiting of -poor homes at Kaiserswerth in which she shared. It was there also that -she made warm friendship with Henrietta Frickenhaus, in whose training -college at Kaiserswerth 400 pupils had already passed muster. It should -be added that Henrietta Frickenhaus was the first schoolmistress of -Kaiserswerth. - -Mr. Sidney Herbert visited Kaiserswerth while Miss Nightingale was there, -and when, in the great moment that came afterwards, he asked her to go -out to the Crimea, he knew well how detailed and definite her training -had been. - -Pastor Fliedner’s eldest daughter told Mrs. Tooley how vividly she -recalled her father’s solemn farewell blessing when Miss Nightingale was -leaving Kaiserswerth; laying his hands on her bent head and, with eyes -that seemed to look beyond the scene that lay before him, praying that -she might be stablished in the Truth till death, and receive the Crown of -Life. - -And even mortal eyes may read a little of how those prayers for her -future were fulfilled. - -She left vivid memories. “No one has ever passed so brilliant an -examination,” said Fliedner, “or shown herself so thoroughly mistress of -all she had to learn, as the young, wealthy, and graceful Englishwoman.” -Agnes Jones, who was trained there before her work in Liverpool left a -memorable record of life spent in self-denying service, tells how the -workers at Kaiserswerth longed to see Miss Nightingale again, how her -womanliness and lovableness were remembered, and how among the sick -people were those who even in dying blessed her for having led them to -the Redeemer; for throughout her whole life her religion was the very -life of her life, as deep as it was quiet, the underlying secret of -that compassionate self-detachment and subdued fire, without which her -wit and shrewdness would have lost their absolving glow and underlying -tenderness. Hers was ever the gentleness of strength, not the easy -bending of the weak. She was a pioneer among women, and did much to break -down the cruel limitations which, in the name of affection and tradition, -hemmed in the lives of English girls in those days. Perhaps she was among -the first of that day in England to realize that the Christ, her Master, -who sent Mary as His first messenger of the Resurrection, was in a fine -sense of the word “unconventional,” even though He came that every jot -and tittle of religious law might be _spiritually_ fulfilled. - -It was after her return to England from Germany that she published her -little pamphlet on Kaiserswerth, from which quotations have already been -given. - -Her next visit was to the Convent of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris, -where the nursing was a part of the long-established routine, and while -there she was able to visit the hospitals in Paris, and learned much -from the Sisters in their organized work among the houses of the poor. -In the midst of all this she was herself taken ill, and was nursed -by the Sisters. Her direct and personal experience of their tender -skill no doubt left its mark upon her own fitness. On her return home -to complete her recovery, her new capacity and knowledge made a good -deal of delighted talk in the cottages, and Mrs. Tooley tells us how -it was rumoured that “Miss Florence could set a broken leg better than -a doctor,” and made the old rheumatic folk feel young again with her -remedies, to say nothing of her “eye lotions,” which “was enough to ruin -the spectacle folk.” She was always ahead of her time in her belief in -simple rules of health and diet and hatred of all that continual use -of drugs which was then so much in fashion, and she no doubt saw many -interesting experiments at Matlock Bank in helping Nature to do her own -work. - -[Illustration: Florence Nightingale in 1854. - -(_From a drawing by H. M. B. C._)] - -As soon as her convalescence was over she visited London hospitals, and -in the autumn of 1852 those of Edinburgh and Dublin, having spent a part -of the interval in her home at Embley, where she had again the pleasure -of being near her friends the Herberts, with whose neighbourly work among -the poor she was in fullest sympathy. - -Her first post was at the Harley Street Home for Sick Governesses. She -had been interested in many kinds of efforts on behalf of those who -suffer; Lord Shaftesbury’s Ragged School labours, for instance, had -appealed to her, and to that and other like enterprises she had given -the money earned by her little book on Kaiserswerth. But she always had -in view the one clear and definite aim—to fit herself in every possible -way for competent nursing. It was on August 12, 1853, that she became -Superintendent of the Harley Street institution, which is now known -as the Florence Nightingale Hospital. It was founded in 1850 by Lady -Canning, as a Home for Invalid Gentlewomen, and when an appeal was made -to Miss Nightingale for money and good counsel, she gave in addition -_herself_ and became for a time the Lady Superintendent. - -The hospital was intended mainly for sick governesses, for whom the need -of such a home of rest and care and surgical help had sometimes arisen, -but it had been mismanaged and was in danger of becoming a failure. There -Miss Nightingale, we read, was to be found “in the midst of various -duties of a hospital—for the Home was largely a sanatorium—organizing the -nurses, attending to the correspondence, prescriptions, and accounts; in -short, performing all the duties of a hard-working matron, as well as -largely financing the institution.” - - “The task of dealing with sick and querulous women,” says - Mrs. Tooley, “embittered and rendered sensitive and exacting - by the unfortunate circumstances of their lives, was not an - easy one, but Miss Nightingale had a calm and cheerful spirit - which could bear with the infirmities of the weak. And so she - laboured on in the dull house in Harley Street, summer and - winter, bringing order and comfort out of a wretched chaos, and - proving a real friend and helper to the sick and sorrow-laden - women. - - “At length the strain proved too much for her delicate body, - and she was compelled most reluctantly to resign her task.” - -She had worked very hard, and was seldom seen outside the walls of the -house in Harley Street. Though she was not there very long, the effect -of her presence was great and lasting, and the Home, which has now moved -to Lisson Grove, has increased steadily in usefulness, though it has -of necessity changed its lines a little, because the High Schools and -the higher education of women have opened new careers and lessened the -number of governesses, especially helpless governesses. It gives aid far -and wide to the daughters and other kindred of hard-worked professional -men, men who are serving the world with their brains, and nobly seeking -to give work and service of as good a kind as lies within their power, -rather than to snatch at its exact value in coin, even if that were -possible—and in such toil as theirs, whether they be teachers, artists, -parsons, or themselves doctors, it is _not_ possible; for such work -cannot be weighed in money. - -Queen Alexandra is President, and last year 301 patients were treated, -besides the 16 who were already within its walls when the new year began. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - _The beginning of the war—A sketch of Sidney Herbert._ - - -It was on April 11, 1854, that war was declared by Russia, and four days -later the invasion of the Ottoman Empire began. England and France were -the sworn allies of Turkey, and though the war had begun with a quarrel -about “a key and a trinket,” the key and the trinket were, after all, -symbols, just as truly as the flags for which men lay down their lives. - -England had entrusted the cause of peace to those faithful lovers of -peace, Lord Aberdeen, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Cobden, and Mr. Bright; but no -single man in our “constitutional” Government is in reality a free agent, -and the peace-loving members of the Cabinet had been skilfully handled -by the potent Lord Palmerston, and did not perceive soon enough that the -understanding with Turkey and with France, into which they had drifted, -must endanger the peace of Europe because the other Powers were ignored. -If the English people had been secretly longing for war—and it is said -that they had—then the terrible cup they had desired was to be drunk to -the lees: the war on which they were entering was a war of agony and -shame, a war in which men died by hundreds of neglect and mismanagement, -before a woman’s hand could reach the helm and reform the hospital -ordinances in the ship of State. - -Meanwhile, before we plunge into the horrors of the Crimean War we may -rest our minds with a few pages about Miss Nightingale’s friend, Mr. -Sidney Herbert, who became an active and self-sacrificing power in the -War Office. - -When Florence Nightingale was born, Sidney Herbert—afterwards Lord -Herbert of Lea—was already a boy of ten. - -Those who know the outlook over the Thames, from the windows of Pembroke -Lodge at Richmond, will realize that he too, like Florence Nightingale, -was born in a very beautiful spot. His father, the eleventh Earl of -Pembroke, had married the daughter of Count Woronzow, the Russian -Ambassador, and, in Sidney’s knowledgeable help afterwards at the War -Office during the Crimean War, it is not without interest to remember -this. - -His birth had not been expected so soon, and there were no baby clothes -handy at Pembroke Lodge, where his mother was staying. It would seem -that shops were not so well able to supply every need with a ready-made -garment as they are in these days; so the first clothes that the baby boy -wore were lent by the workhouse until his own were ready. - -In later days, when he cared for the needs of all who crossed his path, -until his people feared—or pretended to fear—that he would give away all -he had, his mother used to say that workhouse clothes were the first he -had worn after his birth, and were also clearly those in which he would -die. - -He had good reason to rejoice in his lineage, for he was descended from -the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, after whom he was named. He too, like -his great namesake, was all his life full of that high courtesy which -comes of loving consideration for others rather than for self, and is -never more charming than in those who, being in every sense “well-born,” -have seen it in their fathers, and in their fathers before them, -notwithstanding that in those others who, less fortunate, whether they be -rich or poor, having come of an ill brood, are yet themselves well-bred, -such courtesy is of the courts of heaven. - -The boy’s father had much individuality. Being the owner of some thirty -villages, and lord-lieutenant of the county, he was naturally a great -magnate in Wiltshire. He was very fond of dogs, and his favourites among -them sat at his own table, each with its own chair and plate. - -Sidney was almost like an only son at home, for his elder brother, -who was, of course, the heir to Lord Herbert’s patrimony, had married -unhappily and lived abroad. - -The little boy seems to have been really rather like the little angels -in Italian pictures, a child with golden curls and big brown eyes, with -the look of love and sunshine gleaming out of them that he kept all his -life, and there is a letter of his mother’s, describing a children’s -fancy dress ball, at which she dressed him up as a little cupid, with -wings and a wreath of roses, and was very proud of the result. He was -either too little to mind, or if he hated it, as so many boys would, -he bore with it to please his mother, who, we are told, made as much -of an idol of him as did the rest of his family. And indeed it is most -wonderful, from all accounts, that he was not completely spoiled. Here is -his mother’s letter about it:— - - “I never did see anything half so like an angel. I must say - so, although it was my own performance. He had on a garland of - roses and green leaves mixed; a pair of wild duck’s wings, put - on wire to make them set well; a bow and arrow, and a quiver - with arrows in it, tied on with a broad blue ribbon that went - across his sweet neck.” - -In another of her letters we are told of a visit paid, about this time, -to Queen Charlotte, and how the child “Boysey” climbed into the Queen’s -lap, drew up and pulled down window-blinds, romped at hide-and-seek with -the Duke of Cambridge, and showed himself to be not in the slightest -degree abashed by the presence of royalty. - -Lord Fitzwilliam, a friend and distant relation, used often to stay at -Pembroke Lodge and at Wilton, and seems to have been pleased by the boy’s -courteous ways and winning looks; for, having no children of his own, -when he left most of his property to Lord Pembroke, the “remainder,” -which meant big estates in Ireland and Shropshire, was to go to his -second son, Sidney. - -The boy loved his father with a very special intimacy and tenderness, as -we see by a letter written soon after he left Harrow and a little while -before he went up to Oxford, where at Oriel he at once made friends with -men of fine character and sterling worth. His father had died in 1827, -and he writes from Chilmark, where the rector, Mr. Lear, was his tutor, -and the Rectory was near his own old home at Wilton:— - - “You cannot think how comfortable it is to be in a nice little - country church after that great noisy chapel. Everything is - so quiet and the people all so attentive that you might hear - a pin fall while Mr. Lear is preaching. I like, too, being so - near Wilton, so many things here ever bringing to mind all _he_ - said and did, all places where I have ridden with _him_, and - the home where we used to be so happy. In short, there is not - a spot about Wilton now which I do not love as if it were a - person. I hope you will be coming there soon and get it over, - for seeing that place again will be a dreadful trial to you.” - -Among his friends at Oxford were Cardinal Manning, Lord Lincoln, who -as Duke of Newcastle was afterwards closely associated with him at the -War Office; Lord Elgin, Lord Dalhousie, and Lord Canning, all three -Viceroys of India. It was there, too, that his friendship with Mr. -Gladstone began. Lord Stanmore says that Mr. Gladstone told him a year -or two before his death how one day at a University Convocation dealing -with a petition against the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, to which he -had himself gone as an undergraduate outsider, he had noticed among the -crowd of undergraduates in the vestibule of the Convocation House “a tall -and graceful figure, surmounted by a face of such singular sweetness -and refinement that his attention was at once riveted by it, and with -such force that the picture he then saw rose again as vividly before him -while talking as when first seen sixty-eight years before.” Mr. Gladstone -inquired the name of this attractive freshman. “Herbert of Oriel,” was -the answer. They became friends; but in those days friendships between -men of different colleges and different ages were not always easily kept -up. The more intimate relations between himself and Herbert date only -from a later time. - -Herbert’s noble and beautiful life was to be closely intertwined with -that of his little friend and neighbour, in one of those friendships—holy -in their unselfish ardour of comradeship and service of others—which put -to shame many of the foolish sayings of the world, and prove that, while -an ideal marriage is the divinest happiness God gives to earthly life, an -ideal friendship also has the power to lift both joy and pain into the -region of heaven itself. - -This was a friendship which, as we shall see, arose in the first -instance partly out of the fact that the two children grew up on -neighbouring estates, and were both what Mrs. Tollemache has called -“Sunday people”—people with leisure to give to others, as well as wealth; -and at the end of Sidney Herbert’s life it was said that the following -description of Sir Philip Sidney, after whom he was named, was in every -particular a description of him:— - - “He was gentle, loving, compassionate, forgiving as a woman, - and yet had the dignity and valour of a man. His liberality was - so great that with him not to give was not to enjoy what he had. - - “In his familiarity with men he never descended, but raised - everybody to his own level. So modest, so humble was he, and so - inaccessible to flattery, that he esteemed not praise except as - an encouragement to further exertion in well-doing. His tongue - knew no deceit, and his mind no policy but frankness, courage, - and sincerity, and ... England has had greater statesmen, but - never so choice a union of the qualities which make a Sidney. - His fame is founded on those personal qualities of which his - contemporaries were the best judges, although they may not - leave a trace in books or in history.” - -And of both might it most emphatically have been said, as was said by Mr. -Gladstone of one of them: “Rare indeed—God only knows how rare—are men -with his qualities; but even a man with his qualities might not have been -so happy as to possess his opportunities. He had them, and he used them.” - -The story of his betraying a State secret to that other friend, who was -the original of “Diana of the Crossways,” is a myth which has been more -than once disproved, and of which his biographer says that any one who -knew him, or knew the real “Diana,” would have treated it with derision. - -But he was always ready to bear lightly undeserved blame, just as he took -it as of no account when credit that should have been his was rendered -elsewhere. Take, for instance, the warrant which relieved soldiers of -good conduct from the liability of punishment by flogging. He had worked -hard at this warrant, and it originated with him, although the Duke of -Cambridge supported him in it. But when one of his friends expressed -annoyance that the praise had come to the better-known man, he replied -impatiently: “What _does_ it matter who gets the credit so long as the -thing itself is done?” - -Nor did he ever seem to care about mere material reward, and he simply -could not understand the outcry of one useful servant of the State who, -when likely to be left out of office in prospective Cabinet arrangements, -exclaimed, “And pray what is to become of _me_?” - -With him, as with Miss Nightingale, giving was an untold and constant -joy, and he was able to be lavish because of his great personal economy -and self-denial. In all his beautiful home at Wilton, Lord Stanmore tells -us, his own were the only rooms that could have been called bare or -shabby, and when he was urged to buy a good hunter for himself, he had -spent too much on others to allow himself such a luxury. He delighted in -educating the sons of widows left by men of his own order without means. -“He maintained,” we read, “at one and the same time boys at Harrow, -Marlborough, and Woolwich, another in training for an Australian career, -and a fifth who was being educated for missionary work. And he expended -much in sending poor clergymen and their families to the seaside for a -month’s holiday.” And to gentlepeople who were poor we read that the help -of money “was given so delicately as to remove the burden of obligation. -A thousand little attentions in time of sickness or sorrow helped and -cheered them. In all these works his wife was his active coadjutor, -but” we read that “it was not till after his death that she was at all -aware of their extent, and even then not fully, so unostentatiously and -secretly were they performed. His sunny presence,” says his biographer, -“warmed and cheered all around him, and the charm of his conversation -made him the light and centre of any company of which he formed a -part.[6] There are, however, many men who are brilliant and joyous in -society, over whom a strange change comes when they cross their own -threshold. Sidney Herbert was never more brilliant, never more charming, -never more witty than when alone with his mother, his wife, his sisters, -or his children. - -“Nowhere was he seen to greater advantage than in his own home. He -delighted in country life, and took a keen and almost boyish interest in -its sports and pursuits, into the enjoyment of which he threw himself -with a zest and fulness not common among busy men ... a good shot, a bold -rider, and an expert fisherman, he was welcomed by the country gentlemen -as one of themselves, and to this he owed much of his great popularity in -his own country. But it was also due to the unfailing consideration shown -by him to those of every class around him, and the sure trust in his -responsive sympathy which was felt by all, high and low alike, dwelling -within many miles of Wilton. By all dependent on him, or in any way under -his orders, he was adored, and well deserved to be so. The older servants -were virtually members of his family, and he took much pains in seeing -to their interests, and helping their children to start well in the -world.” - -“Never,” says Lady Herbert, “did he come down to Wilton, if only for a -few days, without going to see Sally Parham, an old housemaid, who had -been sixty years in the family, and Larkum, an old carpenter of whom he -was very fond, and who on his death-bed gave him the most beautiful and -emphatic blessing I ever heard.” - -Of his splendid work in the War Office, and for our soldiers long after -he had laid aside War Office cares, we shall read in its due place. -Meanwhile we think of him for the present as Florence Nightingale’s -friend, and her neighbour when in the south, for his beautiful Wilton -home was quite near to her own home at Embley. - -Before the Crimean War began he was already giving his mind to army -reform, and while that war was in progress the horrors of insanitary -carelessness, as he saw them through Florence Nightingale’s letters, made -of him England’s greatest sanitary reformer in army matters, with the -single exception of Florence Nightingale herself. - -The two had from the first many tastes in common, and among those of -minor importance was their great affection for animals. He was as devoted -to his horse Andover as she had been to the little owl Athene, of which -her sister, Lady Verney, in an old MS. quoted by Sir Stuart Grant Duff, -gives the following pretty history:— - - “Bought for 6 lepta from some children into whose hands it had - dropped out of its nest in the Parthenon, it was brought by - Miss Nightingale to Trieste, with a slip of a plane from the - Ilissus and a cicala. At Vienna the owl ate the cicala and was - mesmerized, much to the improvement of his temper. At Prague - a waiter was heard to say that ‘this is the bird which all - English ladies carry with them, because it tells them when they - are to die.’ It came to England by Berlin, lived at Embley, - Lea Hurst, and in London, travelled in Germany, and stayed at - Carlsbad while its mistress was at Kaiserswerth. It died the - very day she was to have started for Scutari (her departure was - delayed two days), and the only tear that she had shed during - that tremendous week was when ⸺ put the little body into her - hand. ‘Poor little beastie,’ she said, ‘it was odd how much I - loved you.’” - -And we read that before his death, Lord Herbert with a like tenderness -bade a special farewell to his horse Andover, kissing him on the neck, -feeding him with sugar, and telling him he should never ride again. - -That was when he was already extremely ill, though not too ill to take -care that a young priest who was dying also, but too poor to buy all the -doctor had ordered, should be cared for out of his own purse. - -With him, as with Florence Nightingale, giving and helping seem to have -been unceasing. - -The friendship between them was very dear to both of them, and was warmly -shared by Lord Herbert’s wife. When they all knew that death was waiting -with a summons, and that Lord Herbert’s last journey abroad could have -but one ending, even though, as things turned out, he was to have just -a momentary glimpse of home again, Florence Nightingale was the last -friend to whom he bade farewell. But that was not till 1861, and in the -intervening years they worked incessantly together, for the good of the -army and the improvement of sanitary conditions. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - _The Crimean muddle—Explanations and excuses._ - - -In our last chapter we ended with a word about those sanitary reforms -which were yet to come. How appalling was the ignorance and confusion in -1854, when the war in the Crimea began, has now become matter of common -knowledge everywhere. - -I note later, as a result of my talk with General Evatt, some of the -reasons and excuses for the dire neglect and muddle that reigned. John -Bull was, as usual, so arrogantly sure of himself that he had—also as -usual—taken no sort of care to keep himself fit in time of peace, and -there was no central organizing authority for the equipment of the -army—every one was responsible, and therefore no one. The provisions -bought by contract were many of them rotten and mouldy, so cleverly had -the purchasers been deceived and defrauded. The clothing provided for -the men before Sebastopol, where, in at least one instance, man was -literally frozen to man, were such as would have been better suited to -India or South Africa. Many of the boots sent out were fitter for women -and children playing on green lawns than for the men who must tramp over -rough and icy roads. The very horses were left to starve for want of -proper hay. Proper medical provision there was none. There were doctors, -some of them nobly unselfish, but few of them trained for that particular -work. An army surgeon gets little practice in time of peace, and one -lady, a Red Cross nurse, told me that even in our South African campaign -the doctor with whom she did her first bit of bandaging out there told -her he had not bandaged an arm for fifteen years! But indeed many of the -doctors in the Crimea were not only badly prepared, they were also so -tied up with red-tape details that, though they gave their lives freely, -they quickly fell in with the helpless chaos of a hospital without a head. - -England shuddered to the heart when at last she woke up under the lash -of the following letter from William Howard Russell, the _Times_ war -correspondent:— - - “The commonest accessories of a hospital are wanting, there is - not the least attention paid to decency or cleanliness, the - stench is appalling ... and, for all I can observe, the men die - without the least effort to save them. There they lie just as - they were let gently down on the ground by the poor fellows, - the comrades, who brought them on their backs from the camp - with the greatest tenderness, but who are not allowed to remain - with them.” - - “Are there,” he wrote at a later date, “no devoted women among - us, able and willing to go forth and minister to the sick and - suffering soldiers of the East in the hospitals at Scutari? - Are none of the daughters of England, at this extreme hour of - need, ready for such a work of mercy?... France has sent forth - her Sisters of Mercy unsparingly, and they are even now by the - bedsides of the wounded and the dying, giving what woman’s hand - alone can give of comfort and relief.... Must we fall so far - below the French in self-sacrifice and devotedness, in a work - which Christ so signally blesses as done unto Himself? ‘I was - sick and ye visited me.’” - -What the art of nursing had fallen to in England may be guessed from the -fact lately mentioned to me by a great friend of Miss Nightingale’s, that -when Florence Nightingale told her family she would like to devote her -life to nursing, they said with a smile, “Are you sure you would not like -to be a kitchen-maid?” - -Yet the Nightingales were, on other questions, such as that of the -education of girls, far in advance of their time. - -Possibly nothing short of those letters to the _Times_, touching, as they -did, the very quick of the national pride, could have broken down the -“Chinese wall” of that particular prejudice. - -Something may be said at this point as to what had been at the -root of the dreadful condition of things in the hospitals before -Miss Nightingale’s arrival. I have had some instructive talk with -Surgeon-General Evatt, who knows the medical administration of our army -through and through, and whose friendship with Miss Nightingale arose in -a very interesting way, but will be mentioned later on in its due place. - -General Evatt has pointed out to me in conversation that what is still -a weakness of our great London hospitals, though lessened there by the -fierce light of public opinion that is ever beating upon them, was the -very source of the evil at Scutari. - -Such hospitals as the London, doing such magnificent work that it -deserves a thousand times the support it receives, are, explained General -Evatt, without any central authority. The doctors pay their daily visits -and their code is a high one, but they are as varied in ability and in -character as any other group of doctors, and are responsible to no one -but God and their own conscience. The nursing staff have _their_ duties -and _their_ code, but are under separate management. The committee -secures the funds and manages the finance, but it is again quite distinct -in its powers, and does not control either doctors or nurses. - -The Barrack Hospital at Scutari was, said the General, in this respect -just like a London hospital of sixty years ago, set down in the midst of -the Crimea. There was, he said—to adapt a well-known quotation—“knowledge -without authority, and authority without knowledge,” but no power to -unite them in responsible effort. Therefore we must feel deep pity, -not indignation, with regard to any one member of the staff; for each -alone was helpless against the chaos, until Miss Nightingale, who stood -outside the official muddle, yet with the friendship of a great War -Minister behind her, and in her hand all the powers of wealth, hereditary -influence, and personal charm, quietly cut some of the knots of red tape -which were, as she saw clearly, strangling the very lives of our wounded -soldiers. When I spoke of the miracle by which a woman who had been -all her life fitting herself for this work, had suddenly received her -world-wide opportunity, he replied: “Yes, I have often said it was as if -a very perfect machine had through long years been fitted together and -polished to the highest efficiency, and when, at last, it was ready for -service, a hand was put forth to accept and use it.” - -Just as he sought to explain the awful condition of the army hospitals -at the beginning of the war; so also he, as a military doctor, pointed -out to me that there were even many excuses for the condition of the -transport service, and the idiotic blunders of a government that sent -soldiers to the freezing winters of the Crimea in clothes that would have -been better suited to the hot climate of India. - -The army after the Peninsular War had been split up into battalions, and -had, like the hospitals, lost all _centre_ of authority. England had -been seething with the social troubles of our transition from the feudal -order to the new competitions and miseries of a commercial and mechanical -age. Machinery was causing uproar among the hand-workers. Chartist -riots, bread riots, were upsetting the customary peace. Troops were sent -hither and thither, scattered over the country, and allowed a certain -degree of licence and slackness. The army had no administrative head. -There was no one to consider the question of stores or transit, and, -even when the war broke out, it was treated with John Bull’s too casual -self-satisfaction as a moment of excitement and self-glorification, from -which our troops were to return as victors in October, after displaying -themselves for a few weeks and satisfactorily alarming the enemy. The -moral of it all is ever present and needs no pressing home. Not until -every man has had the training of a man in defence of his own home, and -is himself responsible for the defence of his own hearth, shall we as a -nation learn the humility and caution of the true courage, and realize -how much, at the best, is outside human control, and how great is our -responsibility in every detail for all that lies within it. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - “_Five were wise, and five foolish._” - - -When the great moment came, there was one wise virgin whose lamp had long -been trimmed and daily refilled with ever finer quality of flame. She was -not alone. There were others, and she was always among the first to do -them honour. But she stood easily first, and first, too, in the modesty -of all true greatness. All her life had been a training for the work -which was now given to her hand. - -Among the many women who longed to nurse and tend our soldiers, many were -fast bound by duties to those dependent on them, many were tied hand -and foot by the pettifogging prejudices of the school in which they had -been brought up. Many, whose ardour would have burned up all prejudice -and all secondary claim, were yet ignorant, weak, incapable. Florence -Nightingale, on the contrary, was highly trained, not only in intellect, -but in the details of what she rightly regarded as an art, “a craft,” -the careful art of nursing—highly disciplined in body and in soul, every -muscle and nerve obedient to her will, an international linguist, a woman -in whom organizing power had been developed to its utmost capacity by a -severely masculine education, and whose experience had been deepened by -practical service both at home and abroad. - -Her decision was a foregone conclusion, and a very striking seal was set -upon it. For the letter, in which she offered to go out to the Crimea -as the servant of her country, was crossed by a letter from Mr. Sidney -Herbert, that country’s representative at the War Office, asking her to -go. Promptitude on both sides had its own reward; for each would have -missed the honour of spontaneous initiative had there been a day’s delay. - -Here is a part of Mr. Herbert’s letter:— - - “_October 15, 1854._ - - “DEAR MISS NIGHTINGALE,—You will have seen in the papers - that there is a great deficiency of nurses at the hospital of - Scutari. The other alleged deficiencies, namely, of medical - men, lint, sheets, etc., must, if they ever existed, have - been remedied ere this, as the number of medical officers - with the army amounted to one to every ninety-five men in the - whole force, being nearly double what we have ever had before; - and thirty more surgeons went out there three weeks ago, and - must at this time, therefore, be at Constantinople. A further - supply went on Monday, and a fresh batch sail next week. As to - medical stores, they have been sent out in profusion, by the - ton weight—15,000 pair of sheets, medicine, wine, arrowroot in - the same proportion; and the only way of accounting for the - deficiency at Scutari, if it exists, is that the mass of the - stores went to Varna, and had not been sent back when the army - left for the Crimea, but four days would have remedied that. - - “In the meantime, stores are arriving, but the deficiency of - female nurses is undoubted; none but male nurses have ever been - admitted to military hospitals. It would be impossible to - carry about a large staff of female nurses with an army in the - field. But at Scutari, having now a fixed hospital, no military - reason exists against the introduction; and I am confident they - might be introduced with great benefit, for hospital orderlies - must be very rough hands, and most of them, on such an occasion - as this, very inexperienced ones. - - “I receive numbers of offers from ladies to go out, but they - are ladies who have no conception of what a hospital is, nor - of the nature of its duties; and they would, when the time - came, either recoil from the work or be entirely useless, and - consequently, what is worse, entirely in the way; nor would - these ladies probably even understand the necessity, especially - in a military hospital, of strict obedience to rule, etc.... - - “There is but one person in England that I know of who would - be capable of organizing and superintending such a scheme, - and I have been several times on the point of asking you - hypothetically if, supposing the attempt were made, you would - undertake to direct it. The selection of the rank and file - of nurses would be difficult—no one knows that better than - yourself. The difficulty of finding women equal to the task, - after all, full of horror, and requiring, besides knowledge and - goodwill, great knowledge and great courage, will be great; the - task of ruling them and introducing system among them great; - and not the least will be the difficulty of making the whole - work smoothly with the medical and military authorities out - there. - - “This is what makes it so important that the experiment - should be carried out by one with administrative capacity and - experience. A number of sentimental, enthusiastic ladies turned - loose in the hospital at Scutari would probably after a few - days be _mises à la porte_ by those whose business they would - interrupt, and whose authority they would dispute. - - “My question simply is—would you listen to the request to go - out and supervise the whole thing? You would, of course, have - plenary authority over all the nurses, and I think I could - secure you the fullest assistance and co-operation from the - medical staff, and you would also have an unlimited power of - drawing on the Government for whatever you think requisite - for the success of your mission. On this part of the subject - the details are too many for a letter, and I reserve it for - our meeting; for, whatever decision you take, I know you will - give me every assistance and advice. I do not say one word to - press you. You are the only person who can judge for yourself - which of conflicting or incompatible duties is the first or the - highest; but I think I must not conceal from you that upon your - decision will depend the ultimate success or failure of the - plan.... Will you let me have a line at the War Office, to let - me know? - - “There is one point which I have hardly a right to touch - upon, but I trust you will pardon me. If you were inclined - to undertake the great work, would Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale - consent? This work would be so national, and the request made - to you, proceeding from the Government which represents the - nation, comes at such a moment that I do not despair of their - consent. - - “Deriving your authority from the Government, your position - would ensure the respect and consideration of every one, - especially in a service where official rank carries so much - respect. This would secure you any attention or comfort on your - way out there, together with a complete submission to your - orders. I know these things are a matter of indifference to - you, except so far as they may further the great object you may - have in view; but they are of importance in themselves, and of - every importance to those who have a right to take an interest - in your personal position and comfort. - - “I know you will come to a right and wise decision. God grant - it may be one in accordance with my hopes.—Believe me, dear - Miss Nightingale, ever yours, - - “SIDNEY HERBERT.” - - -Miss Nightingale’s decision was announced in the _Times_, and on October -23 the following paragraph appeared in that paper:— - - “It is known that Miss Nightingale has been appointed by - Government to the office of Superintendent of Nurses at - Scutari. She has been pressed to accept of sums of money for - the general objects of the hospitals for the sick and wounded. - Miss Nightingale neither invites nor can refuse these generous - offers. Her bankers’ account is opened at Messrs. Glyn’s, but - it must be understood that any funds forwarded to her can only - be used so as not to interfere with the official duties of the - Superintendent.” - -This was written by Miss Nightingale herself, and the response in money -was at once very large, but money was by no means the first or most -difficult question. - -No time must be lost in choosing the nurses who were to accompany the -Lady-in-Chief. It was not until later that she became known by that name, -but it already well described her office, for every vital arrangement and -decision seems to have centred in her. She knew well that her task could -be undertaken in no spirit of lightness, and she never wasted power in -mere fuss or flurry. - -She once wrote to Sir Bartle Frere of “that careless and ignorant -person called the Devil,” and she did not want any of his careless and -ignorant disciples to go out with her among her chosen band. Nor did she -want any incompetent sentimentalists of the kind brought before us in -that delightful story of our own South African War, of the soldier who -gave thanks for the offer to wash his face, but confessed that fourteen -other ladies had already offered the same service. Indeed, the rather -garish merriment of that little tale seems almost out of place when we -recall the rotting filth and unspeakable stench of blood and misery in -which the men wounded in the Crimea were lying wrapped from head to -foot. No antiseptic surgery, no decent sanitation, no means of ordinary -cleanliness, were as yet found for our poor Tommies, and Kinglake assures -us that all the efforts of masculine organization, seeking to serve the -crowded hospitals with something called a laundry, had only succeeded in -washing _seven_ shirts for the entire army! - -Miss Nightingale knew a little of the vastness of her undertaking, -but she is described by Lady Canning at this critical time as “gentle -and wise and quiet”—“in no bustle or hurry.” Yet within a single week -from the date of Mr. Herbert’s letter asking her to go out, all her -arrangements were made and her nurses chosen—nay more, the expedition had -actually started. - -The War Office issued its official intimation that “Miss Nightingale, a -lady with greater practical experience of hospital administration and -treatment than any other lady in this country,” had undertaken the noble -and arduous work of organizing and taking out nurses for the soldiers; -and it was also notified that she had been appointed by Government to the -office of Superintendent of Nurses at Scutari. - -The _Examiner_ published a little biographical sketch in reply to the -question which was being asked everywhere. Society, of course, knew Miss -Nightingale very well, but Society includes only a small knot of people -out of the crowd of London’s millions, to say nothing of the provinces. -Many out of those millions were asking, “Who is Miss Nightingale?” and, -in looking back, it is amazing to see how many disapproved of the step -she was taking. - -In those days, as in these, and much more tyrannically than in these, -Mrs. Grundy had her silly daughters, ready to talk slander and folly -about any good woman who disregarded her. To Miss Nightingale she simply -did not exist. Miss Martineau was right when she wrote of her that “to -her it was a small thing to be judged by man’s judgment.” - -And the spirit in which she chose the women who were to go out under her -to the Crimea may be judged by later words of her own, called forth by a -discussion of fees for nurses—words in which the italics are mine, though -the sentence is quoted here to show the scorn she poured on fashion’s -canting view of class distinction. - - “I have seen,” she said, “somewhere in print that nursing is a - profession to be followed by the ‘lower middle-class.’ Shall we - say that painting or sculpture is a profession to be followed - by the ‘lower middle-class’? _Why limit the class at all?_ Or - shall we say that God is only to be served in His sick by the - ‘lower middle-class’? - - “_It appears to be the most futile of all distinctions to - classify as between ‘paid’ and unpaid art, so between ‘paid’ - and unpaid nursing, to make into a test a circumstance as - adventitious as whether the hair is black or brown—viz., - whether people have private means or not, whether they are - obliged or not to work at their art or their nursing for a - livelihood._ Probably no person ever did that well which he did - only for money. Certainly no person ever did that well which - he did not work at as hard as if he did it solely for money. - If by amateur in art or in nursing are meant those who take it - up for play, it is not art at all, it is not nursing at all. - _You never yet made an artist by paying him well; but an artist - ought to be well paid._” - -The woman who in later life wrote this, and all her life acted on it, -could not only well afford to let _Punch_ have his joke about the -nightingales who would shortly turn into ringdoves—although, indeed, -_Punch’s_ verses and illustration were delightful in their innocent -fun—but could even without flinching let vulgar slander insinuate its -usual common-minded nonsense. She herself has written in _Nursing Notes_:— - - “The everyday management of a large ward, let alone of a - hospital, the knowing what are the laws of life and death - for men, and what the laws of health for wards (and wards are - healthy or unhealthy mainly according to the knowledge or - ignorance of the nurse)—are not these matters of sufficient - importance and difficulty to require learning by experience - and careful inquiry, just as much as any other art? They do - not come by inspiration to the lady disappointed in love, nor - to the poor workhouse drudge hard up for a livelihood. And - terrible is the injury which has followed to the sick from such - wild notions.” - -Happily, too, she was not blinded by the narrow sectarian view of -religion which was, in her day and generation, so often a part of the -parrot belief of those who learned their English version of the faith by -rote, rather than with the soul’s experience, for she goes on to say:— - - “In this respect (and why is it so?) in Roman Catholic - countries, both writers and workers are, in theory at least, - far before ours. They would never think of such a beginning - for a good-working Superior or Sister of Charity. And many a - Superior has refused to admit a postulant who appeared to have - no better ‘vocation’ or reasons for offering herself than these. - - “It is true we make no ‘vows.’ But is a ‘vow’ necessary to - convince us that the true spirit for learning any art, most - especially an art of charity, aright, is not a disgust to - everything or something else? Do we really place the love of - our kind (and of nursing as one branch of it) so low as this? - What would the Mère Angélique of Port Royal, what would our own - Mrs. Fry, have said to this?” - -How silly, in the light of these words, was the gossip of the idle -person, proud of her shopping and her visiting list and her elaborate -choice of dinner, who greeted the news of this nursing embassy to the -Crimea with such cheap remarks as that the women would be all invalided -home in a month; that it was most improper for “young ladies”—for it -was not only shop assistants who were called “young ladies” in early -Victorian days—to nurse in a military hospital; it was only nonsense to -try and “nurse soldiers when they did not even yet know what it was to -nurse a baby!” - -Such folly would only shake its hardened old noddle on reading, in the -_Times_ reprint of the article in the _Examiner_, that Miss Nightingale -was “a young lady of singular endowments both natural and acquired. -In a knowledge of the ancient languages and of the higher branches of -mathematics, in general art, science, and literature, her attainments are -extraordinary. There is scarcely a modern language which she does not -understand, and she speaks French, German, and Italian as fluently as -her native English. She has visited and studied all the various nations -of Europe, and has ascended the Nile to its remotest cataract. Young -(about the age of our Queen), graceful, feminine, rich, popular, she -holds a singularly gentle and persuasive influence over all with whom she -comes in contact. Her friends and acquaintances are of all classes and -persuasions, but her happiest place is at home, in the centre of a very -large band of accomplished relatives.” - -Girton and Newnham, Somerville and Lady Margaret did not then exist. -If any one had dreamed of them, the dream had not yet been recorded. -Perhaps its first recognized expression, in Tennyson’s “Princess” in -1847, mingling as it does with the story of a war and of the nursing of -wounded men, may have imperceptibly smoothed away a few coarse prejudices -from the path Florence Nightingale was to tread, but far more effectually -was the way cleared by her own inspiring personality. Mrs. Tooley -quotes from an intimate letter the following words: “Miss Nightingale -is one of those whom God forms for great ends. You cannot hear her say -a few sentences—no, not even look at her—without feeling that she is -an extraordinary being. Simple, intellectual, sweet, full of love and -benevolence, she is a fascinating and perfect woman. She is tall and -pale. Her face is exceedingly lovely, but better than all is the soul’s -glory that shines through every feature so exultingly. Nothing can be -sweeter than her smile. It is like a sunny day in summer.” - -She who advised other women to make ready for the business of their lives -as men make ready had been for long years preparing herself, and there -was therefore none of the nervous waste and excitement of those who in a -moment of impulse take a path which to their ignorance is like leaping in -the dark. - -But she knew well how much must depend on those she took with her, and it -was clear that many who desired to go were quite unfitted for the work. - -With her usual clearsightedness she knew where to turn for help. Felicia -Skene was among those whom she consulted and whose advice she found -of good service. It has already been noted in these pages that Miss -Skene had, without knowing it, been preparing one of the threads to be -interwoven in that living tapestry in which Miss Nightingale’s labours -were to endure in such glowing colours. Like Miss Nightingale she had -real intimacy with those outside her own order, and by her practical -human sympathy understood life, not only in one rank, but in all ranks. -By night as well as by day her door was open to the outcast, and in -several life-stories she had played a part which saved some poor girl -from suicide. Full of humour and romance, and a welcome guest in -every society, she will be remembered longest for her work in rescuing -others both in body and in soul, and you will remember that, on the -two occasions when the cholera visited Oxford, she nursed the sick and -the dying by day and by night, and did much to direct and organize the -helpful work of others. Miss Wordsworth speaks of her “innate purity of -heart and mind,” and says of her, “one always felt of her that she had -been brought up in the best of company, as indeed she had.” It was just -such women that Miss Nightingale needed—women who, in constant touch with -what was coarse and hard, could never become coarse or hard themselves; -women versed in practical service and trained by actual experience as -well as by hard-won knowledge. - -Moreover, it chanced that after Miss Skene’s labour of love in the -cholera visitation, her niece, “Miss Janie Skene, then a girl of fifteen, -who was staying in Constantinople with her parents, had gone with her -mother to visit the wounded soldiers at Scutari. Shocked by their -terrible sufferings and the lack of all that might have eased their -pain, she wrote strongly to her grandfather, who sent her letter to the -_Times_, where it did much to stir up public opinion.” - - “It struck Felicia,” says Miss Rickards, “that having with - great pains trained her corps of nurses for the cholera, they - might now be utilized at Scutari, her great desire being to go - out herself at the head of them. Had these events occurred at - the present day, when ideas have changed as to what ladies, - still young, may and may not do in the way of bold enterprise, - perhaps she might have obtained her parents’ permission to go. - As it was the notion was too new and startling to be taken into - consideration; and she had to content herself with doing all - she could at home to send out others. - - “Her zeal was quickened by a letter she received from Lord - Stratford de Redcliffe, who had been much struck by her energy - and ability, urging her to do all she could in England to send - to the rescue. - - “At once she set out as a pioneer in the undertaking, - delighted to encourage her nurses to take their part in the - heroic task. - - “Meantime Miss Nightingale was hard at work enlisting recruits, - thankful to secure Felicia’s services as agent at Oxford. She - sent her friends Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge down there, that they - might inspect the volunteers and select the women they thought - would be suitable. - - “The interviews took place in Mr. Skene’s dining-room, along - the walls of which the candidates were ranged. - - “Kind-hearted as Mrs. Bracebridge was, her proceedings were - somewhat in the ‘Off with their heads!’ style of the famous - duchess in ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ If the sudden questions fired - at each in succession were not answered in a way that she - thought quite satisfactory, ‘She won’t do; send her out,’ was - the decided command. - - “And Felicia had to administer balm to the wounded feelings of - the rejected.”[7] - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - - _The Expedition._ - - -Of the thirty-eight nurses who went out with Miss Nightingale, -twenty-four had been trained in sisterhoods, Roman and Anglican, and of -the remaining fourteen, some had been chosen in the first instance by -Lady Maria Forrester, others by Miss Skene and Mrs. Bracebridge, but it -must be supposed that the final decision lay always with Miss Nightingale. - -The correspondence that had poured in upon her and upon Mr. Herbert was -overwhelming, and there was a personal interview with all who seemed in -the least degree likely to be admitted to her staff; so that she worked -very hard, with little pause for rest, to get through her ever-increasing -task in time. Each member of the staff undertook to obey her absolutely. - -Among the many who were rejected, though most were unsuitable for -quite other reasons, there were some who objected to this rule. Many -who were full of sympathy and generosity had to be turned away, because -they had not had enough training. Advertisements had appeared in the -_Record_ and the _Guardian_, but the crowd of fair ladies who flocked -to the War Office in response were not always received with such open -arms as they expected. Mr. Herbert was well on his guard against the -charms of impulsive, but ignorant, goodwill, and he issued a sort of -little manifesto in which he said that “many ladies whose generous -enthusiasm prompts them to offer services as nurses are little aware of -the hardships they would have to encounter, and the horrors they would -have to witness. Were all accepted who offer,” he added, with a touch of -humour, “I fear we should have not only many indifferent nurses, but many -hysterical patients.” - -He and his wife were untiring in their efficiency and their help. - -The English Sisterhoods had made a difficulty about surrendering control -over the Sisters they sent out, but Miss Nightingale overcame that, and -the Roman bishop entirely freed the ten Sisters of his communion from any -rule which could clash with Miss Nightingale’s orders. - -It was on the evening of October 21, 1854, that the “Angel Band,” as -Kinglake rightly names them, quietly set out under cover of darkness, -escorted by a parson and a courier and by Miss Nightingale’s friends, Mr. -and Mrs. Bracebridge of Atherstone Hall. - -In this way all flourish of trumpets was avoided. Miss Nightingale always -hated public fuss—or, indeed, fuss of any kind. She was anxious also to -lighten the parting for those who loved her best, and who had given a -somewhat doubting consent to her resolve. - -The Quakerish plainness of her black dress did but make the more striking -the beauty of her lovely countenance, the firm, calm sweetness of the -smiling lips and steadfast eyes, the grace of the tall, slender figure; -and as the train whirled her out of sight with her carefully-chosen -regiment, she left with her friends a vision of good cheer and high -courage. - -But however quiet the setting forth, the arrival at Boulogne could not -be kept a secret, and the enthusiasm of our French allies for those who -were going to nurse the wounded made the little procession a heart-moving -triumph. A merry band of white-capped fishwives met the boat and, -seizing all the luggage, insisted on doing everything for nothing. -Boxes on their backs and bags in their hands, they ran along in their -bright petticoats, pouring out their hearts about their own boys at the -front, and asking only the blessing of a handshake as the sole payment -they would take. Then, as Miss Nightingale’s train whistled its noisy -way out of the station, waving their adieus while the tears streamed -down the weather-beaten cheeks of more than one old wife, they stood -and watched with longing hearts. At Paris there was a passing visit to -the Mother-house of Miss Nightingale’s old friends, the Sisters of St. -Vincent de Paul, and a little call on Lady Canning, also an old friend, -who writes of her as “happy and stout-hearted.” - -The poor “Angels” had a terrible voyage to Malta, for the wind, as -with St. Paul, was “contrary” and blew a hurricane dead against them, -so that their ship, the _Vectis_, had something of a struggle to escape -with its many lives. They touched at Malta on October 31, 1854, and soon -afterwards set sail again for Constantinople. - -What an old-world story it seems now to talk of “setting sail”! - -On the 4th of November, the day before the battle of Inkermann, they had -reached their goal, and had their work before them at Scutari. - -A friend of mine who knows Scutari well has described it in summer as a -place of roses, the very graves wreathed all over with the blossoming -briars of them; and among those graves she found a nameless one, on -which, without revealing identity, the epitaph stated, in the briefest -possible way, that this was the grave of a hospital matron, adding in -comment the words spoken of Mary when she broke the alabaster box—and -in this instance full of pathos—the six words, “She hath done what she -could.” And I find from one of Miss Nightingale’s letters that it was she -herself who inscribed those words. - -Unspeakable indeed must have been the difficulties with which any -previous hospital matron had to contend, rigid and unbreakable for -ordinary fingers the red tape by which she must have been bound. On this -subject Kinglake has written words which are strong indeed in their -haunting sincerity. - -He writes of an “England officially typified that swathes her limbs round -with red tape,” and of those who, though dogged in routine duty, were so -afraid of any new methods that they were found “surrendering, as it were, -at discretion, to want and misery” for those in their care. - - “But,” he adds, “happily, after a while, and in gentle, almost - humble, disguise which put foes of change off their guard, - there acceded to the State a new power. - - “Almost at one time—it was when they learnt how our troops had - fought on the banks of the Alma—the hearts of many women in - England, in Scotland, in Ireland, were stirred with a heavenly - thought impelling them to offer and say that, if only the - State were consenting, they would go out to tend our poor - soldiers laid low on their hospital pallets by sickness or - wounds; and the honour of welcoming into our public service - this new and gracious aid belonged to Mr. Sidney Herbert.” - -He goes on to explain and define Mr. Herbert’s exact position at the War -Office; how he was not only official chief there, but, “having perhaps -also learnt from life’s happy experience that, along with what he might -owe to fortune and birth, his capacity for business of State, his frank, -pleasant speech, his bright, winning manners, and even his glad, sunshine -looks, had a tendency to disarm opposition, he quietly, yet boldly, -stepped out beyond his set bounds, and not only became in this hospital -business the volunteer delegate of the Duke of Newcastle, but even -ventured to act without always asking the overworked Department of War -to go through the form of supporting him by orders from the Secretary of -State; so that thus, and to the great advantage of the public service, he -usurped, as it were, an authority which all who knew what he was doing -rejoiced to see him wield. If he could not in strictness command by an -official despatch, he at least could impart what he wished in a ‘private -letter;’ and a letter, though ostensibly ‘private,’ which came from the -War Office, under the hand of its chief, was scarce likely to encounter -resistance from any official personages to whom the writer might send it. - -“Most happily this gifted minister had formed a strong belief in the -advantages our military hospitals would gain by accepting womanly aid; -and, proceeding to act on this faith, he not only despatched to the East -some chosen bands of ladies, and of salaried attendants accustomed to -hospital duties, but also requested that they might have quarters and -rations assigned to them; and, moreover, whilst requesting the principal -medical officer at Scutari to point out to these new auxiliaries how best -they could make themselves useful, Mr. Sidney Herbert enjoined him to -receive with attention and deference the counsels of the Lady-in-Chief, -who was, of course, no other than Miss Nightingale herself. - -“That direction was one of great moment, and well calculated to govern -the fate of a newly ventured experiment. - -“Thus it was that, under the sanction of a government acceding to the -counsels of one of its most alert and sagacious members, there went out -angel women from England, resolved to confront that whole world of horror -and misery that can be gathered into a military hospital from camp or -battlefield; and their plea, when they asked to be trusted with this -painful, this heart-rending mission, was simply the natural aptitude -of their sex for ministering to those who lie prostrate from sickness -and wounds. Using that tender word which likened the helplessness of -the down-stricken soldier to the helplessness of infancy, they only -said they would ‘nurse’ him; and accordingly, if regarded with literal -strictness, their duty would simply be that of attendants in hospital -wards—attendants obeying with strictness the orders of the medical -officers. - -“It was seen that the humble soldiers were likely to be the men most in -want of care, and the ladies were instructed to abstain from attending -upon any of the officers.”[8] - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - - _The tribute of Kinglake and Macdonald and the Chelsea - Pensioners._ - - -But before continuing the story of Miss Nightingale’s expedition, we must -turn aside for a moment in Kinglake’s company to realize something of the -devotion of another brave and unselfish Englishwoman who, without her -“commanding genius,” yet trod the same path of sacrifice and compassion. -The words “commanding genius” were spoken by Dean Stanley of Miss -Nightingale, and it is of Dean Stanley’s sister Mary that a word must -now be spoken. She had been the right hand of her father, the Bishop of -Norwich, and, in serving the poor, had disclosed special gifts, made -the more winning by her gentle, loving nature. Having had experience of -travel, which was much less a thing of course than it is in these days, -she was willing to escort a company of nurses chosen for work in the -Levant, and at first this was all she expected to do. But there proved -to be a difficulty about receiving them at Scutari, and she could not -bring herself to leave them without guidance; so she quietly gave up all -thought of returning to England while the war continued. - - “Could she,” asks Kinglake, “see them in that strait disband, - when she knew but too well that their services were bitterly - needed for the shiploads and shiploads of stricken soldiery - brought down day by day from the seat of war? Under stress - of the question thus put by her own exacting conscience, or - perhaps by the simpler commandment of her generous heart, she - formed the heroic resolve which was destined to govern her life - throughout the long, dismal period of which she then knew not - the end. Instead of returning to England, and leaving on the - shores of the Bosphorus her band of sisters and nurses, she - steadfastly remained at their head, and along with them entered - at once upon what may be soberly called an appalling task—the - task of ‘nursing’ in hospitals not only overcrowded with - sufferers, but painfully, grievously wanting in most of the - conditions essential to all good hospital management. - - “The sisters and salaried nurses,” says Kinglake, “who placed - themselves under this guidance were in all forty-six; and Miss - Stanley, with great spirit and energy, brought the aid of - her whole reinforcement—at first to the naval hospital newly - founded at Therapia under the auspices of our Embassy, and - afterwards to another establishment—to that fated hospital at - Kullali, in which, as we saw, at one time a fearful mortality - raged. - - “Not regarding her mission as one that needs should aim loftily - at the reformation of the hospital management, Miss Stanley - submitted herself for guidance to the medical officers, saying, - ‘What do you wish us to do?’ The officers wisely determined - that they would not allow the gentle women to exhaust their - power of doing good by undertaking those kinds of work that - might be as well or better performed by men, and their answer - was to this effect: ‘The work that in surgical cases has been - commonly done by our dressers will be performed by them, as - before, under our orders. What we ask of you is that you will - see the men take the medicines and the nourishment ordered for - them, and we know we can trust that you will give them all that - watchful care which alleviates suffering, and tends to restore - health and strength.’ - - “With ceaseless devotion and energy the instructions were - obeyed. What number of lives were saved—saved even in - that pest-stricken hospital of Kullali—by a long, gentle - watchfulness, when science almost despaired, no statistics, - of course, can show; and still less can they gauge or record - the alleviation of misery effected by care such as this; but - apparent to all was the softened demeanour of the soldier - when he saw approaching his pallet some tender, gracious lady - intent to assuage his suffering, to give him the blessing of - hope, to bring him the food he liked, and withal—when she - came with the medicine—to rule him like a sick child. Coarse - expressions and oaths deriving from barracks and camps died - out in the wards as though exorcised by the sacred spell of her - presence, and gave way to murmurs of gratitude. When conversing - in this softened mood with the lady appointed to nurse him, - the soldier used often to speak as though the worship he owed - her and the worship he owed to Heaven were blending into one - sentiment; and sometimes, indeed, he disclosed a wild faith in - the ministering angel that strained beyond the grave. ‘Oh!’ - said one to the lady he saw bending over his pallet, ‘you - are taking me on the way to heaven; don’t forsake me now!’ - When a man was under delirium, its magic force almost always - transported him to the home of his childhood, and made him - indeed a child—a child crying, ‘Mother! mother!’ Amongst the - men generally, notwithstanding their moments of fitful piety, - there still glowed a savage desire for the fall of Sebastopol. - More than once—wafted up from Constantinople—the sound of great - guns was believed to announce a victory, and sometimes there - came into the wards fresh tidings of combat brought down from - our army in front of the long-besieged stronghold. When this - happened, almost all of the sufferers who had not yet lost - their consciousness used to show that, however disabled, they - were still soldiers—true soldiers. At such times, on many a - pallet, the dying man used to raise himself by unwonted effort, - and seem to yearn after the strife, as though he would answer - once more the appeal of the bugles and drums.” - -[Illustration: Florence Nightingale at the Therapia Hospital. - -“I was sick, and ye visited me.”] - -Kinglake’s touching description of what womanly tenderness could do for -our soldiers, and of the worship it called forth, is followed by these -words:— - - “But great would be the mistake of any chronicler fancying - that the advantage our country derived from womanly aid was - only an accession of nurses; for, if gifted with the power - to comfort and soothe, woman also—a still higher gift—can - impel, can disturb, can destroy pernicious content; and when - she came to the rescue in an hour of gloom and adversity, - she brought to her self-imposed task that forethought, that - agile brain power, that organizing and governing faculty of - which our country had need. The males at that time in England - were already giving proofs of the lameness in the use of - brain power, which afterwards became more distinct. Owing, - possibly, to their habits of industry, applied in fixed, stated - directions, they had lost that command of brain force which - kindles ‘initiative,’ and with it, of course, the faculty of - opportunely resorting to any very new ways of action. They - proved slow to see and to meet the fresh exigencies occasioned - by war, when approaching, or even by war when present; and, - apparently, in the hospital problem, they must have gone on - failing and failing indefinitely, if they had not undergone the - propulsion of the quicker—the woman’s—brain to ‘set them going’ - in time.” - -He then goes on to tell of the arrival at “the immense Barrack Hospital” -at Scutari of Miss Nightingale and her chosen band. “If,” he says, “the -generous women thus sacrificing themselves were all alike in devotion -to their sacred cause, there was one of them—the Lady-in-Chief—who not -only came armed with the special experience needed, but also was clearly -transcendent in that subtle quality which gives to one human being a -power of command over others. Of slender, delicate form, engaging, -highly-bred, and in council a rapt, careful listener, so long as others -were speaking; and strongly, though gently, persuasive whenever speaking -herself, the Lady-in-Chief, the Lady Florence, Miss Nightingale, gave her -heart to this enterprise in a spirit of absolute devotion; but her sway -was not quite of the kind that many in England imagined.” - -No, indeed! Sentimentalists who talk as though she had been cast in the -conventional mould of mere yielding amiability, do not realize what she -had to do, nor with what fearless, unflinching force she went straight -to her mark, not heeding what was thought of herself, overlooking the -necessary wounds she must give to fools, caring only that the difficult -duty should be done, the wholesale agony be lessened, the filth and -disorder be swept away. - -Her sweetness was the sweetness of strength, not weakness, and was -reserved not for the careless, the stupid, the self-satisfied, but for -the men whose festering wounds and corrupting gangrene were suffered in -their country’s pay, and had been increased by the heedless muddle of a -careless peace-time and a criminally mismanaged transport service. - -The picture of their condition before her arrival is revolting in its -horror. There is no finer thing in the history of this war, perhaps, than -the heroism of the wounded and dying soldiers. We are told how, in the -midst of their appalling privation, if they fancied a shadow on their -General’s face—as well, indeed, there might be, when he saw them without -the common necessaries and decencies of life, let alone a sick-room—they -would seize the first possible opening for assuring him they had all they -needed, and if they were questioned by him, though they were dying of -cold and hunger— - - “No man ever used to say: ‘My Lord, you see how I am lying wet - and cold, with only this one blanket to serve me for bed and - covering. The doctors are wonderfully kind, but they have not - the medicines, nor the wine, nor any of the comforting things - they would like to be given me. If only I had another blanket, - I think perhaps I might live.’ Such words would have been true - to the letter.” - -But as for Lord Raglan, the chief whom they thus adored, “with the -absolute hideous truth thus day by day spread out before him, he did not -for a moment deceive himself by observing that no man complained.” - -Yet even cold and hunger were as nothing to the loathsome condition in -which Miss Nightingale found the hospital at Scutari. There are certain -kinds of filth which make life far more horrible than the brief moment -of a brave death, and of filth of every sort that crowded hospital was -full—filth in the air, for the stench was horrible, filth and gore as the -very garment of the poor, patient, dying men. - -There was no washing, no clean linen. Even for bandages the shirts had to -be stripped from the dead and torn up to stanch the wounds of the living. - -And there were other foul conditions which only the long labour of -sanitary engineering could cure. - -The arrival day by day of more and more of the wounded has been described -as an avalanche. We all know Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade”: -that charge occurred at Balaclava the day before Miss Nightingale left -England. And the terrible battle of Inkermann was fought the day after -she arrived at Scutari. - -Here is a word-for-word description from Nolan’s history of the campaign, -given also in Mrs. Tooley’s admirable “Life”:— - - “There were no vessels for water or utensils of any kind; no - soap, towels, or cloths, no hospital clothes; the men lying in - their uniforms, stiff with gore and covered with filth to a - degree and of a kind no one could write about; their persons - covered with vermin, which crawled about the floors and walls - of the dreadful den of dirt, pestilence, and death to which - they were consigned. - - “Medical assistance would naturally be expected by the invalid - as soon as he found himself in a place of shelter, but many lay - waiting for their turn until death anticipated the doctor. The - medical men toiled with unwearied assiduity, but their numbers - were inadequate to the work.” - -The great hospital at Scutari is a quadrangle, each wing nearly a quarter -of a mile long, and built in tiers of corridors and galleries, one above -the other. The wounded men had been brought in and laid on the floor, -side by side, as closely as they could lie, so that Kinglake was writing -quite literally when he spoke of “miles of the wounded.” - -Rotting beneath an Eastern sky and filling the air with poison, Miss -Nightingale counted the carcasses of six dead dogs lying under the -hospital windows. And in all the vast building there was no cooking -apparatus, though it did boast of what was supposed to be a kitchen. As -for our modern bathrooms, the mere notion would have given rise to bitter -laughter; for even the homely jugs and basins were wanting in that -palace of a building, and water of any kind was a rare treasure. - -How were sick men to be “nursed,” when they could not even be washed, -and their very food had to be carried long distances and was usually the -worst possible! - -Miss Nightingale—the Lady-in-Chief—had the capacity, the will, the -driving power, to change all that. - -A week or two ago I had some talk with several of the old pensioners who -remember her. The first to be introduced to me has lost now his power of -speech through a paralytic stroke, but it was almost surprising, after -all these long years that have passed between the Crimean day and our -own day, to see how well-nigh overwhelming was the dumb emotion which -moved the strong man at the naming of her name. The second, who was full -of lively, chuckling talk, having been in active service for a month -before her arrival in the Crimea, and himself seen the wondrous changes -she wrought, was not only one of her adorers—all soldiers seem to be -that—but also overflowing with admiration for her capability, her pluck. -To him she was not only the ideal nurse, but also emphatically a woman of -unsurpassed courage and efficiency. - -“You know, miss,” he said, “there was a many young doctors out there that -should never have been there—they didn’t know their duty and they didn’t -do as they should for us—and she chased ’em, ay, she did that! She got -rid of ’em, and there was better ones come in their place, and it was -all quite different. Oh yes,” and he laughed delightedly, as a schoolboy -might. “Oh yes, she hunted ’em out.” I, who have a great reverence for -the medical profession, felt rather shy and frightened and inclined -to blush, but the gusto with which the veteran recalled a righteous -vengeance on the heads of the unworthy was really very funny. And his -gargoyle mirth set in high relief the tenderness with which he told of -Miss Nightingale’s motherly ways with his poor wounded comrades, and how -she begged them not to mind having their wounds washed, any more than if -she were really their mother or sister, and thus overcame any false shame -that might have prevented their recovery. “Ah, she was a good woman,” he -kept repeating, “there’s no two ways about it, a _good_ woman!” - -From Pensioner John Garrett of the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, I had -one very interesting bit of history at first hand; for he volunteered the -fact that on his first arrival in the Crimea—which was evidently about -the same time as Miss Nightingale’s own, his first engagement having -been the battle of Inkermann—Miss Nightingale being still unknown to -the soldiers—a mere name to them—she had much unpopularity to overcome. -Clearly jealous rumour had been at work against this mere woman who was -coming, as the other pensioner had phrased it, “to chase the doctors.” -This, of course, made the completeness of her rapid victory over the -hearts of the entire army the more noteworthy. - -“And afterwards?” I asked. - -“Oh, _afterwards we knew what she was_, and she was very popular indeed!” -Though he treasured and carried about with him everywhere a Prayer Book -containing Florence Nightingale’s autograph—which I told him ought to be -a precious heirloom to his sons and their children, and therefore refused -to accept, when in the generosity of his kind old heart he thrice tried -to press it upon me—he had only seen her once; for he was camping out at -the front, and it was on one of her passing visits that he had his vision -of her. He is a very young-looking old man of eighty-two, Suffolk-born, -and had been in the army from boyhood up to the time of taking his -pension. He had fought in the battle of Inkermann and done valiant -trench-duty before Sebastopol, and confirmed quite of his own accord -the terrible accounts that have come to us of the privations suffered. -“Water,” he said, “why, we could scarce get water to drink—much less to -wash—why, I hadn’t a change of linen all the winter through.” - -“And you hadn’t much food, I hear, for your daily rations?” I said. - -“Oh, we didn’t have food every _day_!” said he, with a touch of gently -scornful laughter. “Every _three_ days or so, we may have had some -biscuits served out. But there was a lot of the food as wasn’t fit to -eat.” - -He was, however, a man of few words, and when I asked him what Miss -Nightingale was like, he answered rather unexpectedly and with great -promptitude, “Well, she had a very nice figger.” All the same, though he -did not dilate on the beauty of her countenance, and exercised a certain -reserve of speech when I tried to draw him out about the Lady-in-Chief, -it was clear that hers was a sacred name to him, and that the bit of her -handwriting which he possessed in the little book, so carefully unwrapped -for me from the tin box holding his dearest possessions, which he -uncorded under my eyes with his own capable but rather tired old hands, -between two bouts of his wearying cough, had for long been the great joy -and pride of his present quiet existence. - -I had a talk with others of these veterans in their stately and -well-earned home of rest in the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, and it was -clear that to them all she was enshrined in memory’s highest place. This -may be a fitting moment for recording the tribute of Mr. Macdonald, the -administrator of the _Times_ Fund, who wrote of her before his return to -England:— - - “Wherever there is disease in its most dangerous form, and - the hand of the spoiler distressingly nigh, there is that - incomparable woman sure to be seen; her benignant presence - is an influence for good comfort, even among the struggles - of expiring nature. She is a ‘ministering angel,’ without - any exaggeration, in these hospitals, and, as her slender - form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow’s - face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all - the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence - and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate - sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her - hand, making her solitary rounds. The popular instinct was - not mistaken, which, when she had set out from England on her - mission of mercy, hailed her as a heroine; I trust she may not - earn her title to a higher though sadder appellation. No one - who has observed her fragile figure and delicate health can - avoid misgivings lest these should fail. With the heart of a - true woman, and the manners of a lady, accomplished and refined - beyond most of her sex, she combines a surprising calmness of - judgment and promptitude and decision of character.” - -The soldier who watched for her coming, night by night, on her quiet -rounds, after dark, when other nurses were by her orders resting, and -who only knew her as “the Lady with the Lamp,” has been quoted all over -the world; but it has been well said that she was also “the lady with -the brain.” Hercules had not so big a task before him when he cleansed -the Augean stables, and the swiftness with which order and comfort were -created in this “hell” of suffering—for so it has been named by those who -saw and knew—might well be called one of the wonders of the world. - -[Illustration: “A Mission of Mercy.” Florence Nightingale at Scutari. - -(_After the painting by J. Barratt._)] - -The secret lay partly in the fact that Florence Nightingale’s whole -life had been an offering and a preparation. She knew all it had been -possible for her to learn of hospital management and training. She never -wasted words, nor frittered away her power. Her authority grew daily. Mr. -Herbert’s support, even at so great a distance, was, of course, beyond -price. Lord Raglan soon found the value of her letters. She inspired -her orderlies with utmost devotion, and it is needless to speak of what -her patients themselves felt to her. Kinglake is not, like the present -writer, a woman, and therefore he can write with a good grace and from -his own knowledge what might come with an ill grace from a woman’s pen. -He shall again therefore be quoted, word for word, through a few pages. - - “The growth of her dominion was rapid, was natural, and - not unlike the development of what men call ‘responsible - government.’ One of others accepting a task ostensibly - subordinate and humble, she yet could not, if she would, - divest herself of the authority that belonged to her as a - gentlewoman—as a gentlewoman abounding in all the natural - gifts, and all the peculiar knowledge required for hospital - management. Charged to be in the wards, to smooth the - sufferer’s pillow, to give him his food and his medicine as - ordered by the medical officers, she could not but speak - with cogency of the state of the air which she herself had - to breathe; she could not be bidden to acquiesce if the beds - she approached were impure; she could scarcely be held to - silence if the diet she had been told to administer were not - forthcoming; and, whatever her orders, she could hardly be - expected to give a sufferer food which she perceived to be bad - or unfit. If the males[9] did not quite understand the peculiar - contrivances fitted for the preparation of hospital diet, - might she not, perhaps, disclose her own knowledge, and show - them what to do? Or, if they could not be taught, or imagined - that they had not the power to do what was needed, might not - she herself compass her object by using the resources which - she had at command? Might not she herself found and organize - the requisite kitchens, when she knew that the difference - between fit and unfit food was one of life and death to the - soldier? And again, if she chose, might she not expend her own - resources in striving against the foul poisons that surrounded - our prostrate soldiery? Rather, far, than that even one man - should suffer from those cruel wants which she generously chose - to supply, it was well that the State should be humbled, and - submit to the taunt which accused it of taking alms from her - hand. - - “If we learnt that the cause of the evils afflicting our - Levantine hospitals was a want of impelling and of governing - power, we now see how the want was supplied. In the absence of - all constituted authority proving equal to the emergency, there - was need—dire need—of a firm, well-intentioned usurper; but - amongst the males acting at Scutari there was no one with that - resolute will, overstriding law, habit, and custom, which the - cruel occasion required; for even Dr. M’Gregor, whose zeal and - abilities were admirable, omitted to lay hold, dictatorially, - of that commanding authority which—because his chief could - not wield it—had fallen into abeyance. The will of the males - was always to go on performing their accustomed duties - industriously, steadily, faithfully, each labouring to the - utmost, and, if need be, even to death (as too often, indeed, - was the case), in that groove-going ‘state of life to which it - had pleased God to call him.’ The will of the woman, whilst - stronger, flew also more straight to the end;[10] for what she - almost fiercely sought was—not to make good mere equations - between official codes of duty and official acts of obedience, - but—overcoming all obstacles, to succour, to save our prostrate - soldiery, and turn into a well-ordered hospital the hell—the - appalling hell—of the vast barrack wards and corridors. Nature - seemed, as it were, to ordain that in such a conjuncture the - all-essential power which our cramped, over-disciplined males - had chosen to leave unexerted should pass to one who would - seize it, should pass to one who could wield it—should pass to - the Lady-in-Chief. - - “To have power was an essential condition of success in her - sacred cause; and of power accordingly she knew and felt the - worth, rightly judging that, in all sorts of matters within - what she deemed its true range, her word must be law. Like - other dictators, she had cast upon her one duty which no one - can hope to perform without exciting cavil. For the sake of - the cause, she had to maintain her dictatorship, and (on pain - of seeing her efforts defeated by anarchical action) to check - the growth of authority—of authority in even small matters—if - not derived from herself. She was apparently careful in this - direction; and, though outwardly calm when provoked, could give - strong effect to her anger. On the other hand, when seeing - merit in the labours of others, she was ready with generous - praise. It was hardly in the nature of things that her sway - should excite no jealousies, or that always, hand in hand with - the energy which made her great enterprise possible, there - should be the cold, accurate justice at which the slower sex - aims; but she reigned—painful, heart-rending empire—in a spirit - of thorough devotion to the objects of her care, and, upon the - whole, with excellent wisdom. - - “To all the other sources of power which we have seen her - commanding, she added one of a kind less dependent upon - her personal qualities. Knowing thoroughly the wants of a - hospital, and foreseeing, apparently, that the State might - fail to meet them, she had taken care to provide herself with - vast quantities of hospital stores, and by drawing upon these - to make good the shortcoming of any hampered or lazy official, - she not only furnished our soldiery with the things they were - needing, but administered to the defaulting administrator a - telling, though silent, rebuke; and it would seem that under - this discipline the groove-going men winced in agony, for they - uttered touching complaints, declaring that the Lady-in-Chief - did not choose to give them time (it was always time that the - males wanted), and that the moment a want declared itself she - made haste to supply it herself.” - -Another able writer—a woman—has said that for Miss Nightingale the -testing moment of her life met her with the coming of the wagon-loads -of wounded men from the battlefield of Inkermann, who were poured into -the hospital at Scutari within twenty-four hours of her arrival. Had the -sight of all that agony and of the senseless confusion that received -it, led the Lady-in-Chief and her nurses to waste their power in rushing -hither and thither in disorganized fear of defeat, their very sympathy -and emotion dimming their foresight and clouding their brain, the whole -story might have been different. But Miss Nightingale was of those who, -by a steadfast obedience hour by hour to the voice within, have attained -through the long years to a fine mastery of every nerve and muscle of -that frail house wherein they dwell. The more critical the occasion, the -more her will rose to meet it. She knew she must think of the welfare, -not of one, but of thousands; and for tens of thousands she wrought the -change from this welter of misery and death to that clean orderliness -which for the moment seemed as far away as the unseen heaven. There -were many other faithful and devoted nurses in the Crimea, though few, -perhaps, so highly skilled; but her name stands alone as that of the -high-hearted and daring spirit who made bold to change the evil system -of the past when no man else had done anything but either consent to it -or bemoan it. She, at least, had never been bound by red tape, and her -whole soul rose up in arms at sight of the awful suffering which had been -allowed under the shelter of dogged routine. - -Before ten days had passed, she had her kitchen ready and was feeding 800 -men every day with well-cooked food, and this in spite of the unforeseen -and overwhelming numbers in which the new patients had been poured into -the hospitals after Balaclava and Inkermann. She had brought out with -her, in the _Vectis_, stores of invalid food, and all sorts of little -delicacies surprised the eyes and lips of the hitherto half-starved men. -Their gentle nurses brought them beef tea, chicken broth, jelly. They -were weak and in great pain, and may be forgiven if their gratitude was, -as we are told, often choked with sobs. - -Mrs. Tooley tells us of one Crimean veteran, that when he received a -basin of arrowroot on his first arrival at the hospital early in the -morning, he said to himself, “‘Tommy, me boy, that’s all you’ll get into -your inside this blessed day, and think yourself lucky you’ve got that.’ -But two hours later, if another of them blessed angels didn’t come -entreating of me to have just a little chicken broth! Well, I took that, -thinking maybe it was early dinner, and before I had well done wondering -what would happen next, round the nurse came again with a bit o’ jelly; -and all day long at intervals they kept on bringing me what they called -‘a little nourishment.’ In the evening, Miss Nightingale she came and had -a look at me, and says she, ‘I hope you’re feeling better?’ I could have -said, ‘Ma’am, I feels as fit as a fightin’ cock,’ but I managed to git -out somethin’ a bit more polite.”[11] - -The barracks had thirteen “coppers,” and in the old days meat and -vegetables had just been tossed into these and boiled together anyhow. -It is easy to imagine the greasy mess to which the fevered invalids must -have been treated by the time the stuff had been carried round to the -hospital. - -But now, sometimes in a single day, thirteen gallons of chicken broth, -and forty gallons of arrowroot found their way from the new kitchen to -the hospital wards. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - - _The horrors of Scutari—The victory of the Lady-in-Chief—The - Queen’s letter—Her gift of butter and treacle._ - - -Miss Nightingale’s discipline was strict; she did not mind the name -of autocrat when men were dying by twenties for lack of what only an -autocrat could do; and when there was continual loss of life for want -of fitting nourishment, though there had been supplies sent out, as had -been said “by the ton-weight,” she herself on at least one occasion, -broke open the stores and fed her famishing patients. It is true that -the ordinary matron would have been dismissed for doing so; she was not -an ordinary matron—she was the Lady-in-Chief. To her that hath shall be -given. She had grudged nothing to the service to which from childhood -she had given herself—not strength, nor time, nor any other good gift -of her womanhood, and having done her part nobly, fortune aided her. -Her friends were among the “powers that be,” and even her wealth was, in -this particular battle, a very important means of victory. Her beauty -would have done little for her if she had been incompetent, but being to -the last degree efficient, her loveliness gave the final touch to her -power—her loveliness and that personal magnetism which gave her sway -over the hearts and minds of men, and also, let it be added, of women. -Not only did those in authority give to her of their best—their best -knowledge, their closest attention, their most untiring service—but she -knew how to discern the true from the false, and to put to the best use -the valuable information often confided to her. She had many helpers. -Besides her thirty-eight nurses and the chaplain, Mr. Sidney Osborne, -there were her friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge, and that splendid -“fag,” as he called himself, the young “Mr. Stafford,”[12] who had left -the gaieties of London to fetch and carry for the Lady-in-Chief, and—to -quote Mrs. Tooley, “did anything and everything which a handy and -gallant gentleman could do to make himself useful to the lady whom he -felt honoured to serve.” Among those who were most thoughtful in their -little gifts for the wounded officers was the wife of our ambassador, -Lady Stratford de Redcliffe, and her “beauteous guest,” as Kinglake calls -her, Lady George Paget. But Miss Nightingale’s chief anxiety was not for -the officers—they, like herself, had many influences in their favour—her -thought was for the nameless rank and file, who had neither money nor -rank, and were too often, as she knew, the forgotten pawns on the big -chessboard. It was said “she thought only of the men;” she understood -well that for their commanders her thought was less needed. - -“In the hearts of thousands and thousands of our people,” says Kinglake, -“there was a yearning to be able to share the toil, the distress, the -danger of battling for our sick and wounded troops against the sea -of miseries that encompassed them on their hospital pallets; and men -still remember how graciously, how simply, how naturally, if so one may -speak, the ambassadress Lady Stratford de Redcliffe and her beauteous -guest gave their energies and their time to the work; still remember -the generous exertions of Mr. Sidney Osborne and Mr. Joscelyne Percy; -still remember, too, how Mr. Stafford—I would rather call him ‘Stafford -O’Brien’—the cherished yet unspoilt favourite of English society, -devoted himself heart and soul to the task of helping and comforting our -prostrate soldiery in the most frightful depths of their misery. - -“Many found themselves embarrassed when trying to choose the best -direction they could for their generous impulses; and not, I think, -the least praiseworthy of all the self-sacrificing enterprises which -imagination devised was that of the enthusiastic young fellow who, -abandoning his life of ease, pleasure, and luxury, went out, as he -probably phrased it, to ‘fag’ for the Lady-in-Chief. Whether fetching -and carrying for her, or writing for her letters or orders, or orally -conveying her wishes to public servants or others, he, for months and -months, faithfully toiled, obeying in all things her word. - -“There was grace—grace almost mediæval—in his simple yet romantic idea; -and, if humbly, still not the less usefully he aided the sacred cause, -for it was one largely, mainly dependent on the power of the lady he -served; so that, when by obeying her orders he augmented her means of -action, and saved her precious time, there were unnumbered sufferers -deriving sure benefit from his opportune, well-applied help. By no other -kind of toil, however ambitiously aimed, could he well have achieved so -much good.” - -But there was many a disappointment, much that did not seem “good luck” -by any means, and that called for great courage and endurance. The -stores, which Mr. Herbert had sent out in such abundance, had gone to -Varna by mistake, and the loss of the _Prince_, a ship laden with ample -supplies, a fortnight after Miss Nightingale’s arrival, was a very -serious matter. - -Warm clothing for the frost-bitten men brought in from Sebastopol was so -badly needed that one nurse, writing home, told her people: “Whenever -a man opens his mouth with ‘Please, ma’am, I want to speak to you,’ my -heart sinks within me, for I feel sure it will end in flannel shirts.” - -Every one had for too long been saying “all right,” when, as a matter of -fact, it was all wrong. Here once again it is best to quote Kinglake. -“By shunning the irksome light,” he says, “by choosing a low standard of -excellence, and by vaguely thinking ‘War’ an excuse for defects which -war did not cause, men, it seems, had contrived to be satisfied with -the condition of our hospitals; but the Lady-in-Chief was one who would -harbour no such content, seek no such refuge from pain. Not for her was -the bliss—fragile bliss—of dwelling in any false paradise. She confronted -the hideous truth. Her first care was—Eve-like—to dare to know, and—still -Eve-like—to force dreaded knowledge on the faltering lord of creation. -Then declaring against acquiescence in horror and misery which firmness -and toil might remove, she waged her ceaseless war against custom and -sloth, gaining every day on the enemy, and achieving, as we saw, in -December, that which to eyes less intent than her own upon actual saving -of life, and actual restoration of health, seemed already the highest -excellence.” - -But, of course, what most made the men adore her was her loving -individual care for each of those for whom she felt herself responsible. -There was one occasion on which she begged to be allowed to try whether -she could nurse back to possible life five wounded men who were being -given up as “hopeless cases,” and did actually succeed in doing so. - -In all that terrible confusion of suffering that surrounded her soon -after her first arrival, the first duty of the doctors was to sort out -from the wounded as they arrived those cases which they could help and -save from those which it seemed no human surgery could help. - -While this was being done she stood by: she never spared herself the -sight of suffering, and her eyes—the trained eyes that had all the -intuition of a born nurse—saw a glimmer of hope for five badly wounded -men who were being set aside among those for whom nothing could be done. - -“Will you give me those five men?” she asked. She knew how much might -be done by gentle and gradual feeding, and by all the intently watchful -care of a good nurse, to give them just enough strength to risk the -surgery that might save them. With her own hand, spoonful by spoonful, -as they were able to bear it, she gave the nourishment, and by her own -night-long watching and tending in the care of all those details which -to a poor helpless patient may make the difference between life and -death—the purifying of the air, the avoidance of draughts, the mending of -the fire—she nursed her five patients back into a condition in which the -risks of an operation were, to say the least of it, greatly lessened. The -operation was in each case successfully performed; by all human standards -it may be said that she saved the lives of all the five. - -She never spared herself, though she sometimes spared others. She has -been known to stand for twenty hours out of the twenty-four, and at -night, when she had sent her day-nurses to rest, it was she herself -who watched in all the wards and silently cared for the needs of one -and another. Is it any wonder that “there was worship almost in the -gratitude of the prostrate sufferer, who saw her glide into his ward, -and at last approach his bedside? The magic of her power over men used -often to be felt in the room—the dreaded, the blood-stained room—where -‘operations’ took place. There, perhaps, the maimed soldier, if not yet -resigned to his fate, might at first be craving death rather than meet -the knife of the surgeon; but, when such a one looked and saw that the -honoured Lady-in-Chief was patiently standing beside him, and—with lips -closely set and hands folded—decreeing herself to go through the pain of -witnessing pain, he used to fall into the mood for obeying her silent -command, and—finding strange support in her presence—bring himself to -submit and endure.”[13] - -M. Soyer, who placed his culinary art at her service, has written a book -about his experiences in which he tells us that, after a merry evening in -the doctors’ quarters, when on his way back to his own, he saw by a faint -light a little group—shadowy in the half-darkness—in a corner of one -of the corridors. A Sister stood beside Miss Nightingale with a lighted -candle that she might see clearly enough to scribble down the last wishes -of the dying soldier who was supported on the bed beside her. With its -deep colouring, described as like a grave study by Rembrandt, the little -picture drew the passer-by, and for a few minutes he watched unseen while -the Lady-in-Chief took into those “tender womanly hands” the watch and -trinkets of the soldier, who with his last gasping breath was trying to -make clear to her his farewell message to his wife and children. And this -seems to have been but one among many kindred scenes. - -We have all heard of the man who watched till her shadow fell across the -wall by his bed that he might at least kiss that shadow as it passed; but -few of us, perhaps, know the whole story. The man was a Highland soldier -who had been doomed to lose his arm by amputation. Miss Nightingale -believed that she might possibly be able to save the arm by careful -nursing, and she begged that she might at least be allowed to try. -Nursing was to her an art as well as a labour of love. The ceaseless care -in matters of detail, which she considered the very alphabet of that art, -stand out clearly in her own _Notes on Nursing_. And in this instance her -skill and watchfulness and untiring effort saved the man’s arm. No wonder -that he wanted to kiss her shadow! - -To the wives of the soldiers she was indeed a saving angel. When she -arrived at Scutari, they were living, we are told, literally in holes and -corners of the hospital. Their clothes were worn out. They had neither -bonnets, nor shoes, nor any claim on rations. Poor faithful creatures, -many of them described in the biographies as respectable and decent, they -had followed their husbands through all the horrors of the campaign, and -now, divided from them and thrust aside for want of space, they were -indeed in sorry case. - -Well might Miss Nightingale write later, and well may we all lay it to -heart—“When the improvements in our system are discussed, let not the -wife and child of the soldier be forgotten.” - -After being moved about from one den to another, the poor women—some -wives and some, alas, widows—had been quartered in a few damp rooms in -the hospital basement, where those who wanted solitude or privacy could -do nothing to secure it beyond hanging a few rags on a line as a sort of -screen between home and home. And in these desolate quarters many babies -had been born. - -It was but the last drop of misery in their cup when, early in 1855, -a month or two after Miss Nightingale’s arrival, a drain broke in the -basement, and fever followed. - -Miss Nightingale had already sought them out, and from her own stores -given them food and clothing; but now she did not rest until through her -influence a house had been requisitioned and cleaned and furnished for -them out of her own funds. Next, after fitting out the widows to return -to their homes, employment was found for the wives who remained. Work was -found for some of them in Constantinople, but for most of them occupation -was at hand in the laundry she had set going, and there those who were -willing to do their part could earn from 10s. to 14s. a week. In this -way, through our heroine’s wise energy, helped by the wife and daughter -of Dr. Blackwood, one of the army chaplains, we are told that about 500 -women were cared for. - -There had already arrived through the hands of Mr. Sidney Herbert, who -forwarded it to Miss Nightingale, a message from Queen Victoria—in effect -a letter—which greatly cheered the army and also strengthened Miss -Nightingale’s position. - - “WINDSOR CASTLE, _December 6, ’54_. - - “Would you tell Mrs. Herbert,” wrote the Queen to Mr. - Sidney Herbert, “that I beg she would let me see frequently - the accounts she receives from Miss Nightingale or Mrs. - Bracebridge, as I hear no details of the wounded, though I - see so many from officers, etc., about the battlefield, and - naturally the former must interest me more than any one. - - “Let Mrs. Herbert also know that I wish Miss Nightingale and - the ladies would tell these poor, noble wounded and sick men - that no one takes a warmer interest or feels more for their - sufferings or admires their courage and heroism more than their - Queen. Day and night she thinks of her beloved troops. So does - the Prince. - - “Beg Mrs. Herbert to communicate these my words to those - ladies, as I know that our sympathy is much valued by these - noble fellows. - - “VICTORIA.” - - -Miss Nightingale agreed with the Queen in her use of the word “noble” -here, for she herself has written of the men:— - - “Never came from any of them one word nor one look which a - gentleman would not have used; and while paying this humble - tribute to humble courtesy, the tears come into my eyes as I - think how, amidst scenes of ... loathsome disease and death, - there rose above it all the innate dignity, gentleness, and - chivalry of the men (for never, surely, was chivalry so - strikingly exemplified), shining in the midst of what must be - considered as the lowest sinks of human misery, and preventing - instinctively the use of one expression which could distress a - gentlewoman.” - -Having transcribed the Queen’s letter, this may be a good place for -adding from the letters of Sister Aloysius a little instance of Her -Majesty’s homely kindness to her troops whenever she heard of any need -which she could supply:— - - “When Miss Stanley reached England, Her Majesty the Queen - (anxious, of course, to hear all about her soldiers) sent for - her; and when the interview was nearly over Her Majesty asked - her what she thought the poor soldiers would like—she was - anxious to send them a present. Miss Stanley said: ‘Oh, I do - know what they would like—plenty of flannel shirts, mufflers, - butter, and treacle.’ Her Majesty said they must have all these - things; and they did come out in abundance: Kullali got its - share of the gifts. But the very name of butter or treacle was - enough for the doctors: they said they would not allow it into - the wards, because it would be going about in bits of paper - and daubing everything. So Rev. Mother at once interposed, and - said if the doctors allowed it, she would have it distributed - in a way that could give no trouble. They apologized, and said - they should have known that, and at once left everything to - her. Each Sister got her portion of butter and treacle (which - were given only to the convalescent patients), and when the - bell rang every evening for tea she stood at the table in the - centre of the ward, and each soldier walked over and got his - bread buttered, and some treacle if he wished spread on like - jam. We told them it was a gift from the Queen; and if Her - Majesty could only have seen how gratified they were it would - have given her pleasure. One evening Lady Stratford, and some - distinguished guests who were staying at the Embassy, came, - and were much pleased to see how happy and comfortable the men - were, and how much they enjoyed Her Majesty’s gifts.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - - _Letters from Scutari—Kinglake on Miss Nightingale and her - dynasty—The refusal of a new contingent._ - - -Miss Nightingale’s saving sense of humour gleams forth in her letters -in the most delightful way, even in the darkest days. In the following, -something of the hugeness of her task is dimly seen through the comic -background of the unbecoming cap that “If I’d known, ma’am, I wouldn’t -have come, ma’am.” Here is the letter just as it is given in Lord -Herbert’s life. It begins abruptly, evidently quoting from a conversation -just held with one of the staff nurses:— - - “‘I came out, ma’am, prepared to submit to everything, to be - put upon in every way. But there are some things, ma’am, one - can’t submit to. There is the caps, ma’am, that suits one face - and some that suits another; and if I’d known, ma’am, about the - caps, great as was my desire to come out to nurse at Scutari, - I wouldn’t have come, ma’am.’—_Speech of Mrs. L., Barrack - Hospital, Scutari, Asiatic Side, November 14, 1854._ - - “Time must be at a discount with the man who can adjust the - balance of such an important question as the above, and I for - one have none, as you will easily suppose when I tell you that - on Thursday last we had 1,175 sick and wounded in this hospital - (among whom 120 cholera patients), and 650 severely wounded in - the other building, called the General Hospital, of which we - also have charge, when a message came to me to prepare for 510 - wounded on our side of the hospital, who were arriving from the - dreadful affair of November 5, from Balaclava, in which battle - were 1,763 wounded and 442 killed, besides 96 officers wounded - and 38 killed. I always expected to end my days as a hospital - matron, but I never expected to be barrack mistress. We had but - half an hour’s notice before they began landing the wounded. - Between one and nine o’clock we had the mattresses stuffed, - sewn up, laid down (alas! only upon matting on the floor), the - men washed and put to bed, and all their wounds dressed. - - “We are very lucky in our medical heads. Two of them are - brutes and four are angels—for this is a work which makes - either angels or devils of men, and of women too. As for - the assistants, they are all cubs, and will, while a man - is breathing his last breath under the knife, lament the - ‘annoyance of being called up from their dinners by such a - fresh influx of wounded.’ But unlicked cubs grow up into good - old bears, though I don’t know how; for certain it is, the old - bears are good. We have now four miles of beds and not eighteen - inches apart. - - “We have our quarters in one tower of the barracks, and all - this fresh influx has been laid down between us and the main - guard, in two corridors, with a line of beds down each side, - just room for one person to pass between, and four wards. Yet - in the midst of this appalling horror (we are steeped up to our - necks in blood) there is good—and I can truly say, like St. - Peter, ‘It is good for us to be here’—though I doubt whether, - if St. Peter had been there, he would have said so.” - -Meanwhile England, stirred to its depths by the accounts given by Mr. -William Howard Russell, of the sufferings of our soldiers, had begged the -_Times_, in whose pages his letters appeared, to receive funds and send -them out by the hand of Mr. Macdonald, a man of vigour, firmness, and -good sense, and “loyally devoted to his duty.” Before leaving England, -he saw the Inspector-General of the army, Dr. Andrew Smith, and also the -Duke of Newcastle, but was assured that Government had already provided -so amply for the sick and wounded that his fund was not likely to be -needed. When he reached the Bosphorus all the official people there -talked to him in the same strain. But there leaked out through an officer -on duty one little fact that showed how much such assurances were worth. - -It seemed that the 39th Regiment was actually on its way to the -severities of a Crimean winter with only the light summer clothing that -would be worn in hot countries. Happily, the surgeon of the regiment -appealed to Mr. Macdonald, and, more happily still, Mr. Macdonald dared -to go beyond his exact instructions and give help out of his fund which -might prevent illness, instead of waiting for the moment when death was -already at the door. He went into the markets of Constantinople and -bought then and there a suit of flannels or other woollens for every man -in that regiment. - -Mr. Macdonald saw that he must be ready to offer help, or red tape and -loyalty together would seal the lips of men in the service, lest they -should seem to be casting a slur on the army administration. - -There is humour of the grimmest kind in what resulted. The chief of the -Scutari hospitals told him “nothing was wanted,” and on pushing his -inquiry with a yet more distinguished personage, he was actually advised -to spend the money on building a church at Pera! - - “Yet at that very time,” says Kinglake, “wants so dire as - to include want of hospital furniture and of shirts for the - patients, and of the commonest means for obtaining cleanliness, - were afflicting our stricken soldiery in the hospitals.” - -The Pera proposal—rightly described as “astounding”—led to an interview -with the Lady-in-Chief. Tears and laughter must have met in her heart -as she heard this absurdity, and away she took him—money as well—to the -very centre of her commissariat, to see for himself the daily demands and -the gaping need—furniture, pillows, sheets, shirts—endless appliances -and drugs—that need seemed truly endless, and many hours daily he spent -with her in the Nurses’ Tower, taking down lists of orders for the -storekeepers in Constantinople. Here was the right help at last—not -pretty mufflers for men in need of shirts, nor fine cambric for stout -bed-linen. - -However, from the Lady-in-Chief Mr. Macdonald soon learned the truth, -and the course he then took was one of the simplest kind, but it worked -a mighty change. He bought the things needed, and the authorities, -succumbing at last to this excruciating form of demonstration, had to -witness the supply of wants which before they had refused to confess. -So now, besides using the stores which she had at her own command, the -Lady-in-Chief could impart wants felt in our hospitals to Mr. Macdonald -with the certainty that he would hasten to meet them by applying what was -called the “_Times_ Fund” in purchasing the articles needed. - - “It was thus,” adds Kinglake, “that under the sway of motives - superbly exalted, a great lady came to the rescue of our - prostrate soldiery, made good the default of the State, won the - gratitude, the rapt admiration of an enthusiastic people, and - earned for the name she bears a pure, a lasting renown. - - “She even did more. By the very power of her fame, but also, - I believe, by the wisdom and the authority of her counsels, - she founded, if so one may speak, a gracious dynasty that - still reigns supreme in the wards where sufferers lie, and - even brings solace, brings guidance, brings hope, into those - dens of misery that, until the blessing has reached them, seem - only to harbour despair. When into the midst of such scenes - the young high-bred lady now glides, she wears that same - sacred armour—the gentle attire of the servitress—which seemed - ‘heavenly’ in the eyes of our soldiers at the time of the war, - and finds strength to meet her dire task, because she knows by - tradition what the first of the dynasty proved able to confront - and to vanquish in the wards of the great Barrack Hospital.” - -In everything a woman’s hand and brain had been needed. It was, for -instance, of little use to receive in the evening, after barrack fires -were out, food which had been asked for from the supplies for some meal -several hours earlier; yet that, it appears, was the sort of thing that -happened. And too much of the food officially provided, even when it did -reach the patients at last, had been unfit for use. - -As for the question of laundry, a washing contract that had only -succeeded in washing seven shirts for two or three thousand men could -not have been permitted to exist under any feminine management. Nor could -any trained or knowledgeable nurse have allowed for a single day the -washing of infectious bed-linen in one common tub with the rest. Yet this -had been the condition of affairs before the Lady-in-Chief came on the -scenes. In speaking of her work among the soldiers’ wives it has already -been noted how she quickly hired and fitted up a house close to the -hospital as a laundry, where under sanitary regulations 500 shirts and -150 other articles were washed every week. - -Then there arose the practical question of what could be done for the -poor fellows who had no clothes at all except the grimy and blood-stained -garments in which they arrived, and we are told that in the first three -months, out of her own private funds, she provided the men with ten -thousand shirts. - -The drugs had all been in such confusion that once when Mrs. Bracebridge -had asked three times for chloride of lime and been assured that there -was none, Miss Nightingale insisted on a thorough search, and not less -than ninety pounds of it were discovered. - -The semi-starvation of many hospital patients before Miss Nightingale’s -arrival, noted on an earlier page, was chiefly the result of -mismanagement—mismanagement on the part of those who meant well—often, -indeed, meant the very best within their power, but among whom there -was, until her coming, no central directing power, with brain and heart -alike capable and energizing and alive to all the vital needs of deathly -illness—alert with large foreseeing outlook, yet shrewd and swift in -detail. - -It is at first puzzling to compare Kinglake’s picture of the confusion -and suffering, even while he is defending Lord Raglan, with some of -the letters in Lord Stanmore’s “Life of Lord Herbert,” especially one -from General Estcourt, in which he says “never was an army better fed.” -But even in this letter—dated, be it noted, a fortnight after Miss -Nightingale’s arrival—the next sentence, which refers, of course, to the -army in general and not to the hospitals under her management, shows the -same muddling that had pursued the hospitals until she came to their -aid with Mr. Herbert and the War Office at her back; for after saying -that the ration is ample and most liberal, it adds—and the italics are -mine—“_but the men cannot cook for want of camp-kettles and for want of -fuel_.” - -Yet even with regard to the hospitals, it is startling to find Mr. -Bracebridge, in his first letter to Mr. Herbert, speaking of the Barrack -Hospital as clean and airy. But people have such odd ideas of what is -“clean and airy,” and it would seem that he thought it “clean and airy” -for the patients to have no proper arrangements for washing, for the -drains to be in such a noisome state as to need engineering, and for six -dead dogs to be rotting under the windows! I suppose he liked the look -of the walls and the height of the ceilings, and wanted, moreover, to -comfort Mr. Herbert’s sad heart at a time when all England was up in arms -at the mistakes made in transport and other arrangements. - -The letters of the chaplain to Mr. Herbert are full of interest, and -in reading the following we have to put ourselves back into the mind -of a time that looked anxiously to see whether Miss Nightingale was -really equal to her task—an idea which to us of to-day seems foolish and -timorous, but which was, after all, quite natural, seeing that she was -new and untried in this particular venture of army nursing, and that half -the onlookers had no idea of the long and varied training she had had. - - “MY DEAR HERBERT,—I have now had near a week’s opportunity of - closely observing the details of the hospitals at Scutari. - First, as to Miss Nightingale and her company, nothing can be - said too strong in their praise; she works them wonderfully, - and they are so useful that I have no hesitation in saying some - twenty more of the same sort would be a very great blessing - to the establishment. Her nerve is equal to her good sense; - she, with one of her nurses and myself, gave efficient aid at - an amputation of the thigh yesterday. She was just as cool - as if she had had to do it herself. We are close allies, and - through Macdonald and the funds at my own command, I get her - everything for which she asks, and this is saying a great deal. - - “My honest view of the matter is this: I found but too great - evidence of the staff and means being unequal to the emergency; - the requirements have almost doubled through the last two - unhappy actions at Balaclava. Still, day by day I see manifest - improvement; no government, no nation could have provided, on - a sudden, staff and appliances for accident wards miles in - length, and for such sickness as that horrid Varna dysentery. - To manage more than three thousand casualties of the worst - nature is indeed a task to be met in an entirely satisfactory - way by nothing short of a miraculous energy with the means - it would require. The men are landed necessarily in a most - pitiable state, and have to be carried up steep ground for - considerable distance, either by those beasts of Turks, who are - as stupid as callous, or by our invalids, who are not equal to - the task. Still, it is done, and as this is war, not peace, and - Scutari is really a battlefield, I am more disposed to lament - than to blame. - - “There seems now, so far as I can see, no lack of lint and - plaister; there is a lack of linen,—we have sent home for it. - The surgeons are working their utmost, and serious cases seem - treated with great humanity and skill. There was and is an - awful want of shirts for the men, and socks, and such matters; - we have already let Miss Nightingale have all she applies for, - and this morning I, with Macdonald’s sanction, or, rather, in - concert with him, have sent to the Crimea a large stock of - shirts of warm serge, socks, flannel, tea, etc., etc. I spend - the best part of every day there acting, at one time as priest - to the dying, at another helping the surgeons or the men to - dress their wounds; again, I go to the landing-place and try - to work them into method for an hour or two, etc., etc. One - and all are now most kind and civil to me, meet my wishes in - every way they can. Alas! I fear, with every possible effort - of the existing establishment, the crisis is still too great; - there are wanting hundreds of beds—that is, many hundreds have - only matting between the beds and the stone floor. I slept - here Sunday night, and walked the wards late and early in - the morning; I fear the cold weather in these passages will - produce on men so crippled and so maimed much supplementary - evil in the way of coughs and chest diseases. The wounded do - better than the sick. I scarce pray with one of the latter one - day but I hear he is dead on the morrow.... I am glad to say - the authorities have left off swearing they had everything - and wanted nothing; they are now grateful for the help which, - with the fund at command, we liberally meet. The wounds are, - many of them, of the most fearful character, and yet I have - not heard a murmur, even from those who, from the pressing - urgency of the case, are often left with most obvious grounds - of complaint. Stafford O’Brien is here; he, at my suggestion, - aids my son and self in letter writing for the poor creatures. - My room is a post office; I pay the post of every letter from - every hospital patient, and we write masses every day. They - show one what the British soldier really is; I only wish to God - the people of England, who regard the red coat as a mere guise - of a roystering rake in the private and a dandified exclusive - in the officer, could see the patience, true modesty, and - courageous endurance of all ranks. - - “Understand me clearly. I could pick many a hole; I could - show where head has been wanting, truth perverted, duty - neglected, etc.; but I feel that the pressure was such and of - so frightful, so severe (in one way) a character, there is such - an effort at what we desire, that I for one cry out of the past - ‘_non mi ricordo_;’ of the present, ‘If the cart is in the - rut, there is every shoulder at the wheel.’ The things wanted - we cannot wait for you to supply, in England; if the slaughter - is to go on as it has done the last fortnight, the need must - be met at once. Macdonald is doing his work most sensibly, - steadily, and I believe not only with no offence to any, but is - earning the goodwill of all.” - -Truth is a two-edged sword, and for purposes of rebuke or reform Miss -Nightingale used it at times with keenness and daring. In that sense this -glowing, loving-hearted woman knew how on occasions to be stern. Her -salt never lost its savour. She was swift, efficient, capable to the -last degree, and she was also high-spirited and sometimes sharp-tongued. -Perhaps we love her all the more for being so human. A person outwardly -all perfection, if not altogether divine, is apt to give the idea -that there are faults hidden up somewhere. It was not so with Miss -Nightingale. Her determination to carry at all costs the purpose she had -in hand laid her often open to criticism, for, just as she was ready on -occasion to override her own feelings, so also she was ready sometimes to -override the feelings of others. Mr. Herbert judged from her letters that -an addition to her staff of nurses would be welcome, but we saw that when -the new band of forty-six arrived, under the escort of Miss Nightingale’s -old friend Miss Stanley, they were not admitted to the hospital at -Scutari, and to tell the truth, Miss Nightingale was very angry at their -being thrust upon her, just when she was finding her own staff rather a -“handful.” In point of fact, she not only wrote a very warm letter to her -old friend Mr. Herbert, but she also formally gave in her resignation. - -This was not accepted. Mr. Herbert’s generous sweetness of nature, his -love for the writer, and his belief that she was the one person needed -in the hospitals, and was doing wonders there, led him to write a very -noble and humble reply, saying that _he_ had made a mistake—which, -indeed, was true enough—in taking his well-meant step without consulting -her. She yielded her point in so far as to remain at her post, now that -Miss Stanley and her staff had moved on to Therapia and Smyrna, and were -doing real good there, Miss Stanley having given up all her own plans, to -remain and look after the nurses who had come under her escort. - -But, apart from the fact that it would have been a great hindrance to -discipline to have forty-six women on her hands who had _not_ promised -obedience to her, as had her own nurses, a little sidelight is thrown -upon it all by these words in one of Miss Stanley’s own letters, speaking -of the nurses under her guardianship:— - - “The first night there was great dissatisfaction among them, - and a strong inclination to strike work. ‘We are not come out - to be cooks, housemaids, and washerwomen,’ and they dwelt - considerably on Mr. Herbert’s words about equality. _They are - like troublesome children._” - -Though our sympathy goes out to Miss Stanley, it is not impossible that -Miss Nightingale’s decision may have saved Scutari from unavoidable -confusions of authority which would have been very unseemly, and from -more than a possibility of defeat in the experiment she was making, in -the eyes of all Europe, as to how far women could be wisely admitted -into military hospitals. Such confusion might have arisen, not from any -fault in Miss Nightingale or Miss Stanley, but from the special work of -reorganization which had to be done at Scutari, and the special code of -obedience by which Miss Nightingale’s staff had been prepared for it. She -did not want for such work any “troublesome children.” - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - - _The busy nursing hive—M. Soyer and his memories—Miss - Nightingale’s complete triumph over prejudice—The memories of - Sister Aloysius._ - - -Meanwhile Miss Stanley’s letters give us a very interesting informal -glimpse of the work that was going on and of Miss Nightingale herself. -Here is one in which she describes her visit to her in the hospital at -Scutari:— - - “We passed down two or three of these immense corridors, asking - our way as we went. At last we came to the guard-room, another - corridor, then through a door into a large, busy kitchen, where - stood Mrs. Margaret Williams, who seemed much pleased to see - me: then a heavy curtain was raised; I went through a door, and - there sat dear Flo writing on a small unpainted deal table. I - never saw her looking better. She had on her black merino, - trimmed with black velvet, clean linen collar and cuffs, apron, - white cap with a black handkerchief tied over it; and there was - Mrs. Bracebridge, looking so nice, too. I was quite satisfied - with my welcome. It was settled at once that I was to sleep - here, especially as, being post day, Flo could not attend to me - till the afternoon. - - “The sofa is covered with newspapers just come in by the post. - I have been sitting for an hour here, having some coffee, and - writing, Mrs. Clarke coming in to see what I have wanted, in - spite of what I could say. - - “The work this morning was the sending off General Adams’s - remains, and the arrangements consequent upon it. - - “A stream of people every minute. - - “‘Please, ma’am, have you any black-edged paper?’ - - “‘Please, what can I give which would keep on his stomach; is - there any arrowroot to-day for him?’ - - “‘No; the tubs of arrowroot must be for the worst cases; we - cannot spare him any, nor is there any jelly to-day; try him - with some eggs, etc.’ - - “‘Please, Mr. Gordon wishes to see Miss Nightingale about the - orders she gave him.’ - - “Mr. Sabine comes in for something else. - - “Mr. Bracebridge in and out about General Adams, and orders of - various kinds.” - -Such was the busy life of which Miss Nightingale was the queen, though, -unlike the queen-bee of the ordinary honey-hive, this queen of nurses was -the hardest-worked and most severely strained worker in the whole toiling -community. - -It was early in the spring of 1855 that in the feeding department, which -she rightly considered of great importance to her invalids, she received -unexpected help. - -This came from M. Soyer, who may be remembered by more than one old -Londoner as at one time _chef_ of the New Reform Club, where his -biography, which contains some interesting illustrations, still adorns -the library. M. Soyer begged to be allowed the command of the hospital -kitchen at Scutari. He was an expert and an enthusiast, and very amusing. - -Also what he offered was of no slight importance and unselfishness. In -February, 1855, he wrote as follows to the _Times_:— - - “Sir,—After carefully perusing the letter of your - correspondent, dated Scutari, in your impression of Wednesday - last, I perceive that, although the kitchen under the - superintendence of Miss Nightingale affords so much relief, - the system of management at the large one at the Barrack - Hospital is far from being perfect. I propose offering my - services gratuitously, and proceeding direct to Scutari at my - own personal expense, to regulate that important department, - if the Government will honour me with their confidence, and - grant me the full power of acting according to my knowledge and - experience in such matters.—I have the honour to remain, sir, - your obedient servant, - - “A. SOYER.” - - -His proposal was accepted, and on his arrival at Scutari he was welcomed -by Miss Nightingale in what he names, after his rather florid manner, “a -sanctuary of benevolence.” There he presented his letters and parcels -from the Duchess of Sutherland and Mr. Stafford and others, the Duchess -especially commending him to the Lady-in-Chief as likely to be of service -in the cooking department. He was found to be a most valuable ally, and -his letters and writings, since published, are full of interest. He -wrote home at once, saying: “I must especially express my gratitude to -Miss Nightingale, who from her extraordinary intelligence and the good -organization of her kitchen procured me every material for making a -commencement, and thus saved me at least one week’s sheer loss of time, -as my model kitchen did not arrive till Saturday last.” - -This is interesting, because it shows yet once more Miss Nightingale’s -thoroughness and foresight and attention to detail—the more valuable in -one whose outlook at the same time touched so wide a skyline, and was so -large in its noble care for a far-off future and a world of many nations, -never bounded by her own small island or her own church pew. - -Soyer’s description of her is worth giving in full, and later we shall, -through his eyes, have a vision of her as she rode to Balaclava. - - “Her visage as regards expression is very remarkable, and one - can almost anticipate by her countenance what she is about to - say: alternately, with matters of the most grave importance, - a gentle smile passes radiantly over her countenance, thus - proving her evenness of temper; at other times, when wit or - a pleasantry prevails, the heroine is lost in the happy, - good-natured smile which pervades her face, and you recognize - only the charming woman. Her dress is generally of a greyish - or black tint; she wears a simple white cap, and often a rough - apron. In a word, her whole appearance is religiously simple - and unsophisticated. In conversation no member of the fair sex - can be more amiable and gentle than Miss Nightingale. Removed - from her arduous and cavalier-like duties, which require the - nerve of a Hercules—and she possesses it when required—she is - Rachel on the stage in both tragedy and comedy.” - -Soyer’s help and loyalty proved invaluable all through the campaign. His -volume of memories adds a vivid bit of colour here and there to these -pages. His own life had been romantic, and he saw everything from the -romantic point of view. - -We read and know that although Sidney Herbert’s letter to Dr. Menzies, -the principal medical officer at Scutari, asked that all regard should be -paid to every wish of the Lady-in-Chief, and that was in itself a great -means of power, the greatest power of all lay in her own personality and -its compelling magnetism, which drew others to obedience. The attractive -force of a strong, clear, comprehensive mind, and still more of a soul on -fire with high purpose and deep compassion, which never wasted themselves -in words, became tenfold the more powerful for the restraint and -self-discipline which held all boisterous expression of them in check—her -word, her very glance, - - “Winning its way with extreme gentleness - Through all the outworks of suspicious pride.” - -Her strength was to be tried to the uttermost; for scarcely had her work -in the hospital begun when cholera came stalking over the threshold. Day -and night among the dying and the dead she and her nurses toiled with -fearless devotion, each one carrying her life in her hand, but seldom, -indeed, even thinking of that in the heroic struggle to save as many -other lives as possible. - -Miss Nightingale long afterwards, when talking of services of a far -easier kind, once said to a professional friend that no one was fit to be -a nurse who did not really enjoy precisely those duties of a sick-room -which the ordinary uneducated woman counts revolting; and if she was, at -this time, now and then impatient with stupidity and incompetence and -carelessness, that is not wonderful in one whose effort was always at -high level, and for whom every detail was of vivid interest, because she -realized that often on exactitude in details hung the balance between -life and death. - -On their first arrival she and her nurses may, no doubt, have had to bear -cold-shouldering and jealousy; but in the long agony of the cholera -visitation they were welcomed as veritable angels of light. It would -be easy to be sensational in describing the scenes amid which they -moved, for before long the hospital was filled, day and night, with two -long processions: on one side came in those who carried the sick men -in on their stretchers, and on the other side those who carried out -the dead. The orderlies could not have been trusted to do the nursing -that was required; the “stuping”—a professional method of wholesale hot -fomentations and rubbings to release the iron rigidity of the cholera -patient’s body—was best done by skilled and gentle hands, and even in -_such_ hands, so bad were the surrounding conditions—the crowding, the -bad drainage, the impure water—that, despite the utmost devotion, only a -small proportion of lives could be saved. - -It was especially at this time that the feeling towards the Lady-in-Chief -deepened into a trust that was almost worship. Watchful, resourceful, -unconquered, with a mind that, missing no detail, yet took account of -the widest issues and the farthest ends, she was yet full of divine -tenderness for each sufferer whom with her own hands she tended; and, -although she did not nurse the officers—she left that to others—in her -devotion to Tommy Atkins she had been known to be on her feet, as already -has been said, for twenty hours on end; and, whether she was kneeling or -standing, stooping or lifting, always an ideal nurse. - -The graves round the hospitals were not dug deep enough, and the air -became even fouler than before. To the inroads of cholera the suffering -of Sebastopol patients added a new form of death. Sister Aloysius writes -of these men who came in by scores and hundreds from the trenches, and -whom this Sister, greatly valued by the Lady-in-Chief, helped to nurse -both at Scutari and at Balaclava:— - - “I must say something of my poor frost-bitten patients. The men - who came from the ‘front,’ as they called it, had only thin - linen suits, no other clothing to keep out the Crimean frost - of 1854-5. When they were carried in on the stretchers which - conveyed so many to their last resting-place, their clothes - had to be cut off. In most cases the flesh and clothes were - frozen together; and, as for the feet, the boots had to be cut - off bit by bit, the flesh coming off with them; many pieces of - the flesh I have seen remain in the boot. - - “We have just received some hundreds of poor creatures, worn - out with sufferings beyond any you could imagine, in the - Crimea, where the cold is so intense that a soldier described - to me the Russians and the Allies in a sudden skirmish, and - neither party able to draw a trigger! So fancy what the poor - soldiers must endure in the ‘trenches.’ - - “It was a comfort to think that these brave men had some care, - all that we could procure for them. For at this time the food - was very bad—goat’s flesh, and sometimes what they called - mutton, but black, blue, and green. Yet who could complain of - anything after the sufferings I have faintly described—borne, - too, with such patience: not a murmur!... One day, after a - batch had arrived from the Crimea, and I had gone my rounds - through them, one of my orderlies told me that a man wanted to - speak one word to me. - - “When I had a moment I went to him. ‘Tell me at once what you - want; I have worse cases to see after’—he did not happen to be - very bad. ‘All I want to know, ma’am, is, are you one of our - own Sisters of Mercy from Ireland?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘your very - own.’ ‘God be praised for that!’ - - “Another poor fellow said to me one day, ‘Do they give you - anything good out here?’ ‘Oh yes,’ I said; ‘why do you ask me?’ - ‘Because, ma’am, you gave me a piece of chicken for my dinner, - and I kept some of it for you.’ He pulled it out from under his - head and offered it to me. I declined the favour with thanks. I - never could say enough of those kind-hearted soldiers and their - consideration for us in the midst of their sufferings.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - - _Inexactitudes—Labels—Cholera—“The Lady with the Lamp”—Her - humour—Letters of Sister Aloysius._ - - -About the middle of December Miss Nightingale had to rebuke very severely -one of her own nurses, who had written a letter to the _Times_ which made -a great sensation by its lurid picture of the evils in the hospital—a -misrepresentation so great that the nurse herself confessed in the end -that it was “a tissue of exaggerations”—perhaps “inexactitudes” would be -our modern word. - -Meanwhile, the small-minded parochial gossips at home were wasting -their time in discussing Miss Nightingale’s religious opinions. One who -worked so happily with all who served the same Master was first accused -under the old cry of “Popery,” and then under the equally silly label -of “Unitarianism.” Her friend Mrs. Herbert, in rebuking parish gossip, -felt it necessary to unpin these two labels and loyally pin on a new one, -by explaining that in reality she was rather “Low Church.” The really -sensible person, with whom, doubtless, Lady Herbert would have fully -agreed, was the Irish parson, and his like, when he replied to some -foolish questions about her that Miss Nightingale belonged to a very rare -sect indeed—the sect of the Good Samaritans. - -Miss Stanley tells a most amusing story of how one of the military -chaplains complained to Miss Jebbut that very improper books had been -circulated in the wards; she pressed in vain to know what they were. “As -I was coming away he begged for five minutes’ conversation, said he was -answerable for the men and what they read, and he must protest against -sentiments he neither approved nor understood, and that he would fetch me -the book. It was Keble’s ‘Christian Year,’ which Miss Jebbut had lent to -a sick midshipman!” - -It was a brave heart indeed that the Good Samaritan needed now, with -cholera added to the other horrors of hospital suffering, and the -frost-bitten cases from Sebastopol were almost equally heart-rending. - -It was early in January 1855 that Miss Stanley escorted fifty more -nurses. Most of them worked under Miss Anderson at the General Hospital -at Scutari, but eight were sent into the midst of the fighting at -Balaclava, and of the life there “at the front” the letters of Sister -Aloysius give a terrible picture. We have, for instance, the story of a -man ill and frost-bitten, who found he could not turn on his side because -his feet were frozen to those of the soldier opposite. And it came to -pass that for two months the death-rate in the hospitals was sixty per -cent. - -Night after night, the restless, lonely sufferers watched for the coming -of the slender, white-capped figure with the little light that she shaded -so carefully lest it should waken any sleeper, as she passed through the -long corridors watching over the welfare of her patients, and to them she -was “the Lady with the Lamp.” - -We still see with the American poet:— - - “The wounded from the battle-plain, - In dreary hospitals of pain, - The cheerless corridors, - The cold and stony floors. - - “Lo! in that house of misery - A lady with a lamp I see - Pass through the glimmering gloom, - And flit from room to room. - - “And slow, as in a dream of bliss, - The speechless sufferer turns to kiss - Her shadow, as it falls - Upon the darkening walls.” - -“Ah,” said to me old John Ball, the veteran of the Crimea, who had been -wounded at Alma and been at Scutari a month before her arrival, so that -in his later days there he saw the changes that she wrought, “ah, she was -a _good_ soul—she was a _good_ woman!” And through his words, and those -of the other old men who remembered her, it was possible to discern a -little of the glow, the humour, the homely maternal tenderness with which -the _Wohlgebohrene Dame_ had comforted young and old in their hours of -patriotic wounding and pain. - -For herself, in the long days of sacrificial service, was there any -human solace, any dear companionship, any dawning light of love? - -For us at least, the mere outsiders, to whom she is just a very practical -saint and a very great woman, “there lives no record of reply.” But we -know that, though hers was the solitary path, which yet was no solitude -because of the outpoured love and sympathy to others, when in her -presence once some one was chattering about the advantages of “single -blessedness,” she, with her quick sense of humour, replied that a fish -out of water might be blessed, but a good deal of effort was needed to -become accustomed to the air! - -None of the letters describing the Scutari life are more interesting than -those of Sister Aloysius, the Irish Sister of Mercy, from whose graphic -descriptions quotations have already been made. - - “She and her companions had had only a few hours in which to - prepare for a long and dangerous journey, with the details of - which they were quite unacquainted, only knowing that they were - to start for Turkey at half-past seven in the morning, and - that they went for the love of God. - - “‘And who is to take care of you from this to Turkey?’ asked - one of their amazed well-wishers. To which the Sisters only - replied that ‘they hoped their guardian angels would kindly do - so.’” - -Needless to say, the little party _did_ reach its destination safely, -and “at last,” writes Sister Aloysius, “a despatch came[14] to say that -five Sisters were to proceed to Scutari, to the General Hospital; while -arrangements were made for the other ten Sisters to proceed to a house on -the Bosphorus, to await further orders. At once the five Sisters started -for Scutari: Reverend Mother, Sister M. Agnes, Sister M. Elizabeth, -Sister M. Winifred, and myself. When we reached Scutari we were shown -to our quarters consisting of one little room, not in a very agreeable -locality. However, we were quite satisfied none better could be found, -and for this little nook we were thankful. - -“Of course, we expected to be sent to the wards at once. Sister M. Agnes -and the writer were sent to a store to sort clothes that had been eaten -by the rats; Rev. Mother and Sister M. Elizabeth either to the kitchen or -to another store. In a dark, damp, gloomy shed we set to work and did the -best we could; but, indeed, the destruction accomplished by the rats was -something wonderful. On the woollen goods they had feasted sumptuously. -They were running about us in all directions; we begged of the sergeant -to leave the door open that we might make our escape if they attacked us. -Our home rats would run if you ‘hushed’ them; but you might ‘hush’ away, -and the Scutari rats would not take the least notice. - -“During my stay in the stores I saw numberless funerals pass by the -window. Cholera was raging, and how I did wish to be in the wards amongst -the poor dying soldiers! Before I leave the stores I must mention that -Sister M. Agnes and myself thought the English nobility must have emptied -their wardrobes and linen stores to send out bandages for the wounded—the -most beautiful underclothing, the finest cambric sheets, with merely a -scissors run here and there through them to ensure their being used -for no other purpose. And such large bales, too; some from the Queen’s -Palace, with the Royal monogram beautifully worked. Whoever sent out -these immense bales thought nothing too good for the poor soldiers. And -they were right—nothing was too good for them. And now good-bye stores -and good-bye rats; for I was to be in the cholera wards in the morning. - -“Where shall I begin, or how can I ever describe my first day in the -hospital at Scutari? Vessels were arriving, and the orderlies carrying -the poor fellows, who, with their wounds and frost-bites, had been -tossing about on the Black Sea for two or three days, and sometimes more. -Where were they to go? Not an available bed. They were laid on the floor -one after another, till the beds were emptied of those dying of cholera -and every other disease. Many died immediately after being brought -in—their moans would pierce the heart—the taking of them in and out of -the vessels must have increased their pain. - -“The look of agony in those poor dying faces will never leave my heart. - -“Week in, week out, the cholera went on. The same remedies were -continued, though almost always to fail. However, while there was life -there was hope, and we kept on the warm applications to the last. When it -came near the end the patients got into a sort of collapse, out of which -they did not rally. - -“We begged the orderlies, waiting to take them to the dead-house, to -wait a little lest they might not be dead; and with great difficulty we -prevailed on them to make the least delay. As a rule the orderlies drank -freely—‘to drown their grief,’ they said. I must say that their position -was a very hard one—their work always increasing—and such work; death -around them on every side; their own lives in continual danger—it was -almost for them a continuation of the field of battle. - -“The poor wounded men brought in out of the vessels were in a dreadful -state of dirt, and so weak that whatever cleaning they got had to -be done cautiously. Oh, the state of those fine fellows, so worn -out with fatigue, so full of vermin! Most, or all, of them required -spoon-feeding. We had wine, sago, arrowroot. Indeed, I think there was -everything in the stores, but it was so hard to get them.... An orderly -officer took the rounds of the wards every night to see that all was -right. He was expected by the orderlies, and the moment he raised the -latch one cried out, ‘All right, your honour.’ Many a time I said, ‘All -wrong.’ The poor officer, of course, went his way; and one could scarcely -blame him for not entering those wards, so filled with pestilence, the -air so dreadful that to breathe it might cost him his life. And then, -what could he do even if he did come? I remember one day an officer’s -orderly being brought in—a dreadful case of cholera; and so devoted was -his master that he came in every half-hour to see him, and stood over him -in the bed as if it was only a cold he had; the poor fellow died after a -few hours’ illness. I hope his devoted master escaped. I never heard. - -“Each Sister had charge of two wards, and there was just at this time -a fresh outbreak of cholera. The Sisters were up every night; and the -cases, as in Scutari and Kullali, were nearly all fatal. Reverend Mother -did not allow the Sisters to remain up all night, except in cases of -cholera, without a written order from the doctor. - -“In passing to the wards at night we used to meet the rats in droves. -They would not even move out of our way. They were there before us, and -were determined to keep possession. As for our hut, they evidently wanted -to make it theirs, scraping under the boards, jumping up on the shelf -where our little tin utensils were kept, rattling everything. One night -dear Sister M. Paula found one licking her forehead—she had a real horror -of them. Sleep was out of the question. Our third day in Balaclava was a -very sad one for us. One of our dear band, Sister Winifred, got very ill -during the night with cholera. She was a most angelic Sister, and we were -all deeply grieved. - -“She, the first to go of all our little band, had been full of life and -energy the day before. We were all very sad, and we wondered who would be -the next. - -“Miss Nightingale was at the funeral, and even joined in the prayers. -The soldiers, doctors, officers, and officials followed. When all was -over we returned to our hut, very sad; but we had no further time to -think. Patients were pouring in, and we should be out again to the -cholera wards. Besides cholera there were cases of fever—in fact, of -every disease. Others had been nearly killed by the blasting of rocks, -and they came in fearfully disfigured. - -“Father Woolett brought us one day a present of a Russian cat; he bought -it, he told us, from an old Russian woman for the small sum of seven -shillings. It made a particularly handsome captive in the land of its -fathers, for we were obliged to keep it tied to a chair to prevent its -escape. But the very sight of this powerful champion soon relieved us of -some of our unwelcome and voracious visitors. - -“Early in 1856 rumours of peace reached us from all sides. But our -Heavenly Father demanded another sacrifice from our devoted little band. -Dear Sister Mary Elizabeth was called to a martyrs’ crown. - -“She was specially beloved for her extraordinary sweetness of -disposition. The doctor, when called, pronounced her illness to be fever; -she had caught typhus in her ward. Every loving care was bestowed on her -by our dearest Mother, who scarcely ever left her bedside. Death seemed -to have no sting.... She had no wish to live or die, feeling she was in -the arms of her Heavenly Father. ‘He will do for me what is best,’ she -whispered, ‘and His will is all I desire.’” - -At Scutari Miss Nightingale’s work of reorganization was bearing swift -fruit. The wives of the soldiers were daily employed in the laundry she -had established, so that they had a decent livelihood, and the soldiers -themselves had clean linen. But, of course, a great many of the soldiers -had left their wives and children at home. - -A money office also had been formed by the Lady-in-Chief, which helped -them in sending home their pay. It was she too who arranged for the safe -return of the widows to England, and it was she who provided stamps -and stationery for the men, that they might be able to write to those -dear to them. No one had had a moment, it seemed, to give thought to -anything but the actual warfare with all its horrors, until her womanly -sympathy and splendid capacity came on the scene. With her there was -always little time lost between planning and achieving, and happily she -had power of every kind in her hand. Besides her own means, which she -poured forth like water, the people of England had, as we saw, subscribed -magnificently through the _Times_ Fund, and with one so practical as the -Lady-in-Chief in daily consultation with Mr. Macdonald, there was no -longer any fear of giving to church walls what was intended to save the -lives of ill-clad and dying soldiers. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - - _Miss Nightingale visits Balaclava—Her illness—Lord Raglan’s - visit—The Fall of Sebastopol._ - - -At last, in the May of 1855, the Lady-in-Chief was able to see such -fruits of the six months’ steady work at Scutari that the scene of her -labours could be changed, and she set out for Balaclava to inspect the -other hospitals, for which, as superintendent of the ladies in the -military hospitals in the East, she was responsible. She wished to see -for herself what was being done for the soldiers on the field. Besides -Mr. Bracebridge and her nursing staff, M. Soyer accompanied her with a -view to improving the cooking arrangements for the army in the field, and -he writes with his usual vividness:— - - “Thomas, Miss Nightingale’s boy, the twelve-year-old drummer - who had left what he called his ‘instrument sticks’ to make - himself her most devoted slave and messenger, was also allowed - to go. - - “At nine,” says M. Soyer, “we were all on shore and mounted. - There were about eight of us ready to escort our heroine to the - seat of war. Miss Nightingale was attired simply in a genteel - amazone, or riding habit, and had quite a martial air. She was - mounted upon a very pretty mare of a golden colour which, by - its gambols and caracoling, seemed proud to carry its noble - charge. The weather was very fine. Our cavalcade produced an - extraordinary effect upon the motley crowd of all nations - assembled at Balaclava, who were astonished at seeing a lady so - well escorted. It was not so, however, with those who knew who - the lady was.” - -Later he gives us a most characteristic glimpse of the light-hearted -courage and high spirit of his Lady-in-Chief:— - - “Mr. Anderson proposed to have a peep at Sebastopol. It was - four o’clock, and they were firing sharply on both sides. - Miss Nightingale, to whom the offer was made, immediately - accepted it; so we formed a column and, for the first time, - fearlessly faced the enemy, and prepared to go under fire. - P. M. turned round to me, saying quietly, but with great - trepidation, ‘I say, Monsieur Soyer, of course you would not - take Miss Nightingale where there will be any danger?’ ... The - sentry then repeated his caution, saying, ‘Madam, even where - you stand you are in great danger; some of the shot reach - more than half a mile beyond this!’ ... ‘My good young man,’ - replied Miss Nightingale in French, ‘more dead and wounded have - passed through my hands than I hope you will ever see in the - battlefield during the whole of your military career; believe - me, I have no fear of death!’” - -By a little guile the eager Frenchman led the unsuspecting idol of the -troops into a position where she could be well seen by the soldiers; and -while she was seated on the Morta, in view of them all, it hardly needed -his own dramatic outcry for a salutation to “the Daughter of England” to -call forth the ringing cheers which greeted her from the men of the 39th -Regiment, and the shouts were taken up so loudly by all the rest that the -Russians were actually startled by them at Sebastopol. - -The darkness fell quickly, and half-way back to Balaclava Miss -Nightingale and her party found themselves in the midst of a merry -Zouave camp, where the men were singing and drinking coffee, but warned -our friends that brigands were in the neighbourhood. However, there -was nothing for it but to push on, and, as a matter of fact, the only -wound received was from the head of Miss Nightingale’s horse, which hit -violently against the face of her escort at the bridle rein, who kept -silence that he might not alarm her, but was found with a face black and -bleeding at the end of the journey. - -After her night’s rest in her state-cabin in the _Robert Lowe_, though -still feeling used up with the adventurous visit to the camp hospitals, -Miss Nightingale visited the General Hospital at Balaclava and the -collection of huts on the heights, which formed the sanatoria, and -also went to see an officer ill with typhus in the doctors’ huts. She -renewed her visit next day, when, after a night at Balaclava, she settled -three nurses into the sanatorium, and then for some days continued her -inspection of hospitals and moved into the ship _London_, the _Robert -Lowe_ having been ordered home. - -Worn out by her ceaseless labours at Scutari, she had probably been -specially open to infection in the sick officer’s hut, and while on board -the _London_ it became clear that she had contracted Crimean fever in a -very bad form. - -She was ordered up to the huts amid such dreadful lamentations of the -surrounding folk that, thanks to their well-meant delays, it took an -hour to carry her up to the heights, her faithful nurse, Mrs. Roberts, -keeping off the sun-glare by walking beside her with an umbrella, and -her page-boy Thomas weeping his heart out at the tail of the little -procession. - -A spot was found after her own heart near a running stream where the wild -flowers were in bloom, and she tells in her _Nursing Notes_ how her first -recovery began when a nosegay of her beloved flowers was brought to her -bedside. But for some days she was desperately ill, and the camp was -unspeakably moved and alarmed. - -Britain also shared deeply in the suspense, though happily the worst -crisis was passed in about twelve days, leaving, however, a long time of -great weakness and slow convalescence to be won through afterwards. - -During those twelve days some very sharp skirmishing took place, and -there was talk of an attack on Balaclava from the Kamara side, in which -case Miss Nightingale’s hut would, it was said, be the first outpost -to be attacked. Any such notion was, of course, an injustice to the -Russians, who would not knowingly have hurt a hair of her head—indeed, it -may almost be said that she was sacred to all the troops, whether friends -or foes. But at all events it gave her boy Thomas his opportunity, and he -was prepared, we are told, “to die valiantly in defence of his mistress.” - -Soyer gives a picturesque account of Lord Raglan’s visit to Miss -Nightingale when her recovery was first beginning. He begins by -describing his own visit, and tells the story through the lips of Mrs. -Roberts, Miss Nightingale’s faithful nurse. - - “ ... I was,” he writes, “very anxious to know the actual state - of Miss Nightingale’s health, and went to her hut to inquire. - I found Mrs. Roberts, who was quite astonished and very much - delighted to see me. - - “‘Thank God, Monsieur Soyer,’ she exclaimed, ‘you are here - again. We have all been in such a way about you. Why, it was - reported that you had been taken prisoner by the Russians. I - must go and tell Miss Nightingale you are found again.’ - - “‘Don’t disturb her now. I understand Lord Raglan has been to - see her.’ - - “‘Yes, he has, and I made a serious mistake. It was about five - o’clock in the afternoon when he came. Miss Nightingale was - dozing, after a very restless night. We had a storm that day - and it was very wet. I was in my room sewing when two men on - horseback, wrapped in large gutta-percha cloaks and dripping - wet, knocked at the door. I went out, and one inquired in which - hut Miss Nightingale resided. - - “‘He spoke so loud that I said, “Hist! hist! don’t make such - a horrible noise as that, my man,” at the same time making a - sign with both hands for him to be quiet. He then repeated his - question, but not in so loud a tone. I told him this was the - hut. - - “‘“All right,” said he, jumping from his horse, and he was - walking straight in when I pushed him back, asking what he - meant and whom he wanted. - - “‘“Miss Nightingale,” said he. - - “‘“And pray who are you?” - - “‘“Oh, only a soldier,” was the reply; “but I must see her—I - have come a long way—my name is Raglan: she knows me very well.” - - “‘Miss Nightingale, overhearing him, called me in, saying, “Oh! - Mrs. Roberts, it is Lord Raglan. Pray tell him I have a very - bad fever, and it will be dangerous for him to come near me.” - - “‘“I have no fear of fever, or anything else,” said Lord Raglan. - - “‘And before I had time to turn round, in came his lordship. He - took up a stool, sat down at the foot of the bed, and kindly - asked Miss Nightingale how she was, expressing his sorrow at - her illness, and thanking her and praising her for the good she - had done for the troops. He wished her a speedy recovery, and - hoped that she might be able to continue her charitable and - invaluable exertions, so highly appreciated by every one, as - well as by himself. - - “‘He then bade Miss Nightingale good-bye, and went away. As he - was going I said I wished to apologize. - - “‘“No, no! not at all, my dear lady,” said Lord Raglan; “you - did very right; for I perceive that Miss Nightingale has not - yet received my letter, in which I announced my intention of - paying her a visit to-day—having previously inquired of the - doctor if she could be seen.”’”[15] - -The doctors, after her twelve days of dangerous illness, were urgent for -Miss Nightingale’s instant return to England; but this she would not do: -she was sure that, with time and patience, she would be able once more to -take up her work at Scutari. Lord Ward placed his yacht at her disposal, -and by slow degrees she made recovery, though Lord Raglan’s death, June -18, 1855, was a great grief and shock to her. - -Wellington said of Lord Raglan that he was a man who would not tell a lie -to save his life, and he was also a man of great charm and benevolence, -adored by his troops. He felt to the quick the terrible repulse of our -troops before Sebastopol that June, having yielded his own counsels to -those of France rather than break the alliance, and he died two days -after the despatch was written in which he told the story of this event. - -Writing to the Duke of Newcastle in October, he had entreated for his -army a little repose—that brave army, worn out, not only by the ordinary -fatigues of a military campaign, and by the actual collecting of wood and -water to keep life from extinction, but by cholera, sickness, and the -bitter purgatorial cold of a black hillside in a Russian winter. - -“Repose!” echoes Kinglake with sardonic bitterness, and we too echo it, -remembering how, two days afterwards, it was riding through the devil’s -jaws at Balaclava, to hurl itself but a little later against its myriad -assailants at Inkermann! - -Repose! uncomplaining and loyal, in the bitter grasp of winter on the -heights of the Chersonese, holding day and night a siege that seemed -endless, the allied armies had proved their heroism through the slow -tragedy. And when at last, on the day of victory, amid the fury of the -elements and the avenging fury of their own surging hearts, they grasped -the result of their patient agony, though - - “Stormed at with shot and shell, - Boldly they rode and well,” - -that final moment of onset did but crown the fortitude of those long, -slow days of dying by inches in the slow clutch of starvation, that had -been so much harder to bear, while they saw their comrades in the anguish -of cholera and felt their own limbs freezing beneath them. - -But it was doubtless a brave assault, and it was sad that their loved -commander was not there to see; for, while the Malakoff fell before -the French, it was the British troops that took the Redan—that Redan -of which it has been written that “three months before it had repulsed -the attacking force with fearful carnage, and brought Lord Raglan to a -despairing death.” - -There is tragedy, therefore, in the fact that when, so soon afterwards, -Sebastopol fell, the triumph was not his. - -It was on September 8, amid a furious storm which suddenly broke up a -summer-like day, that the cannonade joined with the thunder and the final -assault was made. Though the first shouts of victory came at the end of -an hour, it was nightfall before the fighting ceased and the Russians -retreated. Sebastopol was in flames. And before the next day dawned the -last act in this terrible war-drama was over. - -Within a month of leaving Scutari Miss Nightingale was already there -again, and during these days of slowly returning strength, when she -wandered sometimes through the beautiful cemetery where the strange, -black-plumaged birds fly above the cypresses and, against the background -of the blue Bosphorus, the roses garland the tombs, she planned, for the -soldiers who had fallen, the monument which now stands there to their -undying memory, where under the drooping wings of the angels that support -it are inserted the words, “This monument was erected by Queen Victoria -and her people.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - - _The Nightingale Fund—Miss Nightingale remains at her post, - organizing healthy occupations for the men off duty—Sisters of - Mercy—The Queen’s jewel—Its meaning._ - - -Far and wide spread the news of the fall of Sebastopol, and London took -the lead in rejoicings. The Tower guns shouted the victory, the arsenals -fired their salutes, cathedrals and village churches rang out their -welcome to peace. There were sons, husbands, brothers, fathers, for whom -there would be no more home-coming on earth; and some who would come back -broken and maimed: but all had served their country, and heroism lasts -beyond time and death. - -All through the empire arose an outcry of thanksgiving to the woman who -still remained at her post among the sick and the dying—the woman who had -saved England’s honour in the day of disgrace and neglect, and had saved -also countless lives among her brave sons. - -The Queen and all her people were eager to know what there was that they -might lay at her feet. In one form only would Miss Nightingale accept the -testimony offered—namely, the means of yet further work. The Herberts -knew she had longed to organize a hospital on the lines of unpaid -nursing, but there was a difficulty for the moment, because she could not -bring herself to leave the East until her work there was fully completed, -and such a hospital must, they thought, have her presence from the first. -Just now she was with Sister Aloysius at Balaclava, nursing one of her -staff, and while there an accident on the rough roads, which injured not -only herself, but also the Sister who was walking beside her, led to a -thoughtful kindness from Colonel Macmurdo, who had a little carriage -especially made for her. In this little carriage, through the cutting -cold and snow of a Crimean winter, she would drive about among the camp -hospitals with no escort but her driver, as she returned through the dark -night at the end of her long day of self-imposed duties. Sometimes she -has stood for hours on a cold, shelterless rock, giving her directions, -and when one and another of her friends entreated against such risk and -exposure, she would just smile with a quiet certainty that, for all that -in her eyes was her clear duty, strength and protection would certainly -be given. - -She was much occupied in helping and uplifting the convalescent, and not -only these, but also all the soldiers in camp in the army of occupation, -which was for a while to be left in the East until the treaty was signed, -and would necessarily be surrounded by special temptations in time of -peace. Her way of fighting drunkenness—and after Sebastopol you may be -sure there was a good deal of “drinking of healths”—was to provide all -possible means of interest and amusement. Huts were built, clubs were -formed. Stationery was provided for letters home. So effectually was -every one in England interested that, while Queen Victoria herself led -the way in sending newspapers and magazines, all through the country her -example was followed. - -And while this was going on, the great testimonial fund in London was -mounting and mounting. - -The Duke of Cambridge, Lord Houghton, and the Marquis of Ripon were -members of the committee. The great bankers opened their books. The -churches collected funds, _the rank and file of our impoverished army -sent £4,000_, and taking Mrs. Tooley’s figures, which are doubtless -correct, and including all ranks and all troops throughout the world, the -military contributions alone appear to have risen to about £10,000. - -Jenny Lind, then Madame Goldschmidt, gave a concert, of which she -herself bore all the expense, amounting to about £500, and then gave -the entire proceeds, about £2,000, to the fund. This was so warmly -appreciated by some of those interested in the success of the fund that, -by private subscription, they gave a marble bust of Queen Victoria to the -Goldschmidts as a thank-offering. - -From the overseas dominions came over £4,000; from provincial cities, -towns, and villages in Britain, between £6,000 and £7,000, and from -British residents abroad also a very handsome sum. Indeed, it may be -truly said that in every quarter of the globe men and women united -to pour forth their gratitude to Miss Nightingale, and to enable her -to complete the work so bravely begun, by transforming the old and -evil methods of nursing under British rule to that ideal art in which -fortitude, tenderness, and skill receive their crowning grace. It has -been said—I know not with what exactitude—that no British subject has -ever received such world-wide honour as was at this time laid at her feet. - -At one of the great meetings Mr. Sidney Herbert read the following letter -from one of his friends:— - - “I have just heard a pretty account from a soldier describing - the comfort it was even to see Florence pass. ‘She would speak - to one and another,’ he said, ‘and nod and smile to many more, - but she could not do it to all, you know, for we lay there by - hundreds; but we could kiss her shadow[16] as it fell, and lay - our heads on the pillow again content.’” - -That letter alone, we are told, brought another £10,000. - -The gross amount had reached £44,000, but in 1857 Miss Nightingale -desired that the list should be closed and help be given instead to our -French Allies, who were then suffering from the terrible floods that laid -waste their country in that year. - -And whatever she commanded, of course, was done. Alike in England and in -the Crimea, her influence was potent for all good. - -She herself was still busy nursing some of the Roman Catholic members -of her staff in the huts on the snowclad heights of Balaclava, and how -heartily she valued them may be judged from these closing sentences of a -letter to their Reverend Mother:— - - “You know that I shall do everything I can for the Sisters - whom you have left me. I will care for them as if they were my - own children. But it will not be like you.” - -Not very far from the sanatorium on the heights above Balaclava, two new -camp hospitals had been put up, and while superintending the nursing -there, our Lady-in-Chief lived in a three-roomed hut with a medical store -attached to it, where she was quite near to sanatorium and hospitals. -She and the three Sisters who were with her had not very weather-proof -quarters. One of them, whose letters are full of interest, tells of their -waking one morning to find themselves covered with snow, and leading a -life of such adventurous simplicity that when the Protestant chaplain -brought some eggs tied up in a handkerchief the gift was regarded as -princely! Happily, they were able to reward the gentleman by washing his -neckties, and ironing them with an ingenious makeshift for the missing -flat-iron, in the shape of a teapot filled with hot water. Every night -everything in the huts froze, even to the ink. But Miss Nightingale tells -how brave and entirely self-forgetful the Sisters were under every -hardship and privation. - -[Illustration: Miss Nightingale’s Medals and Decorations.] - -By those who have never had the privilege of knowing such women -intimately, her affection for them may be the better understood from the -following graphic letter written by Lord Napier:— - - “At an early period of my life I held a diplomatic position - under Lord Stratford de Redcliffe in Constantinople. During - the distress of the Crimean War the Ambassador called me one - morning and said: ‘Go down to the port; you will find a ship - there loaded with Jewish exiles—Russian subjects from the - Crimea. It is your duty to disembark them. The Turks will give - you a house in which they may be placed. I turn them over - entirely to you.’ I went down to the shore and received about - two hundred persons, the most miserable objects that could be - witnessed, most of them old men, women, and children. I placed - them in the cold, ruinous lodging allocated to them by the - Ottoman authorities. I went back to the Ambassador and said: - ‘Your Excellency, these people are cold, and I have no fuel - or blankets. They are hungry, and I have no food. They are - dirty, and I have no soap. Their hair is in an indescribable - condition, and I have no combs. What am I to do with these - people?’ ‘Do?’ said the Ambassador. ‘Get a couple of Sisters - of Mercy; they will put all to right in a moment.’ I went, saw - the Mother Superior, and explained the case. I asked for two - Sisters. She ordered two from her presence to follow me. They - were ladies of refinement and intellect. I was a stranger and - a Protestant, and I invoked their assistance for the benefit - of the Jews. Yet these two women made up their bundles and - followed me through the rain, without a look, a whisper, a - sign of hesitation. From that moment my fugitives were saved. - I witnessed the labours of those Sisters for months, and they - never endeavoured to make a single convert.” - -The military men were not less enthusiastic. When Colonel Connolly, -brother-in-law to Mr. Bruin, of Carlow, was travelling, after his -return from the war, near the Bruin estate, a fellow-traveller spoke -disrespectfully of nuns. The colonel, a Protestant, not only made a warm -defence of the ladies who had nursed him in Russia and Ottoman regions, -and for their sakes of all other nuns, but handed the assailant his card, -saying: “If you say another word against these saintly gentlewomen I -shall call you out.” The slanderer subsided very quickly. - -Sister Aloysius, one of those very Sisters who were with Miss Nightingale -in the huts, has written in her “Memories of the Crimea”:— - - “It was said at one time that the War Office was on the point - of issuing a mandate forbidding us to speak even to the - Catholic soldiers on religion, or to say a prayer for them. - However, that mandate never came; we often thought the guardian - angels of the soldiers prevented it.” - -It made no difference to the loyalty of their work together that Miss -Nightingale was not a Roman Catholic; they all obeyed the Master who has -taught that it is not the way in which He is addressed that matters, but -whether we help those whom He gave His life to help, and in loving and -serving whom, we love and serve Him. - -So in London and in Balaclava the good of her influence was felt. In -London the funds mounted, and at Balaclava the excellent work among the -soldiers still went on. - -Her very presence among the men helped to keep them sober and diligent, -and in every way at their best, in those first months of victory when -heads are only too easily turned. And she had the reward she most -desired, for she was able to speak of these brave fellows—the nameless -heroes of the long campaign—as having been “uniformly quiet and -well-bred.” Those words, it is true, were spoken of the men attending the -reading-huts; but they are quite in line with her more general verdict -with regard to Tommy; though, alas, we cannot stretch them to cover -his behaviour at the canteens, where we are told that much drunkenness -prevailed. - -She had advanced money for the building of a coffee-house at Inkermann, -and had helped the chaplain to get maps and slates for his school work, -and the bundles of magazines and illustrated papers, sent out from -England in answer to her appeal, as well as books sent out by the Duchess -of Kent, cheered and brightened many a long hour for the men. She was -always on the alert to help them about sending home their pay, and quick -to care for the interests of their wives and children. - -Before she left the Crimea, her hut was beset by fifty or sixty poor -women who had been left behind when their husbands sailed for home with -their regiments. They had followed their husbands to the war without -leave and, having proved themselves useful, had been allowed to remain. -And now they were left alone in a strange land and, but for Florence -Nightingale, the end of the story might have been bitter sorrow. But she -managed to get them sent home in a British ship. - -Many a mother at home must already have blessed her; for reckless boys -who had enlisted, without the sanction of their families, had again and -again been by her persuaded to write home, and in the first months of -the war she had actually undertaken to stamp for the men any letters -home which were sent to her camp. And at Scutari she had arranged a -provisional money-order office where, four afternoons in each week, she -received from the men the pay which she encouraged them to send home. -When we are told that, in small sums, about £1,000 passed through this -office month by month, we realize dimly something of the labour involved, -and thinking of all her other cares and labours, which were nevertheless -not allowed to stand in the way of such practical thoughtfulness as -this, we do not wonder that “the services” loved her with a love that -was akin to worship. The money, as she herself says, “was literally so -much rescued from the canteens and from drunkenness;” and the Government, -following her lead, had themselves established money-order offices later -at Scutari, Balaclava, Constantinople, and the Headquarters, Crimea. - -It is not surprising that, in the “Old Country,” songs were dedicated to -her as “the good angel of Derbyshire,” and that her very portrait became -a popular advertisement. - -And we have it on good authority that her name was revered alike by -English, French, Turks, and Russians. - -The Treaty of Peace was signed at Paris on March 30, 1856, and on July -12 General Codrington formally gave up Sebastopol and Balaclava to the -Russians. When the last remnant of our army was ordered home and the -hospitals were finally closed, Florence Nightingale was for the first -time willing to leave a post which she had held so bravely and so long. -But before she left she wished to leave a memorial to the brave men who -had fallen, and the brave women, her comrades, who had died upon that -other battlefield where disease, and Death himself, must be wrestled with -on behalf of those who are nursed and tended. - -And so it comes to pass that among the visible tokens which the war -has left behind, is a gigantic white marble cross erected by Florence -Nightingale upon the sombre heights of Balaclava, where it still opens -wide its arms for every gleam of golden sunlight, every reflected -shimmer, through the dark night, of silvery moon and star, to hearten -the sailors voyaging northward and mark a prayer for the brave men and -women who toiled and suffered there. It is inscribed with the words in -Italian, “Lord, have mercy upon us.” But while she herself asked only -mercy for herself and others, that human shortcomings might be forgiven, -her compatriots were uniting to do her honour. - -On December 20, 1855, the _Morning Post_ printed the following -announcement:— - - “The country will experience much satisfaction, though no - surprise, on learning, as we believe we are correct in stating, - that Her Majesty the Queen has, in a manner as honourable to - herself as it must be gratifying to her people, been pleased to - mark her warm appreciation of the unparalleled self-devotion - of the good Miss Nightingale. The Queen has transmitted to - that lady a jewelled ornament of great beauty, which may be - worn as a decoration, and has accompanied it with an autograph - letter—such a letter as Queen Victoria has ere now proved she - can write—a letter not merely of graceful acknowledgment, but - full of that deep feeling which speaks from heart to heart, and - at once ennobles the sovereign and the subject.” - -Of the symbolic meaning of this jewel the following exposition appeared -in the issue of January 15, 1856, of the same paper:— - - “The design of the jewel is admirable, and the effect - no less brilliant than chaste. It is characteristic and - emblematical—being formed of a St. George’s cross in ruby-red - enamel, on a white field—representing England. This is - encircled by a black band, typifying the office of Charity, on - which is inscribed a golden legend, ‘Blessed are the merciful.’ - The Royal donor is expressed by the letters ‘V. R.’ surmounted - by a crown in diamonds, impressed upon the centre of the St. - George’s cross, from which also rays of gold emanating upon - the field of white enamel are supposed to represent the glory - of England. While spreading branches of palm, in bright green - enamel, tipped with gold, form a framework for the shield, - their stems at the bottom being banded with a ribbon of blue - enamel (the colour of the ribbon for the Crimean medal), on - which, in golden letters, is inscribed ‘Crimea.’ At the top - of the shield, between the palm branches, and connecting the - whole, three brilliant stars of diamonds illustrate the idea - of the light of heaven shed upon the labours of Mercy, Peace, - and Charity, in connection with the glory of a nation. On the - back of this Royal jewel is an inscription on a golden tablet, - written by Her Majesty ... recording it to be a gift and - testimonial in memory of services rendered to her brave army by - Miss Nightingale. The jewel is about three inches in depth by - two and a half in width. It is to be worn, not as a brooch or - ornament, but rather as the badge of an order. We believe the - credit of the design is due to the illustrious consort of Her - Majesty.” - -_Punch_, of course, had always taken the liveliest interest in Miss -Nightingale’s work, and having begun with friendly jesting, he ended -with a tribute so tender in its grave beauty that it would hardly have -been out of place in a church window; for below a sketch of Florence -Nightingale herself, holding a wounded soldier by the hand, and with the -badge of Scutari across her breast, was a vision of the Good Samaritan. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - - _Her citizenship—Her initiative—Public recognition and - gratitude—Her return incognito—Village excitement—The country’s - welcome—Miss Nightingale’s broken health—The Nightingale - Fund—St. Thomas’s Hospital—Reform of nursing as a profession._ - - -It may be fairly supposed that even those benighted Philistines whose -mockery had at the outset been of a less innocent quality than _Punch’s_ -gentle fun, now found it expedient to alter their tone, and if their -objections had been mere honest stupidity, they were probably both -convinced of their past folly and a good deal ashamed. - -For Britain was very proud of the daughter who had become so mighty a -power for good in the State. The Sister of Mercy whom Miss Nightingale -used laughingly to call “her Cardinal” had responded on one occasion by -addressing her with equal affection as “Your Holiness,” and the nickname -was not altogether inappropriate, for her advice in civic and hygienic -matters had an authority which might well be compared with that which the -Pope himself wielded on theological questions. - -Among the doctors at Scutari was a friend of General Evatt, from whom he -had many facts at first-hand, and it was therefore not without knowledge -that, in his conversation with me on the subject, the latter confirmed -and strengthened all that has already been written of Miss Nightingale’s -mental grasp and supreme capacity. To him, knowing her well, and knowing -well also the facts, she was the highest embodiment of womanhood and of -citizenship. Yet, while he talked, my heart ached for her, thinking of -the womanly joys of home and motherhood which were not for her, and all -the pure and tender romance which woman bears in her inmost soul, even -when, as in this noble instance, it is transmuted by the will of God and -the woman’s own obedient will into service of other homes and other lives. - -Perhaps I may here be allowed to quote a sentence from Mrs. Tooley’s -admirable life of our heroine; for it could not have been better -expressed: “No one would wish to exempt from due praise even the humblest -of that ‘Angel Band’ who worked with Florence Nightingale, and still less -would she, but in every great cause there is the initiating genius who -stands in solitary grandeur above the rank and file of followers.” - -Nor was official recognition of the country’s debt to Miss Nightingale in -any wise lacking. When the Treaty of Peace was under discussion in the -House of Lords, Lord Ellesmere made it an opportunity for the following -tribute:— - - “My Lords, the agony of that time has become a matter of - history. The vegetation of two successive springs has obscured - the vestiges of Balaclava and of Inkermann. Strong voices now - answer to the roll-call, and sturdy forms now cluster round - the colours. The ranks are full, the hospitals are empty. The - Angel of Mercy still lingers to the last on the scene of - her labours; but her mission is all but accomplished. Those - long arcades of Scutari, in which dying men sat up to catch - the sound of her footstep or the flutter of her dress, and - fell back on the pillow content to have seen her shadow as it - passed, are now comparatively deserted. She may probably be - thinking how to escape, as best she may, on her return, the - demonstrations of a nation’s appreciation of the deeds and - motives of Florence Nightingale.” - -And in the House of Commons Mr. Sidney Herbert said: “I have received, -not only from medical men, but from many others who have had an -opportunity of making observations, letters couched in the highest -possible terms of praise. I will not repeat the words, but no higher -expressions of praise could be applied to woman, for the wonderful -energy, the wonderful tact, the wonderful tenderness, combined with -the extraordinary self-devotion, which have been displayed by Miss -Nightingale.” - -Lord Ellesmere was right when he hinted that Miss Nightingale would -be likely to do her best to escape all public fuss on her return. The -Government had offered her a British man-of-war to take her home; but -it was not her way to accept any such outward pomp, and, almost before -people knew what had happened, it was found that she had travelled -quietly home as Miss Smith in a French vessel, visiting in Paris her old -friends the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, and finding that by having -embarked at night, at a moment when Scutari was not looking for her -departure, her little _ruse_ had been very successful. An eager people -had not recognized under the passing incognito of Miss Smith, travelling -with her aunt, Mrs. Smith, the great Florence Nightingale whose return -they had wished to celebrate. The village gossips at Lea Hurst have it -that “the closely veiled lady in black, who slipped into her father’s -house by the back door, was first recognized by the family butler,” and -it seems a pity to spoil such a picturesque tradition by inquiring into -it too closely. - -[Illustration: The Nightingale Nursing Carriage.] - -There was great joy among the villagers that “Miss Florence had come -home from the wars,” but it was understood that she wished to be quiet, -and that bonfires and such-like rejoicings were out of the question. - -Along the roads near Lea Hurst came troops of people from Derby and -Nottingham, and even from Manchester, hoping to catch a glimpse of her; -and there is in one of the biographies a vivid account, given by the old -lady who kept the lodge gates, of how the park round Lea Hurst was beset -by these lingering crowds, how men came without arms or without legs, -hoping to see the Queen of Nurses. “But,” added the old lady, “the squire -wasn’t a-going to let Miss Florence be made a staring-stock of.” And, -indeed, “Miss Florence” must have been in great need of repose, though -never to the end of her life would it seem that she was allowed to have -much of it; for the very fruitfulness of her work made work multiply upon -her hands, and her friend Mrs. Sidney Herbert knew her well when she said -that to Florence Nightingale the dearest guerdon of work already done was -the gift of more work still to do. - -Perhaps we shall never any of us fully know what it must have been to one -so abounding in spiritual energy and world-wide compassion to have to -learn slowly and painfully, through the years that followed, what must -henceforth be the physical limitations of her life. When we think of -the long, careful training that had been given to her fine gifts of eye -and hand in the art that she loved—for she rightly regarded nursing as -an art—an art in which every movement must be a skilled and disciplined -movement—we may divine something of what it cost to bear, without one -murmur of complaint, what she might so easily have been tempted to regard -as a lifelong waste of faculty. Instead of allowing herself to dwell on -any such idea, gradually, as the knowledge dawned on her of what she must -forego, she gave herself, with tenfold power in other directions, to work -which _could_ be achieved from an invalid’s couch, and thus helped and -guided others in that art all over the world. - -Among the greetings which pleased her most on her first return to England -was an address from the workmen of Newcastle-on-Tyne, to whom she -replied in the following letter:— - - _August 23, 1856._ - - “MY DEAR FRIENDS,—I wish it were in my power to tell you what - was in my heart when I received your letter. - - “Your welcome home, your sympathy with what has been passing - while I have been absent, have touched me more than I can tell - in words. My dear friends, the things that are the deepest - in our hearts are perhaps what it is most difficult for us - to express. ‘She hath done what she could.’ These words I - inscribed on the tomb of one of my best helpers when I left - Scutari. It has been my endeavour, in the sight of God, to do - as she has done. - - “I will not speak of reward when permitted to do our country’s - work—it is what we live for—but I may say to receive sympathy - from affectionate hearts like yours is the greatest support, - the greatest gratification, that it is possible for me to - receive from man. - - “I thank you all, the eighteen hundred, with grateful, tender - affection. And I should have written before to do so, were not - the business, which my return home has not ended, been almost - more than I can manage.—Pray believe me, my dear friends, yours - faithfully and gratefully, - - “FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.” - - -Among the tokens of regard which the late Duke of Devonshire brought to -his old friend on her return, when he drove over from Chatsworth to Lea -Hurst to see her after her long, eventful absence, was a little silver -owl, a sort of souvenir, I suppose, of her beloved little “Athena,” -whose death she had felt so keenly when leaving for the Crimea. Queen -Victoria and the young princesses were eager to welcome Miss Nightingale -to Balmoral; and in looking back on her little visit there, which seems -to have been a happiness on both sides, it is interesting to see how her -influence told upon the Crown Princess and Princess Alice in their later -organization of hospital work, and to be reminded by Mrs. Tooley, whose -words we here venture to quote, that the “tiny Princess Helena was to -become in after years an accomplished nurse, and an active leader in the -nursing movement of this country; and, alas, to yield her soldier son on -the fatal field of South Africa.” - -Meanwhile, before and after this visit, Miss Nightingale was quietly -receiving her own friends and neighbours at Lea Hurst, and entertaining -little parties of villagers from among the rustics she had so long known -and loved. Rich and poor alike were all so eager to do her honour that -it is impossible to speak separately of all the many forms which their -expressions of gratitude took. They included a gift from the workmen of -Sheffield as well as from her own more immediate neighbours, and found -their climax in the fund pressed upon her by a grateful nation, and for -convenience called the Nightingale Fund, which was still awaiting its -final disposal. - -Meanwhile, imagine the importance of the ex-drummer-boy Thomas, her -devoted servant and would-be defender at Balaclava, promoted now to -be “Miss Nightingale’s own man” in her home at Lea Hurst—an even more -exciting presence to the villagers than the Russian hound which was -known through the country-side as “Miss Florence’s Crimean dog.” - -There were still living, we are told, when Mrs. Tooley wrote her -delightful record, a few old people round about Lea Hurst who remembered -those great days of “Miss Florence’s return,” and the cannon balls and -bullets they had seen as trophies, the dried flowers gathered at Scutari, -and Thomas’s thrilling stories, for if he had not himself been present -in the famous charge at Balaclava, he did at least know all about it at -first-hand. - -So little did any one dream that Miss Nightingale’s health had been -permanently shattered that when the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857, she -offered to go out to her friend Lady Canning, and organize a nursing -staff for the troops. And while, with her customary business-like -clearness, she proceeded to draw up a detailed account of all the -private gifts entrusted to her for the Crimea, and took the opportunity -of putting on record her tribute to Lord Raglan, the final arrangements -with regard to the Nightingale Fund were still for a time held in -suspense, in the hope that she would so far recover strength as to be -able to take into her own hands the government of that institution for -the training of hospital nurses, to which it was to be devoted. When her -friend Mr. Herbert talked gaily in public of chaining her to the oar -for the rest of her life, that she might “raise the system of nursing -to a pitch of efficiency never before known,” he did not foresee that -the invisible chain, which was to bruise her eager spirit, was to be of -a kind so much harder to bear. But when, in 1860, her health showed no -signs of recovery, she definitely handed over to others the management -of the fund, only reserving to herself the right to advise. Her friend -Mr. Herbert was, up to the time of his death, the guiding spirit of the -council, and it gave Miss Nightingale pleasure that St. Thomas’s Hospital -should from the outset be associated with the scheme, because that -hospital had originated in one of the oldest foundations in the country -for the relief of the sick poor, and in choosing it for the training of -lay sisters as nurses, its earliest tradition was being continued. The -work of the fund began at St. Thomas’s in 1860, in the old building near -London Bridge, before it moved into its present palace at Westminster, -of which the Nightingale Training Home is a part. In those first early -days an upper floor was arranged for the nurses in a new part of the -old hospital, with a bedroom for each probationer, two rooms for the -Sister-in-charge, and a sitting-room in which all shared. As the result -of the advertisement for candidates in 1860, fifteen probationers were -admitted in June, the first superintendent being Mrs. Wardroper. The -probationers were, of course, under the authority of the matron, and -subject to the rules of the hospital. They were to give help in the wards -and receive teaching from the Sisters and medical staff, and if at the -end of the year they passed their examination, they were to be registered -as certified nurses. - -[Illustration: Miss Nightingale visiting the Herbert Hospital, Woolwich. - -(_Bas-relief on the pedestal—Herbert Memorial._)] - -Thanks to Miss Nightingale and other pioneers, the fifty years that have -passed since then have made Mrs. Grundy a little less Grundyish, but in -those days she considered the whole business a terrible venture, and was -too much occupied with the idea of possible love affairs between the -doctors and nurses to realize what good work was being done. The first -year was a very anxious one for Miss Nightingale, but all the world -knows now how her experiment has justified itself and how her prayers -have been answered; for it was in prayer that she found her “quietness -and confidence” through those first months of tension when the enemy was -watching and four probationers had to be dismissed, though their ranks -were speedily filled up by others. - -At the end of the year, from among those who were placed on the -register, six received appointments at St. Thomas’s and two took work -in infirmaries. There was special need of good nurses in workhouse -infirmaries, and there was also throughout the whole country a crying -need for nurses carefully trained in midwifery: lack of knowledge, for -instance, had greatly increased the danger of puerperal fever, a scourge -against which Miss Nightingale was one of the first to contend; and it -had been wisely decided that while two-thirds of the fund should go to -the work at St. Thomas’s, one-third should be used for special training -of nurses in these branches at King’s College. - - “How has the tone and state of hospital nurses been raised?” - Miss Nightingale asks in her little book on “Trained Nursing - for the Sick Poor,” published in 1876. - - “By, more than anything else, making the hospital such a home - as good young women—educated young women—can live and nurse - in; and, secondly, by raising hospital nursing into such a - profession as these can earn an honourable livelihood in.” - -In her “Notes on Hospitals,” published in 1859, she pointed out what she -considered the four radical defects in hospital construction—namely:— - - 1. The agglomeration of a large number of sick under the same - roof. - - 2. Deficiency of space. - - 3. Deficiency of ventilation. - - 4. Deficiency of light. - -How magnificently builders have since learned to remedy such defects may -be seen in the Nightingale Wing of St. Thomas’s Hospital. - -The block system on which St. Thomas’s Hospital is built is what Miss -Nightingale has always recommended, each block being divided from the -next by a space of 125 feet, across which runs a double corridor by means -of which they communicate with one another. Each has three tiers of wards -above the ground floor. - -The six blocks in the centre are those used for patients, that at the -south for the lecture-rooms and a school of medicine, the one at the -north, adjoining Westminster Bridge, for the official staff. From Lambeth -Palace to Westminster Bridge, with a frontage of 1,700 feet, the hospital -extends; and there would be room in the operating theatre for 600 -students. In the special wing in one of the northern blocks, reserved for -the Nightingale Home and Training School for Nurses, everything has been -ordered in accordance with Miss Nightingale’s wishes. - -To-day the whole _status_ of nursing in Britain and British dominions -is recognized as that of an honoured and certified profession, and -year by year, at St. Thomas’s alone, thirty probationers are trained, -of whom fifteen pay £1, 1_s._ a week for the privilege, whereas to the -other fifteen it is given gratuitously. At St. Thomas’s were trained -nurses who were among the earliest to be decorated with the Red Cross, -that international badge of good army nursing throughout the world -which, indirectly as well as directly, owed much to Miss Nightingale. -How warmly, even arduously, Miss Nightingale shared in the trials and -joys and adventures of her nurses, comes out very clearly in some of -her letters to one of them, whom, as a personal friend and one of the -first nine to receive the Red Cross, she playfully named “her Cape of -Good Hope.” Those tender and intimate letters, which I will not name -emotional, because she who wrote them had justified emotion by ever -translating it into useful work, made me feel to an almost startling -degree her warm, eager, dominating personality with its extraordinary -mingling of utmost modesty and pleading authority. To me that personality -seems to win the heart of the coldest and dullest by its ardent -enthusiasm and humility, and those unpublished letters, which I was -privileged to read, brought home to me how Miss Nightingale—then an -invalid of sixty-two—literally _lived_ in the life of those pioneer -nurses whom she had inspired and sent forth. - -It is easy to see in them how much she feared for her nurses any innocent -little trip of the tongue, with regard to the rest of the staff, which -might set rolling the dangerous ball of hospital gossip. She puts the -duty of obedience and forbearance on the highest grounds, and she draws -a useful distinction between the sham dignity which we all know in the -hatefulness of “the superior person,” and the true dignity which tries to -uplift those less fortunate, rather than self-indulgently to lean on them -or make to them foolish confidences. - -And while she is all aglow with sympathy for every detail of a nurse’s -work, she entreats her friend to “let no want of concord or discretion -appear to mar that blessed work. And let no one,” she adds, “be able -justly to say what was said to me last month, ‘It is only Roman Catholic -vows that can keep Sisters together.’” - -What she wrote when asking for recruits for St. Thomas’s at the outset -still remains the basis of the ideal held there. “We require,” she wrote, -“that a woman be sober, honest, truthful, without which there is no -foundation on which to build. - -“We train her in habits of punctuality, quietness, trustworthiness, -personal neatness. We teach her how to manage the concerns of a large -ward or establishment. We train her in dressing wounds and other -injuries, and in performing all those minor operations which nurses are -called upon day and night to undertake. - -“We teach her how to manage helpless patients in regard to moving, -changing, feeding, temperature, and the prevention of bedsores. - -“She has to make and apply bandages, line splints, and the like. She must -know how to make beds with as little disturbance as possible to their -inmates. She is instructed how to wait at operations, and as to the kind -of aid the surgeon requires at her hands. She is taught cooking for the -sick; the principle on which sick wards ought to be cleansed, aired, and -warmed; the management of convalescents; and how to observe sick and -maimed patients, so as to give an intelligent and truthful account to the -physician or surgeon in regard to the progress of cases in the intervals -between visits—a much more difficult thing than is generally supposed. - -“We do not seek to make ‘medical women,’ but simply nurses acquainted -with the principle which they are required constantly to apply at the -bedside. - -“For the future superintendent is added a course of instruction in -the administration of a hospital, including, of course, the linen -arrangements, and what else is necessary for a matron to be conversant -with. - -“There are those who think that all this is intuitive in women, that they -are born so, or, at least, that it comes to them without training. To -such we say, by all means send us as many such geniuses as you can, for -we are sorely in want of them.” - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - - _William Rathbone—Agnes Jones—Infirmaries—Nursing in the homes - of the poor—Municipal work—Homely power of Miss Nightingale’s - writings—Lord Herbert’s death._ - - -A word must here be said of Mr. William Rathbone’s work in Liverpool. -After the death of his first wife, realizing the comfort and help that -had been given during her last illness by a trained nurse, he determined -to do what he could to bring aid of the same kind into the homes of the -poor, where the need was often so much more terrible. This brought him -into touch with Miss Nightingale, who advised him to start a school of -nursing in connection with the Liverpool Hospital. These two friends—for -they soon became trusted and valued friends, each to each—were both -people of prompt and efficient action, and one step led to another, -until Liverpool had not only an important school of nurses for the sick -poor, but also led the way throughout the country in the reform of the -hitherto scandalous nursing in workhouse infirmaries. Mr. Rathbone set -his mind on securing the services of Miss Agnes Elizabeth Jones to help -him in his work, a woman of character as saintly as his own, and the -difference in their religious outlook only made more beautiful their -mutual relations in this great work. - -Miss Agnes Jones, who has already been mentioned more than once in these -pages, left an undying record on England’s roll of honour. It was of her -that in 1868 Miss Nightingale wrote[17]:— - - “A woman attractive and rich, and young and witty; yet a veiled - and silent woman, distinguished by no other genius but the - divine genius—working hard to train herself in order to train - others to walk in the footsteps of Him who went about doing - good.... She died, as she had lived, at her post in one of - the largest workhouse infirmaries in this kingdom—the first - in which trained nursing has been introduced.... When her - whole life and image rise before me, so far from thinking the - story of Una and her lion a myth, I say here is Una in real - flesh and blood—Una and her paupers far more untamable than - lions. In less than three years she had reduced one of the - most disorderly hospital populations in the world to something - like Christian discipline, and had converted a vestry to the - conviction of the economy as well as humanity of nursing pauper - sick by trained nurses.” - -And it was in introducing a book about the Liverpool Home and School for -Nurses that she wrote:— - - “Nursing, especially that most important of all its - branches—nursing of the sick poor at home—is no amateur work. - To do it as it ought to be done requires knowledge, practice, - self-abnegation, and, as is so well said here, direct obedience - to and activity under the highest of all masters and from the - highest of all motives. It is an essential part of the daily - service of the Christian Church. It has never been otherwise. - It has proved itself superior to all religious divisions, - and is destined, by God’s blessing, to supply an opening the - great value of which, in our densely populated towns, has been - unaccountably overlooked until within these few years.” - -As early as 1858 Miss Nightingale published “Notes on Matters affecting -the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army,” -and the commission on this subject appointed in 1857 set a high value on -her evidence. - -Something of the development that followed along both these lines—that of -army reform and of nursing among the submerged—may be gleaned from the -following clear statement of fact which appeared during the South African -War, on May 21, 1900, in a great London daily:— - - “In the forty and more years that have elapsed since her - return, Miss Nightingale has seen the whole system of army - nursing and hospitals transformed. Netley, which has been - visited by the Queen again this week, was designed by her, and - for the next largest, namely, the Herbert Hospital, Woolwich, - she assisted and advised Sir Douglas Galton in his plans. - - “There is not a naval or military hospital on any of the - foreign stations or depôts on which she has not been consulted, - and matters concerning the health and well-being of both - services have been constantly brought before her. District - nursing owes much to her, and in this connection may be cited - a few lines from a letter which she wrote when Princess - Louise, Duchess of Argyll, was initiating a movement to - establish a home for the Queen’s Jubilee Nurses in Chiswick and - Hammersmith. ‘I look upon district nursing,’ she wrote, ‘as - one of the most hopeful of the agencies for raising the poor, - physically as well as morally, its province being not only - nursing the patient, but nursing the room, showing the family - and neighbours how to second the nurse, and eminently how to - nurse health as well as disease.’” - - “Everywhere,” we read in Mr. Stephen Paget’s contribution to - the “Dictionary of National Biography,” “her expert reputation - was paramount,” and “during the American Civil War of 1862-4, - and the Franco-German War of 1870-1, her advice was eagerly - sought by the governments concerned.” The “Dictionary of - National Biography” also assures us that “in regard to civil - hospitals, home nursing, care of poor women in childbirth, and - sanitation, Miss Nightingale’s authority stood equally high.” - -In what she wrote there was a homely directness, a complete absence of -anything like pose or affectation, which more than doubled her power, and -was the more charming in a woman of such brilliant acquirements and—to -quote once more Dean Stanley’s words—such “commanding genius”; but, then, -genius is of its nature opposed to all that is sentimental or artificial. - -I believe it is in her “Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes” that -she writes to those who are “minding baby”: “One-half of all the nurses -in service are girls of from five to twenty years old. You see you are -very important little people. Then there are all the girls who are -nursing mother’s baby at home; and in all these cases it seems pretty -nearly to come to this, that baby’s health for its whole life depends -upon you, girls, more than upon anything else.” Simple rules, such as -a girl of six could understand, are given for the feeding, washing, -dressing, nursing, and even amusement of that important person, “baby.” - -And it is in her best known book of all that she says: “The healthiest, -happiest, liveliest, most beautiful baby I ever saw was the only child of -a busy laundress. She washed all day in a room with the door open upon a -larger room, where she put the child. It sat or crawled upon the floor -all day with no other playfellow than a kitten, which it used to hug. Its -mother kept it beautifully clean, and fed it with perfect regularity. The -child was never frightened at anything. The room where it sat was the -house-place; and it always gave notice to its mother when anybody came -in, not by a cry, but by a crow. I lived for many months within hearing -of that child, and never heard it cry day or night. I think there is a -great deal too much of amusing children now, and not enough of letting -them amuse themselves.” - -What, again, could be more useful in its simplicity than the following, -addressed to working mothers:— - - “DEAR HARD-WORKING FRIENDS,—I am a hard-working woman too. May - I speak to you? And will you excuse me, though not a mother? - - “You feel with me that every mother who brings a child into the - world has the duty laid upon her of bringing up the child in - such health as will enable him to do the work of his life. - - “But though you toil all day for your children, and are so - devoted to them, this is not at all an easy task. - - “We should not attempt to practise dressmaking, or any other - trade, without any training for it; but it is generally - impossible for a woman to get any teaching about the management - of health; yet health is to be learnt.... - - “The cottage homes of England are, after all, the most - important of the homes of any class; they should be pure in - every sense, pure in body and mind. - - “Boys and girls must grow up healthy, with clean minds and - clean bodies and clean skins. - - “And for this to be possible, the air, the earth, and the water - that they grow up in and have around them must be clean. Fresh - air, not bad air; clean earth, not foul earth; pure water, - not dirty water; and the first teachings and impressions that - they have at home must all be pure, and gentle, and firm. It - is home that teaches the child, after all, more than any other - schooling. A child learns before it is three whether it shall - obey its mother or not; and before it is seven, wise men tell - us that its character is formed. - - “There is, too, another thing—orderliness. We know your daily - toil and love. May not the busiest and hardest life be somewhat - lightened, the day mapped out, so that each duty has the same - hours?... - - “Think what enormous extra trouble it entails on mothers when - there is sickness. It is worth while to try to keep the family - in health, to prevent the sorrow, the anxiety, the trouble of - illness in the house, of which so much can be prevented. - - “When a child has lost its health, how often the mother says, - ‘Oh, if I had only known! but there was no one to tell me. And - after all, it is health and not sickness that is our natural - state—the state that God intends for us. There are more people - to pick us up when we fall than to enable us to stand upon - our feet. God did not intend all mothers to be accompanied by - doctors, but He meant all children to be cared for by mothers. - God bless your work and labour of love.” - -[Illustration: Letter from Miss FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. - -Dec 16/96 10 South Street Park Lane W - -Dear Duke of Westminster - -Good speed to your noble effort in favour of District Nurses for town “& -Country”; and in Commemoration of our Queen who cares for all. - -We look upon the District Nurse, if she is what she should be, & if we -give her the training she should have, as the great civilizer of the -poor, training as well as nursing them out of ill health into good health -(Health Missioness), out of drink into self control but all without -preaching, without patronizing—as friends in sympathy. - -But let them hold the standard high as Nurses. - -Pray be sure I will try to help all I can, tho’ that be small, here I -will with your leave let you know. - -Pray believe me your Grace’s faithful servant - -Florence Nightingale] - -Or in a widely different field, in that fight against one of the most -important causes of consumption, in which she was so far ahead of her -time, what could be more clear and convincing, both in knowledge and in -reasoning, than the following analysis with regard to army barracks:— - - “The cavalry barracks, as a whole, are the least overcrowded, - and have the freest external movement of air. Next come - the infantry; and the most crowded and the least ventilated - externally are the Guards’ barracks; _so that the mortality - from consumption, which follows the same order of increase in - the different arms, augments with increase of crowding and - difficulty of ventilation_.”[18] - -Her own well-trained mind was in extreme contrast with the type of mind -which she describes in the following story:— - - “I remember, when a child, hearing the story of an accident, - related by some one who sent two girls to fetch a ‘bottle of - sal volatile from her room.’ ‘Mary could not stir,’ she said; - ‘Fanny ran and fetched a bottle that was not sal volatile, and - that was not in my room.’” - -All her teaching, so far as I know it, is clearly at first-hand and -carefully sifted. It is as far as possible from that useless kind of -doctrine which is a mere echo of unthinking hearsay. For instance, how -many sufferers she must have saved from unnecessary irritation by the -following reminder to nurses:— - - “Of all parts of the body, the face is perhaps the one which - tells the least to the common observer or the casual visitor. - - “I have known patients dying of sheer pain, exhaustion, and - want of sleep, from one of the most lingering and painful - diseases known, preserve, till within a few days of death, - not only the healthy colour of the cheek, but the mottled - appearance of a robust child. And scores of times have I heard - these unfortunate creatures assailed with, ‘I am glad to see - you looking so well.’ ‘I see no reason why you should not live - till ninety years of age.’ ‘Why don’t you take a little more - exercise and amusement?’—with all the other commonplaces with - which we are so familiar.” - -And then, again, how like her it is to remind those who are nursing that -“a patient is not merely a piece of furniture, to be kept clean and -arranged against the wall, and saved from injury or breakage.” - -She was one of the rare people who realized that truth of word is partly -a question of education, and that many people are quite unconscious of -their lack of that difficult virtue. “I know I fibbs dreadful,” said a -poor little servant girl to her once. “But believe me, miss, I never -finds out I have fibbed until they tell me so!” And her comment suggests -that in this matter that poor little servant girl by no means stood alone. - -She worked very hard. Her books and pamphlets[19] were important, and her -correspondence, ever dealing with the reforms she had at heart all over -the world, was of itself an immense output. - -Those who have had to write much from bed or sofa know only too well the -abnormal fatigue it involves, and her labours of this kind seem to have -been unlimited. - -How strongly she sympathized with all municipal efforts, we see in many -such letters as the one to General Evatt, given him for electioneering -purposes, but not hitherto included in any biography, which we are -allowed to reproduce here:— - - “Strenuously desiring, as we all of us must, that - _Administration_ as well as Politics should be well represented - in Parliament, and that vital matters of social, sanitary, - and general interest should find their voice, we could desire - no better representative and advocate of these essential - matters—matters of life and death—than a man who, like - yourself, unites with almost exhaustless energy and public - spirit, sympathy with the wronged and enthusiasm with the - right, a persevering acuteness in unravelling the causes of the - evil and the good, large and varied experience and practical - power, limited only by the nature of the object for which it is - exerted. - - “It is important beyond measure that such a man’s thoughtful - and well-considered opinions and energetic voice should be - heard in the House of Commons. - - “You have my warmest sympathy in your candidature for Woolwich, - my best wishes that you should succeed, even less for your - own sake than for that of Administration and of England.—Pray - believe me, ever your faithful servant, - - “FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.” - - -And also the following letter written to the Buckinghamshire County -Council in 1892, begging them to appoint a sanitary committee:— - - “We must create a public opinion which will drive the - Government, instead of the Government having to drive us—an - enlightened public opinion, wise in principles, wise in - details. We hail the County Council as being or becoming one - of the strongest engines in our favour, at once fathering and - obeying the great impulse for national health against national - and local disease. For we have learned that we have national - health in our own hands—local sanitation, national health. - But we have to contend against centuries of superstition and - generations of indifference. Let the County Council take the - lead.” - -And how justly, how clearly, she was able to weigh the work of those who -had borne the brunt of sanitary inquiry in the Crimea, with but little -except kicks for their pains, may be judged by the following sentences -from a letter to Lady Tulloch in 1878:— - - “MY DEAR LADY TULLOCH,—I give you joy, I give you both joy, for - this crowning recognition of one of the noblest labours ever - done on earth. You yourself cannot cling to it more than I do; - hardly so much, in one sense, for I saw how Sir John MacNeill’s - and Sir A. Tulloch’s reporting was the salvation of the army in - the Crimea. Without them everything that happened would have - been considered ‘all right.’ - - “Mr. Martin’s note is perfect, for it does not look like an - afterthought, nor as prompted by others, but as the flow of a - generous and able man’s own reflection, and careful search into - authentic documents. Thank you again and again for sending it - to me. It is the greatest consolation I could have had. Will - you remember me gratefully to Mr. Paget, also to Dr. Balfour? - _I look back upon these twenty years as if they were yesterday, - but also as if they were a thousand years._ Success be with us - and the noble dead—and it has been success.—Yours ever, - - “FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.” - - -We see from this letter how warmly the old memories dwelt with her, even -while her hands were full of good work for the future. - -The death of Lord Herbert in 1868 had been a blow that struck very deeply -at her health and spirits. - -In all her work of army reform she had looked up to him as her “Chief,” -hardly realizing, perhaps, how much of the initiating had been her own. -Their friendship, too, had been almost lifelong, and in every way ideal. -The whole nation mourned his loss, but only the little intimate group -which centred in his wife and children and those dearest friends, of whom -Miss Nightingale was one, knew fully all that the country had lost in him. - -It may be worth while for a double reason to quote here from Mr. -Gladstone’s tribute at a meeting held to decide on a memorial. - - “To him,” said Gladstone, “we owe the commission for inquiry - into barracks and hospitals; to him we are indebted for the - reorganization of the medical department of the army. To him - we owe the commission of inquiry into, and remodelling the - medical education of, the army. And, lastly, we owe him the - commission for presenting to the public the vital statistics of - the army in such a form, from time to time, that the great and - living facts of the subject are brought to view.” - -Lord Herbert had toiled with ever-deepening zeal to reform the unhealthy -conditions to which, even in times of peace, our soldiers had been -exposed—so unhealthy that, while the mortality lists showed a death -of eight in every thousand for civilians, for soldiers the number of -deaths was seventeen per thousand. And of every two deaths in the army -it was asserted that one was preventable. Lord Herbert was the heart -and soul of the Royal Commission to inquire into these preventable -causes, and through his working ardour the work branched forth into four -supplementary commissions concerning hospitals and barracks. When he -died, Miss Nightingale not only felt the pang of parting from one of her -oldest and most valued friends, but she also felt that in this cause, -so specially dear to her heart, she had lost a helper who could never be -replaced, though she dauntlessly stood to her task and helped to carry on -his work. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - - _Multifarious work and many honours—Jubilee Nurses—Nursing - Association—Death of father and mother—Lady Verney and her - husband—No respecter of persons—From within four walls—South - Africa and America._ - - -Her activities were so multitudinous that it is difficult even to name -them all in such a brief sketch as this. Besides those at which we have -already glanced, prison reform, help to Bosnian fugitives, Manchester -Police Court Mission for Lads, Indian Famine Fund—merely glancing -down two pages of her biography, I find all these mentioned. She was -herself, of course, decorated with the Red Cross, but M. Henri Dunant’s -magnificent Red Cross scheme for helping the wounded on the battlefield -may be said to have been really the outcome of her own work and example. -For it was the extension of her own activities, by means of the Red -Cross Societies, which throughout the European continent act in concert -with their respective armies and governments. - -She was the first woman to be decorated with the Order of Merit, which -was bestowed on her in 1907, and in the following year she received, -as the Baroness Burdett Coutts had done, the “Freedom of the City of -London,” having already been awarded, among many like honours, the French -Gold Medal of Secours aux blessés Militaires, and the German Order of -the Cross of Merit. On May 10, 1910, she received the badge of honour of -the Norwegian Red Cross Society. But there was another distinction, even -more unique, which was already hers. For when £70,000 came into Queen -Victoria’s hands as a gift from the women of her empire at the time of -her Jubilee, so much had the Queen been impressed by the work of the -Nursing Association and all that had been done for the sick poor, that -the interest of this Women’s Jubilee Fund, £2,000 a year, was devoted to -an Institution for Training and Maintaining Nurses for the Sick Poor; and -the National Association for Providing Trained Nurses, which owed so -much to Miss Nightingale, was affiliated with it, though it still keeps -its old headquarters at 23 Bloomsbury Square, where for so many years -would arrive at Christmas from her old home a consignment of beautiful -holly and other evergreens for Christmas festivities. H.R.H. the Princess -Christian is President of the Nursing Association, and Miss Nightingale’s -old friend and fellow-worker, Mr. Henry Bonham Carter, is the Secretary. -The influence of Miss Florence Lees, described by Kinglake as “the gifted -and radiant pupil of Florence Nightingale,” who afterwards became Mrs. -Dacre Craven, and was the first Superintendent-General, has been a very -vitalizing influence there, and the home owes much also to her husband, -the Rev. Dacre Craven, of St. Andrew’s, Holborn. Miss Nightingale’s warm -friendship for Miss Florence Lees brought her into peculiarly intimate -relations with the home, and both the Association and the Queen’s Jubilee -Institute are the fruit of Miss Nightingale’s teaching, and a noble -double memorial of the national—nay, imperial—recognition of its value. - -The Royal Pension Fund for Nurses also, in which Queen Alexandra -was so specially interested, helped to crown the fulfilment of Miss -Nightingale’s early dream and long, steadfast life-work. - -But equally important, though less striking, has been the growing harvest -of her quiet, courteous efforts to help village mothers to understand -the laws of health, her pioneer-work in regard to all the dangers of -careless milk-farms, her insistence on the importance of pure air as -well as pure water, though she had always been careful to treat the poor -man’s rooftree as his castle and never to cross his doorstep except by -permission or invitation. - -After the death of her father at Embley in 1874—a very peaceful death, -commemorated in the inscription on his tomb, “In Thy light we shall see -light,” which suggests in him a nature at once devout and sincere—she was -much with her mother, in the old homes at Embley and Lea Hurst, though -Lea Hurst was the one she loved best, and the beech-wood walk in Lea -Woods, with its radiant shower of golden leaves in the autumn, for which -she would sometimes delay her leaving, is still specially associated with -her memory: and her thoughtfulness for the poor still expressed itself in -many different ways—in careful gifts, for instance, through one whom she -trusted for knowledge and tact; in her arrangement that pure milk should -be sent daily from the home dairy at Lea Hurst to those in need of it. - -With faithful love she tended her mother to the time of her death in -1880, and there seems to be a joyous thanksgiving for that mother’s -beauty of character in the words the two sisters inscribed to her memory: -“God is love—Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” - -After her mother’s death, when the property had passed into the hands of -Mr. William Shore Nightingale, she still visited her kinsman there and -kept up her interest in the people of the district. - -Among the outward events of her life, after her return from the Crimea, -one of the earliest had been the marriage of her sister Parthenope, who -in 1858 became the second wife of Sir Harry Verney,[20] and her home -at Claydon in Buckinghamshire was thenceforth a second home to Miss -Nightingale. It need hardly be said that in Sir Harry Verney’s various -generous schemes for the good of the neighbourhood, schemes in which his -wife cordially co-operated, Miss Nightingale took a warm and sympathetic -pleasure. His keen interest in army reform was, of course, a special -ground of comradeship. Miss Nightingale divided her time chiefly between -her own home in South Street, Park Lane, and visits to the rooms that -were reserved for her at Claydon. One of her great interests while at -Claydon, soon after her sister’s marriage, had been the building of the -new Buckinghamshire Infirmary in 1861, of which her sister laid the -foundation; and her bust still adorns the entrance hall. - -Mrs. Tooley reminds us that not only was Lady Verney well known in -literary and political circles, but also her books on social questions -had the distinction of being quoted in the House of Commons. She gives -many interesting details with regard to the philanthropic and political -work of Sir Harry Verney and his family, but it is hardly necessary to -duplicate them here, since her book is still available. Lady Verney’s -death in 1890, after a long and painful illness, following on that of her -father and mother, bereaved Miss Nightingale of a lifelong companionship, -and might have left her very lonely but for her absorbing work and her -troops of friends. - -How fruitful that work was we may dimly see when we remember that—to -instance one branch of it only—in ten years the death-rate in the army -in India, which her efforts so determinately strove to lessen, fell from -sixty-nine per thousand to eighteen per thousand.[21] She strove—and not -in vain—to improve the sanitary conditions of immense areas of undrained -country, but she also endeavoured to bring home to the rank and file of -the army individual teaching. - -She gives in one of her pamphlets a delightful story of men who came to -a district in India supposed to be fatal to any new-comer, but, strong -in their new hygienic knowledge, determined _not_ to have cholera. They -lived carefully, they grew their own garden produce, they did not give -way to fear, and _all_, without exception, escaped. - -To return for a moment to Britain, since a separate chapter is reserved -for India. She was before her day in contending that foul air was one -of the great causes of consumption and other diseases. And her teaching -was ever given with courtesy and consideration. How strongly she felt -on this and kindred subjects, and how practical her help was, we see -clearly in her letters and pamphlets. She delighted in making festivities -for companies of nurses and of her other hard-working friends. And in -St. Paul’s fine sense of the phrase, she was no “respecter of persons”: -she reverenced personality, not accidental rank. She had no patience -with those visiting ladies who think they may intrude at all hours -of the day into the homes of the poor, and her quick sense of humour -delighted in many of the odd speeches which would have shocked the prim -and conventional. She thought the highest compliment ever paid to her -staff of nurses who visited in the homes of the poor was the speech of -the grubby ragamuffin, who seemed to think they could wash off even the -blackness of the Arch-fiend and, when being scrubbed, cried out, “You may -bathe the divil.” - -But with all her fun and relish of life, how sane, how practical, she was! - -Do you remember how she laughed at the silly idea that nothing was needed -to make a good nurse except what the “Early Victorian” used to call “a -disappointment in love”? - -Here are other of her shrewd sayings from her _Nursing Notes_:— - - “Another extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night air. - What air can we breathe at night but night air? The choice - is between pure night air from without and foul air from - within. Most people prefer the latter.... Without cleanliness - within and without your house, ventilation is comparatively - useless.... And now, you think these things trifles, or at - least exaggerated. But what you ‘think’ or what I ‘think’ - matters little. Let us see what God thinks of them. God - always justifies His ways. While we are thinking, He has been - teaching. I have known cases of hospital pyæmia quite as severe - in handsome private houses as in any of the worst hospitals, - and from the same cause—viz., foul air. Yet nobody learnt the - lesson. Nobody learnt _anything_ at all from it. They went on - _thinking_—thinking that the sufferer had scratched his thumb, - or that it was singular that ‘all the servants’ had ‘whitlows,’ - or that something was ‘much about this year.’” - -If there had been any hope at first that Miss Nightingale might grow -strong enough to stand visibly among those who were being trained as -nurses by the fund raised in her honour, that hope was now past, and when -the great new wing of St. Thomas’s was built—the finest building for its -purpose in Europe—the outward reins of government had to be delivered -over into the hands of another, though hers was throughout the directing -hand. And the results of her work are written in big type upon the page -of history. - -In India and America she is acclaimed as an adored benefactress, but -what has she not done for our own country alone? To sum up even a few of -the points on which I have touched: she initiated sick nursing among the -poor, through her special appeal was built the Central Home for Nurses, -she was the pioneer in the hygienic work of county councils, and, besides -the great nursing school at St. Thomas’s, to her was largely due the -reform of nursing in workhouses and infirmaries. And in 1890, with the -£70,000 of the Women’s Jubilee Fund, the establishment of the Queen’s -Nurses received its charter. - -In affairs of military nursing it is no exaggeration to say that she -was consulted throughout the world. America came to her in the Civil -War; South Africa owed much to her; India infinitely more; and so vital -have been the reforms introduced by Lord Herbert and herself that even -as early as 1880, when General Gordon was waging war in China during -the Taiping Rebellion, the death-rate as compared with the Crimea was -reduced from sixty per cent. to little more than three in every hundred -yearly.[22] - -We have seen that, though she was so much more seriously broken in health -than any one at first realized, that did not prevent her incessant work, -though it did in the end make her life more or less a hidden life, spent -within four walls, and chiefly on her bed. - -Yet from those four walls what electric messages of help and common sense -were continuously flashing across the length and breadth of the world! -She was regarded as an expert in her own subjects, and long before her -Jubilee Fund enabled her to send forth the Queen’s Nurses, she was, as we -have already seen, busy writing and working to improve not only nursing -in general, but especially the nursing of the sick poor; and unceasingly -she still laboured for the army. - -Repeated mention has been made of General Evatt, to whose memory of Miss -Nightingale I am much indebted. - -General Evatt served in the last Afghan campaign, and what he there -experienced determined him to seek an interview, as soon as he returned -to England, with her whom he regarded as the great reformer of military -hygiene—Florence Nightingale. In this way and on this subject there arose -between them a delightful and enduring friendship. Many and many a time -in that quiet room in South Street where she lay upon her bed—its dainty -coverlet all strewn with the letters and papers that might have befitted -the desk or office of a busy statesman, and surrounded by books and by -the flowers that she loved so well—he had talked with her for four hours -on end, admiring with a sort of wonder her great staying power and her -big, untiring brain. - -He did not, like another acquaintance of mine, say that he came away -feeling like a sucked orange, with all hoarded knowledge on matters great -and small gently, resistlessly drawn from him by his charming companion; -but so voracious was the eager, sympathetic interest of Miss Nightingale -in the men and women of that active world whose streets, at the time he -learned to know her, she no longer walked, that no conversation on human -affairs ever seemed, he said, to tire her. - -And her mind was ever working towards new measures for the health and -uplifting of her fellow-creatures. - -We have seen how eager she was to use for good every municipal -opportunity, but she did not stop at the municipality, for she knew that -there are many womanly duties also at the imperial hearth; and without -entering on any controversy, it is necessary to state clearly that she -very early declared herself in favour of household suffrage for women, -and that “the North of England Society for Women’s Suffrage is the proud -possessor of her signature to an address to Mr. Disraeli, thanking him -for his favourable vote in the House of Commons, and begging him to -do his utmost to remove the injustice under which women householders -suffered by being deprived of the parliamentary vote.”[23] - -[Illustration: Florence Nightingale’s London House, 10 South Street, Park -Lane (house with balcony), where she died, August 14, 1910.] - -Whatever could aid womanly service—as a voice in choosing our great -domestic executive nowadays undoubtedly can—had her sympathy and -interest; but what she emphasized most, I take it, at all times, was that -when any door opened for service, woman should be not only willing, but -also nobly _efficient_. She herself opened many such doors, and her lamp -was always trimmed and filled and ready to give light and comfort in the -darkest room. - -It has been well said that in describing a friend in the following words, -she unconsciously drew a picture of herself:— - - “She had the gracefulness, the wit, the unfailing - cheerfulness—qualities so remarkable, but so much overlooked, - in our Saviour’s life. She had the absence of all - ‘mortification’ for mortification’s sake, which characterized - His work, and any real work in the present day as in His day. - And how did she do all this?... She was always filled with the - thought that she must be about her Father’s business.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - - _India—Correspondence with Sir Bartle Frere—Interest in village - girls—The Lamp._ - - -We come now to Miss Nightingale’s most monumental achievement of all, -the reform of sanitary conditions in India—a reform ever widening and -developing, branching forth and striking its roots deeper. Her interest -in that vast population, that world-old treasury of subtle religious -thought and ever-present mystical faith, may perhaps have been in part an -inheritance from the Anglo-Indian Governor who was counted in her near -ancestry. But there can be little doubt that her ardent and practical -desire to improve the conditions of camp life in India began in her -intimate care for the soldiers, and her close knowledge of many things -unknown to the ordinary English subject. The world-wide freemasonry of -the rank and file in our army enabled her to hear while at Scutari much -of the life of the army in the vast and distant dominions of Burma and -Bengal, and she had that gift for seeing through things to their farthest -roots which enabled her to perceive clearly that no mere mending of camp -conditions could stay the continual ravages of disease among our men. -The evil was deeper and wider, and only as conditions were improved in -sanitary matters could the mortality of the army be lessened. She saw, -and saw clearly, that the reason children died like flies in India, so -that those who loved them best chose the agony of years of parting rather -than take the risks, lay not so much in the climate as in the human -poisons and putrefactions so carelessly treated and so quickly raised to -murder-power by the extreme heat. - -Much of this comes out clearly in her letter to Sir Bartle Frere, with -whom her first ground of friendship had arisen out of their common -interest in sanitary matters. - -What manner of man Sir Bartle was may be divined from a letter to him -written by Colonel W. F. Marriott, one of the secretaries of the Bombay -Government, at the time of his leaving Bombay:— - - “The scene of your departure stirred me much. That bright - evening, the crowd on the pier and shore as the boat put - off, the music from the _Octavia_, as the band played ‘Auld - Lang Syne’ as we passed, were all typical and impressive by - association of ideas. But it was not a shallow sympathy with - which I took in all the circumstances. I could divine some of - your thoughts. If I felt like Sir Bedivere, left behind ‘among - new men, strange faces, other minds,’ you must have felt in - some degree like King Arthur in the barge, ‘I have lived my - life, and that which I have done may He Himself make pure.’ - I do not doubt that you felt that all this ‘mouth honour’ is - only worth so far as it is the seal of one’s own approving - conscience, and though you could accept it freely as deserved - from their lips, yet at that hour you judged your own work - hardly. You measured the palpable results with your conceptions - and hopes, and were inclined to say, ‘I am no better than my - fathers.’ But I, judging now calmly and critically, feel—I may - say, see—that though the things that seem to have failed be - amongst those for which you have taken most pains, yet they - are small things compared with the work which has not failed. - You have made an impression of earnest human sympathy with the - people of this country, which will deepen and expand, so that - it will be felt as a perpetual witness against any narrower - and less noble conception of our relation to them, permanently - raising the moral standard of highest policy towards them; - and your name will become a traditional embodiment of a good - governor.”[24] - -Frere had seen that the filthy condition of many of the roads, after -the passing of animals and the failure to cleanse from manure, was of -itself a source of poison, though the relation between garbage and -disease-bearing flies was then less commonly understood, and he was never -tired of urging the making of decent roads; but this, he knew, was only -a very small part of the improvements needed. - -His correspondence with Miss Nightingale began in 1867, and in that -and the five following years they exchanged about one hundred letters, -chiefly on sanitary questions. - -It was part of her genius always to see and seize her opportunity, and -she rightly thought that, as she says in one of her letters, “We might -never have such a favourable conjunction of the larger planets again: - -“You, who are willing and most able to organize the machinery here; Sir -John Lawrence, who is able and willing, provided only he knew what to do; -and a Secretary of State who is willing and in earnest. And I believe -nothing would bring them to their senses in India more than an annual -report of what they have done, with your comments upon it, laid before -Parliament.” - -In order to set in motion the machinery of a sanitary department for all -India, a despatch had to be written, pointing out clearly and concisely -what was to be done. - -Frere consulted Miss Nightingale at every point about this despatch, -but spoke of the necessity for some sort of peg to hang it on—“not,” he -said, “that the Secretary of State is at all lukewarm, nor, I think, that -he has any doubt as to what should be said, or how—that, I think, your -memoranda have fixed; the only difficulty is as to the when.... - -“No governor-general, I believe, since the time of Clive has had such -powers and such opportunities, but he fancies the want of progress is -owing to some opposing power which does not exist anywhere but in his own -imagination. - -“He cannot see that perpetual inspection by the admiral of the drill and -kit of every sailor is not the way to make the fleet efficient, and he -gets disheartened and depressed because he finds that months and years of -this squirrel-like activity lead to no real progress.” - -The despatch with its accompanying documents went to Miss Nightingale for -her remarks before it was sent out. Her commentary was as follows:— - - “I find nothing to add or to take away in the memorandum - (sanitary). It appears to me quite perfect in itself—that is, - it is quite as much as the enemy will bear, meaning by the - enemy—not at all the Government of India in India, still less - the Government of India at home, but—that careless and ignorant - person called the Devil, who is always walking about taking - knowledge out of people’s heads, who said that he was coming to - give us the knowledge of good and evil, and who has done just - the contrary. - - “It is a noble paper, an admirable paper—and what a present to - make to a government! You have included in it all the great - principles—sanitary and administrative—which the country - requires. And now you must work, work these points until they - are embodied in local works in India. This will not be in our - time, for it takes more than a few years to fill a continent - with civilization. But I never despair that in God’s good time - every man of us will reap the common benefit of obeying all the - laws which He has given us for our well-being. - - “I shall give myself the pleasure of writing to you again about - these papers. But I write this note merely to say that I don’t - think this memorandum requires any addition. - - “God bless you for it! I think it is a great work.”[25] - -It _was_ a great work, and it might have been delayed for scores of -years, with a yearly unnecessary waste of thousands of lives, if she had -not initiated it. - -[Illustration: Florence Nightingale in her Last Days. - -(_From a drawing from memory. Copyright A. Rischgitz._)] - -Her words to Sir Bartle Frere at the outset had been: “It does seem that -there is no element in the scheme of government (of India) by which the -public health can be taken care of. And the thing is now to create such -an element.” - -As early as 1863, in her “Observations on the Sanitary State of the Army -in India,” she had written:— - - “Native ‘caste’ prejudices appear to have been made the excuse - for European laziness, as far as regards our sanitary and - hospital neglects of the natives. Recent railroad experience is - a striking proof that ‘caste,’ in their minds, is no bar to - intercommunication in arrangements tending to their benefit.” - -Sir C. Trevelyan justly says that “a good sanitary state of the military -force cannot be secured without making similar arrangements for the -populations settled in and around the military cantonments; that sanitary -reform must be generally introduced into India for the civil as well as -the military portion of the community.” - -And now that the opportunity arrived, all was done with wise and swift -diplomacy. The way was smoothed by a call from Frere on his old friend -Sir Richard Temple, at that time Finance Minister at Calcutta, asking him -to help. - -Those who know India best, and know Miss Nightingale best, are those who -are most aware of the mighty tree of ever-widening health improvement -that grew from this little seed, and of the care with which Miss -Nightingale helped to guard and foster it. - -“She was a great Indian,” her friend General Evatt repeated to me more -than once, “and what a head she had! She was the only human being I -have ever met, for instance, man or woman, who had thoroughly mastered -the intricate details of the Bengal land-purchase system. She loved -India, and she knew it through and through. It was no wonder that every -distinguished Indian who came to England went to see Miss Nightingale.” - -She bore her ninety years very lightly, and made a vision serene and -noble, as will be seen from our picture, though that does not give the -lovely youthful colouring in contrast with the silvery hair, and we read -of the great expressiveness of her hands, which, a little more, perhaps, -than is usual with Englishwomen, she used in conversation. - -It was a very secluded life that she lived at No. 10 South Street; but -she was by no means without devotees, and the bouquet that the German -Emperor sent her was but one of many offerings from many high-hearted -warriors at her shrine. - -And when she visited her old haunts at Lea Hurst and Embley she delighted -in sending invitations to the girls growing up in those village families -that she had long counted among her friends, so that to her tea-table -were lovingly welcomed guests very lowly, as well as those better known -to the world. - -Her intense and sympathetic interest in all the preparations for nursing -in the South African campaign has already been touched upon, as well as -her joy that some of her own nurses from among the first probationers at -St. Thomas’s were accepted in that enterprise with praise and gratitude. - -It would be a serious omission not to refer my readers to a very moving -letter which she wrote to Cavaliere Sebastiano Fenzi, during the Italian -War of Independence in 1866, of which a part is given in Mrs. Tooley’s -book, and from which I am permitted to quote the following:— - - “I have given dry advice as dryly as I could. But you must - permit me to say that if there is anything I could do for you - at any time, and you would command me, I should esteem it - the greatest honour and pleasure. I am a hopeless invalid, - entirely a prisoner to my room, and overwhelmed with business. - Otherwise how gladly would I answer to your call and come and - do my little best for you in the dear city where I was born. If - the giving my miserable life could hasten your success but by - half an hour, how gladly would I give it!” - -How far she was ahead of her time becomes every day more obvious; for -every day the results of her teaching are gradually making themselves -felt. For example, it can no longer, without qualification, be said, -as she so truly said in her own day, that while “the coxcombries of -education are taught to every schoolgirl” there is gross ignorance, not -only among schoolgirls, but also even among mothers and nurses, with -regard to “those laws which God has assigned to the relations of our -bodies with the world in which He has put them. In other words, the laws -which make these bodies, into which He has put our minds, healthy or -unhealthy organs of those minds, are all but unlearnt. Not but that these -laws—the laws of life—are in a certain measure understood, but not even -mothers think it worth their while to study them—to study how to give -their children healthy existences. They call it medical or physiological -knowledge, fit only for doctors.” - -In her old age, loved and honoured far and wide, she toiled on with all -the warm enthusiasm of a girl, and the ripe wisdom of fourscore years and -ten spent in the service of her one Master, for she was not of those who -ever tried to serve two. And when she died at No. 10 South Street, on -August 10, 1910—so peacefully that the tranquil glow of sunset descended -upon her day of harvest—the following beautiful incident was recorded in -_Nursing Notes_, to whose editor I am specially indebted for bringing to -my notice the verses in which the story is told[26]:— - - “At Chelsea, under the lime tree’s stir, - I read the news to a pensioner - That a noble lord and a judge were dead— - ‘They were younger men than me,’ he said. - - “I read again of another death; - The old man turned, and caught his breath— - ‘She’s gone?’ he said; ‘she too? In camp - We called her the Lady of the Lamp.’ - - “He would not listen to what I read, - But wanted it certain—‘The Lady’s dead?’ - I showed it him to remove his doubt, - And added, unthinking, ‘The Lamp is out.’ - - “He rose—and I had to help him stand— - Then, as he saluted with trembling hand, - I was abashed to hear him say, - ‘The Lamp she lit is alight to-day.’” - - F. S. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - - _A brief summing up._ - - -Those who write of Florence Nightingale sentimentally, as though she -spent herself in a blind, caressing tenderness, would have earned her -secret scorn, not unflavoured by a jest; for she stood always at the -opposite pole from the sentimentalists, and perhaps had a little of her -father in her—that father who, when he was _giving_ right and left, would -say to some plausible beggar of society who came to him for wholesale -subscriptions, “You see, I was not born generous,” well knowing that his -ideas of generosity and theirs differed by a whole heaven, and that his -were the wider and the more generous of the two. - -She had a will of iron. That is what one of her greatest admirers has -more than once said to me—and he knew her well. No doubt it was true. -Only a will of iron could have enabled a delicate woman to serve, for -twenty hours at a time, with unwearying tenderness and courage among -the wounded and the dying. Even her iron resolution and absolute -fearlessness could not prevent her from taking Crimean fever when she -insisted on visiting a second time the lonely typhus patient outside -Balaclava, at a moment when she was worn out with six months of nursing -and administration combined. But it did enable her to go back to her post -when barely recovered, and, later in life, even when a prisoner within -four walls, who seldom left her bed, that will of iron did enable her to -go on labouring till the age of ninety, and to fulfil for the good of -mankind the dearest purpose of her heart. Nothing is harder than iron, -and that which is made of it after it has been through the furnace has -long been the very symbol of loyalty and uprightness when we say of a man -that he is “true as steel.” - -Yes, iron is hard and makes a pillar of strength in time of need. But -he who forges out of it weapons and tools that are at once delicate -and resistless, knows that it will humbly shoe the feet of horses, and -cut the household bread, and will make for others besides Lombardy a -kingly crown. And when iron is truly on fire, nothing commoner or softer -nor anything more yielding—not even gold itself—can glow with a more -steadfast and fervent heat to warm the hands and hearts of men. - -The picture of Miss Nightingale that dwells in the popular mind no -doubt owes its outline to the memories of the men she nursed with such -tenderness and skill. And it is a true picture. Like all good workmen, -she loved her work, and nursing was her chosen work so long as her -strength remained. None can read her writing, and especially her _Nursing -Notes_ and her pamphlet on nursing among the sick poor, without feeling -how much she cared for every minutest detail, and how sensitively she -felt with, and for, her patients. - -But such a picture, as will have been made clear by this time, shows only -one aspect of her life-work. One of her nearest intimates writes to me of -her difficulties in reforming military hospitals, and her determination -therefore to give herself later in life to the reform of civilian -nursing; but in reality she did both, for through the one she indirectly -influenced the other, and began what has been widening and unfolding in -every direction ever since. - -Those who knew her best speak almost with awe of her constructive and -organizing power. She was indeed a pioneer and a leader, and girt about -with the modesty of all true greatness. - -Like Joan of Arc, she heeded not the outward voices, but, through all -faults and sorrows, sought to follow always and only the voice of the -Divine One. This gave her life unity and power. And when she passed on -into the life beyond, the door opened and closed again very quietly, -leaving the whole world the better for her ninety years in our midst. -“When I have done with this old suit,” says George Meredith, “so much in -need of mending;” but hers, like his, was a very charming suit to the -last, and even to the end of her ninety years the colouring was clear and -fresh as a girl’s. - -Like all strong, true, disinterested people, she made enemies—where is -there any sanitary reformer who does not?—yet seldom indeed has any one, -man or woman, won deeper and more world-wide love. But that was not her -aim; her aim was to do the will of her Commander and leave the world -better than she found it. - -Seldom has there been a moment when women have more needed the counsel -given in one of the letters here published for the first time, when -she begs of a dear friend that her name may be that “of one who obeys -authority, however unreasonable, in the name of Him who is above all, and -who is Reason itself.” - -And as we think of the debt the world owes to Florence Nightingale and of -all she did for England, for India, and not only for the British Empire, -but for the world, we may well pause for a moment on the words that -closed our opening chapter, in which she begs her fellow-workers to give -up considering their actions in any light of rivalry as between men and -women, and ends with an entreaty:— - - “It does not make a thing good, that it is remarkable that a - woman should have been able to do it. Neither does it make a - thing bad, which would have been good had a man done it, that - it has been done by a woman. - - “Oh, leave these jargons, and go your way straight to God’s - work, in simplicity and singleness of heart.” - -The well-remembered words of Ruskin’s appeal to girls in “Sesame and -Lilies,” published but a few years earlier, were evidently in Miss -Nightingale’s mind when she wrote the closing sentences of her tribute -to Agnes Jones—sentences which set their seal upon this volume, and will -echo long after it is forgotten. - - “Let us,” she writes, “add living flowers to her grave, ‘lilies - with full hands,’ not fleeting primroses, nor dying flowers. - Let us bring the work of our hands and our heads and our - hearts to finish her work which God has so blessed. Let us not - merely rest in peace, but let hers be the life which stirs up - to fight the good fight against vice and sin and misery and - wretchedness, as she did—the call to arms which she was ever - obeying:— - - ‘The Son of God goes forth to war— - Who follows in His train?’ - - “O daughters of God, are there so few to answer?” - - - - -APPENDIX. - - -LIST OF PUBLICATIONS BY FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. - -Letter (on the Madras Famine): The Great Lesson of the Indian Famine, -etc. 1877. - -Life or Death in India. A Paper read at the Meeting of the National -Association for the Promotion of Social Science, Norwich, 1873, with an -Appendix on Life or Death by Irrigation. 1874. - -Notes on Hospitals: being two Papers read before the National Association -for the Promotion of Science ... 1858, with the evidence given to the -Royal Commissioners on the state of the Army in 1857 (Appendix, Sites and -Construction of Hospitals, etc.). - -Do., 3rd Edition, enlarged, and for the most part rewritten. 1863. - -Notes on Matters affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital -Administration of the British Army, founded chiefly on the experience of -the late war. 1858. - -Notes on Nursing: What it is, and what it is not. 1860. - -New Edition, revised and enlarged, 1860; another Edition, 1876. - -Miss Florence Nightingale ovy knitra o oŝctr̂ování nemocnŷch. z -anglického pr̂eloẑila. Králova, 1872. - -Des Soins à donner aux malades ce qu’il faut faire, ce qu’il faut eviter. -Ouvrage traduit de l’Anglais. 1862. - -Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes, with a Chapter on Children. -1861. - -Do., New Edition, 1868 and 1876. - -Observations on the ... Sanitary State of the Army in India. Reprinted -from the Report of the Royal Commission. 1863. - -On Trained Nursing for the Sick Poor.... A Letter ... to _The Times_ ... -April 14, 1876. - -Sanitary Statistics of Native Nursing Schools and Hospitals. 1863. - -Reproduction of a printed Report originally submitted to the Bucks -County Council in the year 1892, containing Letters from Miss Florence -Nightingale on Health Visiting in Rural Districts. 1911. - -Statements exhibiting the Voluntary Contributions received by Miss -Nightingale for the Use of the British War Hospitals in the East, with -the mode of their Distribution in 1854, 1855, 1856. Published, London, -1857. - - -A LIST OF SOME OF THE BOOKS CONSULTED - -In case any of my readers wish to read further for themselves:— - -Kinglake’s _Invasion of the Crimea_. (William Blackwood.) - -_Memoir of Sidney Herbert_, by Lord Stanmore. (John Murray.) - -_Life of Sir Bartle Frere_, by John Martineau. (John Murray.) - -_Letters of John Stuart Mill_, edited by John Elliot. (Longmans.) - -_William Rathbone_, a Memoir by Eleanor F. Rathbone. (Macmillan.) - -_The Life of Florence Nightingale_, by Sarah Tooley. (Cassell.) - -_Felicia Skene of Oxford_, by E. C. Rickards. (John Murray.) - -_Memoir of Sir John MacNeill, G.C.B._, by his Granddaughter. (John -Murray.) - -_Agnes Elizabeth Jones_, by her Sister. (Alexander Strahan.) - -_A History of Nursing_, by M. Adelaide Nutting, R.N., and Lavinia L. -Dock, R.N. (G. P. Putnam and Sons.) - -_A Sister of Mercy’s Memories of the Crimea_, by Sister Aloysius. (Burns -and Oates.) - -_The Story of Florence Nightingale_, by W. I. W. (Pilgrim Press.) - -_Soyer’s Culinary Campaign_, by Alexis Soyer. (Routledge.) - -_Kaiserswerth_, by Florence Nightingale. - -_Florence Nightingale_, a Cameo Life-Sketch by Marion Holmes. (Women’s -Freedom League.) - -_Paterson’s Roads_, edited by Edward Mogg. (Longmans, Green, Orme.) - -_The London Library_, No. 3, vol. of _The Times_ for 1910. - -_Nursing Notes_, by Florence Nightingale, and other writings of Miss -Nightingale included in the foregoing list. - - -A BRIEF SKETCH OF GENERAL EVATT’S CAREER. - -[As given in _Who’s Who_.] - -EVATT, SURGEON-GENERAL GEORGE JOSEPH HAMILTON, C.B., 1903; M.D., -R.A.M.C.; retired; Member, Council British Medical Association, 1904; -born, 11th Nov. 1843; son of Captain George Evatt, 70th Foot; married, -1877, Sophie Mary Frances, daughter of William Walter Raleigh Kerr, -Treasurer of Mauritius, and granddaughter of Lord Robert Kerr; one son, -one daughter. Educated, Royal College of Surgeons, and Trinity College, -Dublin. Entered Army Medical Service, 1865; joined 25th (K.O.S.B.) -Regiment, 1866; Surgeon-Major, 1877; Lieutenant-Colonel, R.A.M.C., 1885; -Colonel, 1896; Surgeon-General, 1899; served Perak Expedition with Sir -H. Ross’s Bengal Column, 1876 (medal and clasp); Afghan War, 1878-80; -capture of Ali Musjid (despatches); action in Bazaar Valley, with General -Tytler’s Column (despatches); advance on Gundamak, and return in “Death -March,” 1879 (specially thanked in General Orders by Viceroy of India in -Council and Commander-in-Chief in India for services); commanded Field -Hospital in second campaign, including advance to relief of Cabul under -General Sir Charles Gough, 1879; action on the Ghuzni Road; return to -India, 1880 (medal and two clasps); Suakin Expedition, 1885, including -actions at Handoub, Tamai, and removal of wounded from MacNeill’s zareba -(despatches, medal and clasp, Khedive’s Star); Zhob Valley Expedition, -1890; commanded a Field Hospital (despatches); Medical Officer, Royal -Military Academy, Woolwich, 1880-96; Senior Medical Officer, Quetta -Garrison, Baluchistan, 1887-91; Sanitary Officer, Woolwich Garrison, -1892-94; Secretary, Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, 1894-96; P.M.O., -China, 1896-99; P.M.O., Western District, 1899-1902; Surgeon-General, -2nd Army Corps, Salisbury, 1902-3; raised with Mr. Cantlie R.A.M.C. -Volunteers, 1883; founded, 1884, Medical Officers of Schools Association, -London; and, 1886, drew up scheme for Army Nursing Service Reserve; -Member, Committee International Health Exhibition, 1884; Member of -Council, Royal Army Temperance Association, 1903; President, Poor Law -Medical Officers’ Association; contested (L.) Woolwich, 1886, Fareham -Division, Hampshire, 1906, and Brighton, 1910; Honorary Colonel, -Home Counties Division, R.A.M.C., Territorial Force, 1908; received -Distinguished Service Reward, 1910. _Publications_: Travels in the -Euphrates Valley and Mesopotamia, 1873; and many publications on military -and medical subjects. - - -THE END. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] I wrote to the author of the charming sketch of Florence Nightingale -in which I found it quoted, but he has quite forgotten who was the writer. - -[2] Her full name was Frances Parthenope Nightingale. - -[3] Mrs. Tooley, p. 37. - -[4] For a charming sketch of Fliedner’s first wife, a woman of rare -excellence, my readers are referred to “A History of Nursing,” by M. -Adelaide Nutting, R.N., and Lavinia P. Dock, R.N. (G. P. Putnam and Sons.) - -[5] The reference here is not to Miss Nightingale’s book, but to the -periodical which at present bears that name. - -[6] “Memoir of Sidney Herbert,” by Lord Stanmore. (John Murray.) - -[7] “Felicia Skene of Oxford,” by E. C. Rickards. - -[8] Kinglake’s “Invasion of the Crimea,” vol. vi. (William Blackwood and -Sons.) - -[9] Kinglake’s “Invasion of the Crimea,” vol. vi. p. 426. - -[10] Kinglake’s “Invasion of the Crimea,” vol. vi. - -[11] “The Life of Florence Nightingale,” by Sarah Tooley. - -[12] Stafford O’Brien. - -[13] Kinglake’s “Invasion of Crimea.” - -[14] “Memories of the Crimea,” by Sister Mary Aloysius. (Burns and Oates.) - -[15] “Soyer’s Culinary Campaign,” Alexis Soyer. (Routledge, 1857.) - -[16] I know not whether this was the man whose arm she had saved; -probably many others echoed his feeling, and he was not by any means the -only soldier who thus reverently greeted her passing presence. - -[17] “Introduction to Memorials of Agnes Elizabeth Jones.” Reprinted from -_Good Words_ for June 1868. Florence Nightingale. - -[18] The italics are added. - -[19] A complete list is subjoined in the Appendix. - -[20] Sir Harry Verney died four years later, and Claydon then passed to -Sir Edmund Hope Verney, the son of his first marriage. - -[21] “Life of Florence Nightingale,” by Sarah Tooley, p. 295. - -[22] See “Life of Florence Nightingale,” by Sarah Tooley, p. 268. - -[23] “Florence Nightingale,” a Cameo Life-Sketch by Marion Holmes. - -[24] “Life of Sir Bartle Frere,” by John Martineau. (John Murray.) - -[25] “Life of Sir Bartle Frere,” by John Martineau. (John Murray.) - -[26] “The Lady of the Lamp,” by F. S., reprinted from the _Evening News_ -of August 16, 1910, in _Nursing Notes_ of September 1, 1910. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. 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