FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALEFLORENCE NIGHTINGALE(1820-1910)"Theirs is a heroism and patriotism no less grand than that of the bravest soldier they ever nursed back to life and health."—Charles R. SkinnerFlorence Nightingale, one of the most illustrious personages of Queen Victoria's reign, was born in Florence, Italy, of English parents. Since they were visiting that city at the time, they named their little daughter after the city of her birth. A sister, also born in Italy, was named Parthenope after her birthplace.The Nightingales were well-to-do people. They owned a beautiful country seat in Derbyshire, which was for many years the residence of Florence and her parents. Florence's love for animals and flowers was second only to her love of humanity. Very early she formed the idea of a vocation which should be lofty and altruistic.Her acquaintance with Elizabeth Fry did much to develop this idea. Mrs. Fry, already famous asthe first woman who made the welfare of women in prison her care, was a preacher of the Quaker sect.Having decided upon her course, Miss Nightingale began to learn in the hospitals the medical nurse's duties; and, hearing of a German training school for nurses at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, she went thither and enrolled herself as a "deaconess."Kaiserswerth had been started in a very small way by Pastor Fleidner. It was a Protestant school, which combined religious teaching with charitable work among the poor and outcast. The Pastor himself was poor, but his devotion to his work attracted many helpers who gave him money to carry it on.Florence here became interested also in prison reform, which led her to open a small home for women after they should come out of prison. The few years she spent here brought her face to face with much suffering and want, and taught her how to find and help unfortunate people.From Kaiserswerth she went to Paris and entered a Catholic Convent to study the methods of the Sisters. While there she learned to respect and admire so greatly the love and devotion of the nuns, that afterwards, in the Crimean War, she called upon themto assist her. In England once more, Miss Nightingale settled down to a quiet life, devoting herself to the care of the sick and the poor about her.Living near the Nightingales, were Sidney Herbert and his wife. Herbert, who afterwards became Lord Herbert of Lea, was made Secretary of War in the English Government. The post was no sinecure, for almost immediately after his appointment, war broke out between Russia on one side and England, France, and Turkey on the other.The scene of the fighting was on the border where Turkey and Russia join. Near this border is the Crimea, a peninsula, whose principal city is Sebastopol. To capture this city was the object of the fighting in that part of the country, from which fact the whole war is known as the Crimean War.England had lived in peace since 1815, a period of forty years, and had to some degree lost the practical knowledge of how to conduct a military campaign. The result was a great waste of time, men and stores, through the inexperience of both officers and soldiers. Disaster followed disaster, each treading upon the other's heels.Finally William Howard Russell, the War Correspondent of the London Times, wrote a strong letterhome to England in which he spoke of the suffering of the wounded, saying: "For all I can see, the men die without the least effort to save them."Food and clothing were lost, or delayed in transport; the surgeons were without lint or bandages or other of the commonest supplies for hospital work. Russell finally asked a question that made a great stir in England:"Are there no devoted women among us, able and willing to go forth to minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the East? Are none of the daughters of England at this extreme hour of need ready for such a work of mercy?"Florence Nightingale heard this clarion cry and immediately wrote to Secretary Herbert offering her services. Her letter crossed one from him offering her the place of Chief Nurse.It is doubtful if any choice of a person to do a great work has ever been so fortunate and successful as this one. Florence Nightingale, by her studies and her work in Germany and at home, was already well prepared for nursing. Now it was seen that she was an able organizer as well.All this came as a great surprise to the world, for Miss Nightingale had never been written or talkedabout very much. Now, however, every one asked who she was.She gathered together thirty-eight nurses, ten of whom were Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy, and they all left England on October 21, 1854.On landing in France, the fish-women of Boulogne cared for their trunks and luggage with their own hands and saw the Englishwomen safely on the train for Paris, where they made a short stay at the Convent which Florence had visited years before. Then they set forth for Marseilles, where they took steamer for Scutari, in Turkey. Every one helped them and no one would take pay for their service.There was no little fun made in Europe over the nurses, but ridicule changed to admiration when the first news of their work began to reach home. Miss Nightingale paid no attention either to the shallow fault-finding, or to praise, but went straight ahead to do the work she found in Scutari. And great need there was of her help!It might be well here to quote a description of Florence Nightingale: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 loveand 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. Nothing can be sweeter than her smile. It is like a sunny day in summer.It would be difficult and painful to describe the conditions she found existing in the hospital at Scutari. The doctors were so few and so overworked, and the wounded men were so numerous, that many died who might have been saved. Hospital supplies were there, but could not be found. Perhaps never in civilized times was there so much unnecessary suffering.Miss Nightingale and her staff of nurses could do very little compared to the great need, but they took up the work bravely. Here Miss Nightingale's ability as a manager and director was shown. She soon came to be ranked with the Generals in ability and power. All opposition to her as a woman began to fade away as her blessed work among the sick and dying soldiers began to be appreciated.Soon all England was alive to the great work, and more nurses, and large gifts of supplies and money began to be hurried to the Crimea.Florence Nightingale spent nearly two years in the Crimea. Once she fell dangerously ill with a fever,but the care she had given to others was returned in the form of all manner of attentions to her. She never quite recovered from the effects of that terrible Crimean fever.When the war was over, she went back to England so quietly that hardly anyone outside her home knew of her return. When it became known, she was overwhelmed by all sorts of people trying to do her honor. Most of them she refused to see. Queen Victoria invited her to come to Balmoral Castle and this honor she could not refuse, for the request of a Queen is a command. The Queen decorated her with a beautiful jewel, treating her simply in the spirit of one woman recognizing another who deserved recognition.Florence Nightingale lived to be ninety years old, thus spending fifty years in England after the Crimean war.She devoted all her life to benevolent works: building new hospitals, writing books on the care of the sick, and inspiring many young women to give their lives to the service of humanity. She never married.At her death it was proposed to bury her in Westminster Abbey, that great final home of England'sillustrious sons and daughters, but the honor was declined by her friends, and she sleeps sweetly in the village church-yard near her old country home in Hampshire.Our own Longfellow wrote these fine lines about Florence Nightingale, referring to her habit of going about the hospitals at night with a lamp in her hand:"On England's annals through the longHereafter of her speech and song,A light its ray shall castFrom the portals of the past."A lady with a lamp shall standIn the great history of the land;A noble type of goodHeroic womanhood."

(1820-1910)

"Theirs is a heroism and patriotism no less grand than that of the bravest soldier they ever nursed back to life and health."—Charles R. Skinner

"Theirs is a heroism and patriotism no less grand than that of the bravest soldier they ever nursed back to life and health."

—Charles R. Skinner

Florence Nightingale, one of the most illustrious personages of Queen Victoria's reign, was born in Florence, Italy, of English parents. Since they were visiting that city at the time, they named their little daughter after the city of her birth. A sister, also born in Italy, was named Parthenope after her birthplace.

The Nightingales were well-to-do people. They owned a beautiful country seat in Derbyshire, which was for many years the residence of Florence and her parents. Florence's love for animals and flowers was second only to her love of humanity. Very early she formed the idea of a vocation which should be lofty and altruistic.

Her acquaintance with Elizabeth Fry did much to develop this idea. Mrs. Fry, already famous asthe first woman who made the welfare of women in prison her care, was a preacher of the Quaker sect.

Having decided upon her course, Miss Nightingale began to learn in the hospitals the medical nurse's duties; and, hearing of a German training school for nurses at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, she went thither and enrolled herself as a "deaconess."

Kaiserswerth had been started in a very small way by Pastor Fleidner. It was a Protestant school, which combined religious teaching with charitable work among the poor and outcast. The Pastor himself was poor, but his devotion to his work attracted many helpers who gave him money to carry it on.

Florence here became interested also in prison reform, which led her to open a small home for women after they should come out of prison. The few years she spent here brought her face to face with much suffering and want, and taught her how to find and help unfortunate people.

From Kaiserswerth she went to Paris and entered a Catholic Convent to study the methods of the Sisters. While there she learned to respect and admire so greatly the love and devotion of the nuns, that afterwards, in the Crimean War, she called upon themto assist her. In England once more, Miss Nightingale settled down to a quiet life, devoting herself to the care of the sick and the poor about her.

Living near the Nightingales, were Sidney Herbert and his wife. Herbert, who afterwards became Lord Herbert of Lea, was made Secretary of War in the English Government. The post was no sinecure, for almost immediately after his appointment, war broke out between Russia on one side and England, France, and Turkey on the other.

The scene of the fighting was on the border where Turkey and Russia join. Near this border is the Crimea, a peninsula, whose principal city is Sebastopol. To capture this city was the object of the fighting in that part of the country, from which fact the whole war is known as the Crimean War.

England had lived in peace since 1815, a period of forty years, and had to some degree lost the practical knowledge of how to conduct a military campaign. The result was a great waste of time, men and stores, through the inexperience of both officers and soldiers. Disaster followed disaster, each treading upon the other's heels.

Finally William Howard Russell, the War Correspondent of the London Times, wrote a strong letterhome to England in which he spoke of the suffering of the wounded, saying: "For all I can see, the men die without the least effort to save them."

Food and clothing were lost, or delayed in transport; the surgeons were without lint or bandages or other of the commonest supplies for hospital work. Russell finally asked a question that made a great stir in England:

"Are there no devoted women among us, able and willing to go forth to minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the East? Are none of the daughters of England at this extreme hour of need ready for such a work of mercy?"

Florence Nightingale heard this clarion cry and immediately wrote to Secretary Herbert offering her services. Her letter crossed one from him offering her the place of Chief Nurse.

It is doubtful if any choice of a person to do a great work has ever been so fortunate and successful as this one. Florence Nightingale, by her studies and her work in Germany and at home, was already well prepared for nursing. Now it was seen that she was an able organizer as well.

All this came as a great surprise to the world, for Miss Nightingale had never been written or talkedabout very much. Now, however, every one asked who she was.

She gathered together thirty-eight nurses, ten of whom were Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy, and they all left England on October 21, 1854.

On landing in France, the fish-women of Boulogne cared for their trunks and luggage with their own hands and saw the Englishwomen safely on the train for Paris, where they made a short stay at the Convent which Florence had visited years before. Then they set forth for Marseilles, where they took steamer for Scutari, in Turkey. Every one helped them and no one would take pay for their service.

There was no little fun made in Europe over the nurses, but ridicule changed to admiration when the first news of their work began to reach home. Miss Nightingale paid no attention either to the shallow fault-finding, or to praise, but went straight ahead to do the work she found in Scutari. And great need there was of her help!

It might be well here to quote a description of Florence Nightingale:

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 loveand 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. Nothing can be sweeter than her smile. It is like a sunny day in summer.

It would be difficult and painful to describe the conditions she found existing in the hospital at Scutari. The doctors were so few and so overworked, and the wounded men were so numerous, that many died who might have been saved. Hospital supplies were there, but could not be found. Perhaps never in civilized times was there so much unnecessary suffering.

Miss Nightingale and her staff of nurses could do very little compared to the great need, but they took up the work bravely. Here Miss Nightingale's ability as a manager and director was shown. She soon came to be ranked with the Generals in ability and power. All opposition to her as a woman began to fade away as her blessed work among the sick and dying soldiers began to be appreciated.

Soon all England was alive to the great work, and more nurses, and large gifts of supplies and money began to be hurried to the Crimea.

Florence Nightingale spent nearly two years in the Crimea. Once she fell dangerously ill with a fever,but the care she had given to others was returned in the form of all manner of attentions to her. She never quite recovered from the effects of that terrible Crimean fever.

When the war was over, she went back to England so quietly that hardly anyone outside her home knew of her return. When it became known, she was overwhelmed by all sorts of people trying to do her honor. Most of them she refused to see. Queen Victoria invited her to come to Balmoral Castle and this honor she could not refuse, for the request of a Queen is a command. The Queen decorated her with a beautiful jewel, treating her simply in the spirit of one woman recognizing another who deserved recognition.

Florence Nightingale lived to be ninety years old, thus spending fifty years in England after the Crimean war.

She devoted all her life to benevolent works: building new hospitals, writing books on the care of the sick, and inspiring many young women to give their lives to the service of humanity. She never married.

At her death it was proposed to bury her in Westminster Abbey, that great final home of England'sillustrious sons and daughters, but the honor was declined by her friends, and she sleeps sweetly in the village church-yard near her old country home in Hampshire.

Our own Longfellow wrote these fine lines about Florence Nightingale, referring to her habit of going about the hospitals at night with a lamp in her hand:

"On England's annals through the longHereafter of her speech and song,A light its ray shall castFrom the portals of the past."A lady with a lamp shall standIn the great history of the land;A noble type of goodHeroic womanhood."

"On England's annals through the longHereafter of her speech and song,A light its ray shall castFrom the portals of the past.

"On England's annals through the long

Hereafter of her speech and song,

A light its ray shall cast

From the portals of the past.

"A lady with a lamp shall standIn the great history of the land;A noble type of goodHeroic womanhood."

"A lady with a lamp shall stand

In the great history of the land;

A noble type of good

Heroic womanhood."

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