Richmond times-dispatch. [volume], July 18, 1915, Image 46

About Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
arwiclcr
The
Butterfly
Sisterhood
Who Seek
fc) ??> Paki'j.,
Mile. Greuze, "the Daintiest Beauty
in Paris," Only One of the Horde
of Society Women and Actresses
Who Have Rushed Into the Nurs
ing Profession to Torment or
Cheer l.'p the Wounded Soldiers.
tion and Gossip
and Sit on the
Bed Smoking
Cigarettes"
THE Countess of Warwick, wlio is uni
versally regarded as the foremost
woman leader of England, has writ
ton a remarkable article for this news
paper criticising the horde of society and
theatrical women who havo taken up war
nursing for the sake of notoriety or in
frivolous spirit.
The Countess does not givo names, but
many people in England know to whom
>he refers. Some of the "war nurses" at
whom she Ls aiming are so highly placed
and influential that it would bo difficult
for the authorities to remove them. Prob
ably the Countess expects that by her
.severe criticism she will shame them into
retiring or reforming.
Nevertheless, much of the war nursing
done by prominent women appears to be
giving satisfaction. While it is of course
outrageous that a woman should be
frivolous in the presence of suffering, it
is a positive benefit to the wounded sol
dier if an attentive nurse is handsome and
attractively dressed.
The handsome Duchess of Westminster,
who was rather frivolous before, the war.
i-; conducting a pretty hospital for wounded
soldiers at Lo Touquet, near Paris. Strange
to say, her sister, the Princess of Pless.
who is married tc-one of the richest noble
men of Germany, is conducting an equal
ly successful hospital for German soldiers
near Perlin.
The picturesque dancer. Ida Rubinstein,
adored by Uabrielle d'Annunzio, has estab
lished a hospital in Paris. There she
gratifies her dramatic instinct by wearing
her nurse's uniform most effectively, while
she cheers tip the wounded soldiers by her
graceful poses.
By Frances Evelyn, Countess of Warwick.
ABUSES cling to a crisis as bar
nacles to a ship, and every aspect
of war has its own peculiar abuses.
While millions do their duty with quiet
heroirm, there is always a minority that
takes advantage, that corrupts others?or
itself Some believe that fraud and fool
ishness stay at home, that they cannot
approach the field of arm-, but this is far
from being the case.
My thoughts turn back to the South
African war, when certain scandals wero
supposed to have reached their zenith; I
look around me to-dav. listen to the well
authenticat<;-<J sjo.rbfe brought to me by
relatives and fri? nds. and know that South
Africa did not tithe the possibilities of
folly and excess. For once I am not plead
ing for tnv nwn sev. [ plead for one part of
it against the other, for a majority against
a minority, for those who are doing what
they are paid to do, against those who are
voluntary workers.
The position conies a lit tie strangely to
inn when I look at it in this light, but tho
highly-irailed, conscj?-ntious, painstaking
hospital nurse whose patient heroism pro
claims he.r a true followed of Florence
Nightingale is being < xpos -d to scandalous
nnnov,fo; :i<> good purpose and to no
useful end. and 1 feci that I must plead
her rause, s-iii'e she : in -i;? last degree
unlikely to pie;;.; ;? fo: ber^Mf.
Society women ? f a certain class niado
themselves > notoriou in the military
hospitals ar d -isewhere <iuring the South
African war that at '.??ast "n?' (ieneral
threatened to sf i. 1 th'tn home and another
refused to allow any more to come out. Aa
soon as the greatest truggle of our his
tory signed, in August la *, certain women
of means and po . *i proceeded ar. silent
ly and unostentatiously as w,v; possible
under the < ircurn-' inc-* to equip hospitals
and to se* about their elf-appointed work.
They labored con." ? ?ntiously and sought
no more publicity than was necessary to
enable them to coll"' ? money from philan
thropists and friend- They lid their best;
some were al:'.a<iy ualified by previous
experience, other ;u;n d their knowl
edge under the t trying conditions
'possible. They have worked since war
jbegan, well content to < >rn d<-,ights and
[live laborious days;" some who are near
jand dear to me have said that they have
jwell-nigh forgotten the old lif ! the
comforts they deemed indispei .-;>!?.< only
a little while iii'O,
1 think ;t may he ??'.airned for th< in that
they have played x good part, and :hat in
helping others they have not .ought to
draw attention to themselves or minimize
t.fce credit due to the trained cisterhood
of love and pity that cheers the wounded
and comforts the dying, as "The Lady
With the Lamp" taught them to do in the
far-off days of the great Crimean struggle
They have made many
friends and no ene
mies; the hero of the
trenches and the as
saulting party has not
given more to his
country, for both have
given their all: the
man his strength, the
woman her practical
sympathy, and both a
high degree of physi
cal and moral courage..
Unfortunately there
is in London to-day
a very large company
of young women to
whom war is little more than a n??v sensa
tion. They are not old enough to under
stand o: young enough to bo restrained.
In normal times they must be "in the
movement," however foolish that move
ment may be, and a war that staggers the
Old World and the New leaves them -'cry
much where they were before. Under the
rose they have not diminished their afore
time gaiety; dances and dinner parties
have been the order of the Winter season.
They have been trumpeted by the
Gcction of The prest, that delights in re
cording vain things, but tlioso who view
the currents of London's social life know
that I am writing the simple, truth There
is nothing to be said; let those laugh who
may and can at such a season; their
laughter proclaims them what, they are.
I'nfortunately the people I have in mind
have not been content to devote them
selves to brainless frivolity, because they
must sample every sensation that ihe sea
sons provide?they have invaded tho
sanctuary of the hospital nurse. Scores
have found their way to the great London
hospitals in town to fat.'o what they aro
pleased to regard as training. 1 have
known some who have danced till 3 a. m.
and have presented themselves at the hos
pital at S o'clock! \
Everybody knows that the training of a
real hospital nurse is a very serious mat
ter; that it makes full demand u|>on phys
ical and mental capacity, and that a long
period Is required to bring the seed of
efficiency to flower or fruit. The social
butterflies have made no such sacrifice.
They have acquired a trifling and superfi
cial knowledge of a nurse's work and have
then set their social influence to work in
irder to reach some one of the hare hos
pitals where they may sample fresh ex
perience.
If they were really useful there it would
be unkind to offer a protest, hut the gen
eral opinion is that they do more harm
than good. They subvert discipline, they
are a law to themselves, they aro too
highly placed or protected io be called to
order promptly, they have neither the in
clination nor the capacity for sustained
usefulness. To sit at tho end of a bed and
snioko cigarettes with a wounded officer
does not develop the efficiency of a
hospital.
One. hears repeatedly that this girl or
that has gone to tho front and one
imagines devotion, self-sacrifice, self-re
straint and n dozen kindred virtues. Un
fortunately it is chiefly in the realm of
imagination that theso virtues exist. For
the rost, tho interlopers want limelight,
and plenty of it; their pictures flood tho
illustrated papers, and to read what is
Written of them the experienced person
might imagine that they are bearing the
heat and burden of the day, the solitude
and anxiety of the night, while in very
truth they do no more than search for
fresh sensations in an area that should be
sacred.
The type of mind that can seek refuge
from self and boredom in such surround
ings cannot be stricken into serious ess;
tragedy cannot reach it. To do a very
minimum of work, to attach themselves to
the most "attractive" cases, t > carry small
talk, gabble and gossip into places where
so many come to die, these are the main
efforts of tho young society nurses, and
all these outrages are being carrh d on
from day to day.
The real nurses and sisters are, I am
told, bitterly indignant. They ask no more
than to be left alone to do their best, but
they know how hard it is to make <*m
effective protest and they have little or no
time to do so. They recognize by reason
of their training the full motive of t'
excursion into the region of suffering, the
Copyright, 1515, by th? Stnr Com
ciaving ior
citement. and, in
bad cases, the
erotomania that
is t'ne motive
power. They find
their work iin
peded by the s";.s
terhood of im
postors that re
sponds so readily
to a fashion of its
own making, and
their chief hope
is that this sensa
tion may pass as
so many others
have passed, and
that the brain
less, chattering,
t h o u g h 11 e s s.
empty company,
tired of blood and
wounds, may find
some paramount
attraction nearer
home.
If there are any
who are prepared
to think I havo
The Princess of Pless, Sister of the Duchess of
Westminster, with the German Wounded
She Is Nursing Near Berlin.
Westminster, Who Is Conducting a
Soldiers' Hospital Near Paris.
men, women and
children in every
phase of helpless
ness and hopeless
ness? I do not
think so. There
is neither noto
riety nor lime
light in the sober,
jerious life of tho
hospital nurse
and sister; above
The Once Rather Frivolous Duchess of all, there ia a
hard and neces
sary discipline
t h a t calls for
much moral cour
age to render It
tolerable. Physical cotirage is seldom
lacking cither in men or women who aro
well-bred, and it may bo freely granted
that a certain measure is demanded of
the butterfly nurses, but there is no re
demption in this. To savor the full sense
of life without courage is impossible; one
might as readily make an omelette with
out breaking eggs. In this case it is
courage misdirected, energy misspent.
I feel very strongly about this scandal,
eo strongly that I have not hesitated to
write what is bound to offend some o! my
own friends, but there are times when it
is impossible to be silent if one would live
on tolerable terms with oneself. I feel
that in these days woman is called upon
to make supreme sacrifices; that what she
is giving even now is leas than wil! be
required of her later on; that her war
record and her record when pea^e is about
overstated the case or
traduced the young women who are at
present "somewhere in France," let them
find out from their particular heroine how
much time she gave to training, how she
received her appointment, and how much
real hard work she does day by day.
That a few have striven ) ard and nobly
I would be tho last to dery. but these are
not enough either to leaven or purify the
mass or to elevate the action of a class
that might be better employed. Let us
remember, too. that suffering is always
with us nnd that even when war Is over
there will be far too much in all the great
centres of our own country.
Aro these butterfly nurses prepared to
remember in the future the profession they
have invaded to-day? Will they respond
to tho calls that aro made to help, not
young, attractive and valiant m^n, but
pany. Great Hrltatn Hlphts Reserved.
to return will be scanned closely and
critically by generations of really free
wotno:. yet unborn.
To know of a blot upon woman's war
time service record, and to make no at
tempt to erase it, is Impossible. The rec
ord of tho real nursing sisterhood Is
brilliant in the extreme. Why should it be
obscured for the sake of a few highly
placed and foolish young women who seek
with the minimum labor to make the maxi
mum of effect? It is unjust, ungenerous
nnd altogether unworthy of the repre
sentatives of families that in many cases
have earned their ample honors legitimate
ly enough!
Great Pritain owes more than it can ever
repay to the nursing sisterhood, and it is
intolerable that while their silent heroism
passes with so little recognition, any girl
of good family who assumes a uniform
she has not. won the right to wear should
pose as the representative of a sisterhood
she is not. worthy to associate with, of
whose tradition she is ignorant, of whose
high discipline and complete restraint, she
is intolerant.
There are three classes of women in our
midst. The first earns reward and claims
it, the second earns reward and does not
claim it, the last claims reward and does
not earn it. Of these classes tho real nurse
belongs to the second and the hutterflv
sisterhood to the third. At such a season
as this there is no room in our midst for
the last, and it would be well for us all
if authority could spare a moment froni
manifold activities firmly and ruthlessly to'
suppress it. The hardship involved wouldj
he of the slightest, the benefit serious and.
lasting. i
(W