Volume II Part 23 (1/2)
Meanwhile, Miss Nightingale, in the hope of co the new Viceroy's education, had written an account of her interview to Lord Ripon, so that when they ht knohat points his successor one when an opportunity offered itself for another effort at evangelization At the end of Noveale He had come without an appoint, for her purpose, that he had proposed to discuss Indian questions, she sent him a written statement of her views on various ain with more special reference to Lord Ripon's splendid record Mr Gladstone thanked her (Dec 6) for the valuable letter; said that the best use he could make of it would be to commend it to the attention of Lord Kilad to hear her views about Lord Ripon's administration She had wanted to interest Mr Gladstone, and was disappointed that he had only passed her letter on to Lord Kiht, meant the India Council, a body not syiven the opening, she eneral syive greater prominence and emphasis to Indian internal reforms in his speeches She did not succeed ”I wish I could hope,” wrote a friend who knew both India and Mr Gladstone well (Jan 4, 1885), ”that you could e and at this time, when his hands are so full, what can you expect? He has never given his mind to India, and it is too late now” It was not only Mr Gladstone as preoccupied at this tis than the welfare of the Indian peoples Miss Nightingale soon discovered this Lord Ripon was nearly due in England He ought, she said, to receive a popular welco General As there were no signs of any preparation in that sort, she worked very hard, though with very little success, to organize a welcome in the form of laudatory articles in various newspapers and reviews[212] She herself wrote an enthusiastic appreciation, but she was unwilling to sign it The editors illing to publish anything to which Miss Florence Nightingale would give her name, but for articles in praise of Lord Ripon's policy without that attraction there was no demand As soon as it was disclosed that as offered was only an unsigned article, or an article signed by some nominee of hers, the editors, with one consent, discovered that exigencies of space prevented its insertion And this was not surprising; for Khartouhtingale was as keenly interested as any one else in those things; but there were few beside herself to who problems of Indian administration were matters of ”life and death,” no less passionately interesting than the fate of a hero or the fall of a ministry
[211] Who had been transferred from the Colonial to the India Office in December 1882
[212] The only success ith the _Pall Mall Gazette_, which published a welco article (by Mr F Verney) on January 22
VIII
Lord Wolseley had been appointed to coust 1884 There were already feypt Son of 1882 Others had been sent to Suakin during the ”military operations” of 1883 More were now sent by the Government, and soale felt this to be a great event ”Luther says,” she wrote to Miss Pringle (Claydon, Oct 11, 1884), ”that he looks and sees the firmament which God has made without pillars, and retched men are always afraid that it will tuh It is 34 years since I was at Wady Halfa How little I could ever have thought that there would be trained nurses now there! O faithless me, that think God cannot ale's religion enjoined, as we knoorking with God” The ultimate issue did not rest upon the little pillars; but they must be set up for what they are worth none the less, and Miss Nightingale threw herself, heart and soul, into forwarding the Egyptian nursing can Presently more nurses were sent out on private initiative--some by the National Aid Society, others by a committee of ladies On February 20, 1885, Lady Rosebery called at South Street She and Mrs Gladstone and Lady Salisbury, and other ladies, with the Princess of Wales, were proposing to establish a Committee of their own to send additional comforts for the sick and wounded, as well as additional nurses In order to secure unity of ade's Society, Miss Nightingale advised against any separate organization, and the Coreed to join, was reconstituted as ”The Princess of Wales's Branch of the National Aid Society” The Superintendent of the nurses sent out by the Governale's dearest pupils, Miss Rachel Williams, whose acquaintance we have made already under her pet-name of ”The Goddess” She had been in indifferent health and eale announced the departure to Miss Pringle (March 4): ”Our darling has started thisby the _Navarino_ with seven nurses for Suez If you had seen, as I did, how, the moment it was settled that she was to have this work, the cloud and the load were lifted off her, and she becaain the Goddess and her youth returned, you would have felt, as she said, that Providential Goodness had opened and guided every step of her way As soon as her appointment was made she looked as beautiful and bonny as ever”
The rapidity of Miss Nightingale's decision, her htfulness for others even in trivial things, her kindliness of heart interlacing the practical instinct, the s are all illustrated in the reypt in the _Navarino_:--
I was then Sister of one of the surgical wards at King's College Hospital It was on a Saturday in February, about midday, just as I was due to attend the operation cases from my ward, that a one-armed commissionaire appeared at the ward door: ”A note for Sister Philippa froale,” he said The request it contained was characteristic of the writer--decisive, yet kindly
Would I leave in three days' time for service in the Soudan? if so, I must be at her house for instructions on Monday at 830 AM, at Marlborough House to be interviewed by Queen Alexandra (then Princess of Wales) at 11 AM; and immediately afterwards at Messrs Cappers, Gracechurch Street, to be fitted for my war uniform Would I also breakfast with her on Wednesday, so that she ”ht check the fit of my uniform, and wish me God-speed” Months afterwards, when the as over, and ere quietly chatting over things at Claydon, how she enjoyed hearing the nuain and again she would refer to that afternoon when I had to stand by the patient's side in the operating theatre, eons, outwardly placid, yet inwardly, as I told her, in a fever of excite to the front, as at the fact I had been chosen by her to follow in her footsteps
On the Monday above referred to, punctually at half-past eight, I arrived at South Street, wondering what my reception would be, but before ten iven place to unbounded admiration and (even at that early acquaintanceshi+p) affection for the warm-hearted old lady who counselled me as a nurse, ed me to spare no point--myself specially--where the soldiers were concerned ”Remember;” she said, ”when you are far away up-country, possibly the only English woman there, that those men will note and remember your every action, not only as a nurse, but as a wos a pebblewide--each ripple gone beyond your grasp, yet re helpless in their sickness
See that your every word and act is worthy of your profession and your womanhood” Then she asked ift to a one-time probationer who had once reminded her that cleanliness was next to Godliness,”[213]
and in spite of the merry twinkle in her eye as she said this, there were tears of anxious kindness as she added, ”God guard you in His safe keeping and make you worthy of His trust--our soldiers”
I saw nothingThe troop-shi+p in which ere to go out left Tilbury Docks at 11 o'clock, and I was to breakfast with Miss Nightingale at half-past seven It was rather a rush to e it, but it orth any amount of inconvenience to have that last hour with her, and it was a picture that will always remain above all others inher kindly face with its lace-covered silvery hair, and twinkling eyes I often think her sense of hu a bond between her and the soldiers as her sylish breakfast, dear child,” she said, ”and it is good to know you will have honestly earned the next one you eat in England” ”And suppose I don't return to eat one at all?” I asked ”Well! you will have earned that too, dear heart,” she answered quietly Who can be surprised that orshi+pped our Chief? Other nurses were going out in the same shi+p as I, and e entered our cabins we found a bouquet of flowers for each of us, attached to which was ”God-speed frolare and heat of an August afternoon, when the Egyptian ca of the past, a shi+pload of sick and wounded soldiers glided slowly into the docks at Southa to transfer sora at Claydon, cleaners and painters in possession of 10 South Street, but two rooms, Mrs Neild [the Housekeeper], and a elco as you wish” On arriving at South Street I found it all just as she had said, and by the first post next day came a letter from Claydon, _such_ a holare of a Soudan summer, all the absence of water, and presence of insects, and the hundred and one other unco siet such a letter of welcome as that It ended up with ”make South Street your headquarters till your work is finished” (there was much detail to complete in connection with the National Aid Society before I could leave London), ”and then come to me at Claydon” So after a couple of weeks' work in London, I went to Claydon, and there, during a land's country hoale, to realize what the friendshi+p of a character like hers means ”The essence of Friendshi+p,” says Emerson, ”is tenderness and trust” No words better describe our Chief than these
[213] The writer--Sister Philippa Hicks (Mrs Large)--was the ”cheeky probationer” above quoted, p 252 Afterwards matron of the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital (1888); founder of the first ”Co-operation for Nurses,” at 8 New Cavendish Street (1892); gave up nursing to be married (1898)
Sister Philippa was only one of the many war-nurses to who their service abroad, she was constant in letters of encouragement and advice:--
(_To Miss Williams_, at SUEZ) 10 SOUTH STREET, _July_ 3 The Orderlies are not hopeless but untrained Govern all they can In my day they _were_ hopeless They place thereat business of the Sisters _is_ to train the when there are so few Sisters that they _can't_ give time to train these men who are essential in the Field O hoish I could send you several Sisters at once! But I arams, which I suspect were not dictated by you, say ”Sufficient” Would that I could help you to nurse the Typhoids! I a the Orderlies, even tho' you do not know it The very fact that they see you think neglect a crilects with Typhoid cases! But 30 years ago women Nurses were just as bad See the difference now There is a Miss Williaht of faith I need not say this toit God bless her! When I aone, she will see the fruit of her labours Three cheers for her! A Dieu To God I commend you Would I were His servant as you are I wonder whether you have had my letters I have written by every mail[214]
(_To the same_) 10 SOUTH STREET, _July_ 17 [1885] Yesterday the Guards Ca been reviewed by the Queen at Osborne Sir Harry went to see theton Barracks (I would have given anything to have seen the Meeting with their coo) And he said it was thehe ever saw These were the men whotender care of their handful of wounded, attacked by twelve times their number--and reached the Nile below Khartoum; but when the steamer reached Khartoum, Khartoum had fallen and Gordon was dead There is a picture of Gordon called ”The Last Watch,” where he is watching on the raht It is very fine He is unseen and alone; there is the far-off look in his eyes of solerief for the poor black populations whom he has to leave to their misery, and who, faithful trust in God that He will do all things for the best It was his constant prayer--first for God's glory, then for these people's welfare, and his own humiliation--that is, that he should feel theGod in himself Have the little _Lives of Gordon_ reached your men yet?[215]
[214] She had indeed, and more I have counted the letters There were sixty-five to Miss Williaale had obtained leave to make a cheap reprint of Mr
C H Allen's _Popular Life of General Gordon_ for free distribution at her expense a her Criain in the life of her pupils Many a little incident recalled the old days to her One of the nurses wrote that in her hospital the supply of soap had given out
”Send to Cairo,” Miss Nightingale answered, ”for any quantity you like, and I'll pay, but only if you can do it without e yourself with the authorities” Another of her pupils was nursing in the Citadel Hospital at Cairo ”I aht duty now,” she wrote, ”and I don't dislike it at all: in fact I enjoy trotting about this weird old place all bya low voice saying, 'Sister, would youto ease ry enteric patients at stated times who open their mouths in turn like so many little birds!” The picture drawn in this letter, and the zest which it showed, pleased Miss Nightingale greatly, and she passed it on to old pupils at ho work like the Chief's at Scutari! another Lady with the Laale, who received from the medical authorities of the Army most satisfactory reports on the services rendered by her nurses, rejoiced in their successes and usefulness She would have smiled upon any pupil ”at the first stroke which passed what _she_ could do”
Yet with thankfulness that she had been able to show the way to others, there was e There wasservice at the front which she could have ordered better There was a paragraph in a newspaper about the attractions of ”afternoon tea in the nurses' tent”
which pained her (though the reference here was not, I think, to any of her own Nightingale nurses) Encouraging, cheery, helpful to others, she was in herself sad and almost sombre It was in vain that Mr Jowett still enjoined her to dwell upon all that she had been able to do, upon the s which had attended her work ”You will have felt General Gordon's death,” he wrote (Feb 22), ”as much as any one What poor creatures most of us seem in comparison with him! But not you, not you!” But the note which she struck in her next Address to the Probationers was all of hu
In 1882 a dear friend of her girlhood--Madame Mohl--died in Paris In the same year Dr Farr died--one of the founders in this country of her favourite science of statistics, and an associate of hers in ith Sidney Herbert One of the most valued of her allies in later Indian work--Sir Bartle Frere--died in 1884 In the previous year a yet older friend, and one of her wisest counsellors--Sir John McNeill--had died
He had sent her a copy of the last piece he wrote; the preface to a new edition of Sir Alexander Tulloch's _Reply to the Chelsea Board_, in which Sir John in turn replied to the version of that affair given by Mr Kinglake[216] Her letter to him, sent ”with the deepest affection and veneration,” was in a soain ”How little peran to feel, was left; and she so unworthy! What opportunities she had been given! How little use she had been able to hts of the soul” when such self-reproaches were grievous
But soranted to her She would consecrate theher service ”To-day,” she wrote (Christ woman to Thee Behold the handirl How have I back-slidden!”
[216] See on this subject, Vol I p 337
CHAPTER VII