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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 18, 1915)
Die. Omaha Sunday-Bee Magazine Page n' iuac Si Kj ' Artonirhi I I 1 1 fVXIl n f -t 0- L VM i 1 ' 3 : ' - RlurtiNtEK, Pari.,, "The Butterfly Sisterhood Who Seek Sensa tion and Gossip and Sit on the Bed Smoking Cigarettes"- TIB Countess ot Warwick, who Is unl-; versally regarded as the foremost, woman leader of England, has writ: ten a remarkable article for this newB-, paper criticising: the horde of society and theatrical women who bare taken up .war ' nursing for the sake of notoriety or. In frivolous spirit. The Countess does not give names, but ; many people In England know to whom she refers. Some of the "war nurses"- at whom she Is aiming are so highly placed and Influential that It would be 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 eatisfactlon. While It Is of course outrageous that a woman should be frivolous In the presence ot 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, is conducting a pretty hospital for wounded soldiers at Le Touquet, near Paris. Strange to aay.Jaer slater, the Princess of Pless, who Is married to one of the richest noble- ; men of Germany, is conducting an equal- IVillel Greuze, "the Daintiest Beauty 17 hospital tor German soldiers in Paris," Only One of the Horde The picturesque dancer, Ida Rubinstein, of Society Women and Actre.se. Oabrieije sVAmmuUo .has , tab. gratifies her dramatic Instinct by wearing her nurse's uniform most effectively, while she cheers up the wounded soldiers by her graceful poses. A Who Have Rushed Into the Nurs ing Profession ,to Torment or Cheer Up the Wounded Soldiers. By Frances Evelyn, Countess of Warwick. 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 ' " BUSES 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 heroism, 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 arms, bat this is far from being the case. My thoughts turn back to the South African war, when certain ecandals were supposed to have reached their zenith; I look around me to-day, listen to the well authenticated stories brought to me by relatives and friends,' and know that South Africa did not tithe the possibilities ot folly and excess. For once I am not plead ing for my own sex. I 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 comes a Httle strangely to me when I look at It in this light, but the highly-trained, conscientious, painstaking hospital nurse whose patient heroism pro claims her a true followed of Florence Nightingale is being exposed to scandalous annoyance for no good purpose and to no useful end, and I feel that I must plead her cause, since she is in' the last degree unlikely to plead it for herself. Society women of a certain class made themselves so notorious In the military hospitals and elsewhere during the South African war that at least one General threatened to send them home and another refused to allow any more to come out As soon 'as' the greatest struggle of our his tory started. In August last, certain women of means and position proceeded as silent ly, and unostentatiously as was possible under the circumstances to equip hospitals and tpset about their eelf-appointed work. . They labored conscientiously and sought no more publicity than was, necessary to enable them to collect money from philan thropists and friends. They did their best; some were already qualified by previous experience, others acquired their knowl edge under the most trying conditions possible. They have worked since war began, well content to "scorn delights and live laborious days;" some who are near and' dear to me have said that they have twell-nlgn forgotten the old life and the 'comforts they deemed indispensable only ta little while ago. . 1 think it may b claimed for them that they have played a good part, and that. In helDinx ethers they have not sougm 10 draw attention to themselves or minimise the credit due to the trained sisterhood ' -mm- . ft , 'H' . . r ,! f iff" v ' 1 1 i i A , '-v-:'V.i.l . . .'i f ft" v ' - f " u " ' ' V . K '"Hi 1 ' 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 new sensa tion. They are not old enough to under stand or young enough to be 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 very , mnch 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 section of the press that delights In re cording vain things, but those 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 tkey are. Unfortunately the people I have In mind have not been content to devote them selves to brainless frivolity, because they ' must sample every sensation that the sea sons provide they have Invaded the sanctuary of .the hospital nurse. Scores have found their way to the great London hospitals In town to face what they are pleased to regard as training. -1 have known some who have danced till S a. m. and have presented themselves at the hos pital at 8 o'clock! - Everybody knows that the training of a real hospital nuree is a very serious mat ter; that It makes full demand upon phys ical and mental capacity, and that a long period Is required to bring the seed of efficiency to flower or fruit. The socle' 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 bace hos pitals where they may sample fresh ex perience. If they were really useful there It would J) JN V FJ tit VV; V ,f It 1 ? i i i ! ! mm n ,-' ' - V . s : . - ' - - i s v Jt - mm l J-r. i. - ' Orttli, Left It the Picture. Rutsiaa D.ne.r, Id. Rubia. stein, U Gand.ra Pai.ted Her, and on the Right Yon ? Her In the Ho.pit.l for Wowndsd Soldiers .Which She Is Conducting In PnrU. be unkind to offer a protest, but the gen eral opinion is that they do more harm than good. They subvert discipline, they are a law to themselves, they are too highly placed or protected to be called to order promptly, they have neither the in clination nor -the capacity for sustained usefulness. To sit at the end of a bed and smoke cigarettes with a wounded officer does not develop the efficiency of a hospital. One hears repeatedly, that this girl or that has gone to the front and one Imagines devotion, self-sacrlflce, self-restraint and a dozen kindred virtues. Un fortunately It Is chiefly In the realm of imagination that these virtues exist. For the rest, the Interlopers want limelight, and plenty of It; their pictures flood the illustrated papers, and to read what la written of them the experienced person might Imagine that they are bearing the heat and burden of the day, the solitude . and anxiety ot 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 to carry small talk, gabble and gossip into places where so many come to die, these are the main efforts of the young society nurses, and all these outrages are being carrli 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, cut they know how hard it is to make an effective protest and they have little or no time to do so. They recognize by reason of their training the full motive of t' excurinn into the region of suffering, th cmving tor cltement, and, in bad cases, the erotomania that Is the motive power. They find their work 1m peded by the sis terhood of im postors that re sponds so readily to a fashion of Its own making, an! their chief hope is that this sensa tion may pans as so many others have passed, and that the brain less, chattering, t noughtlesc, . empty company, tired of blood and wounds, may find some paramount attraction nearer home. If there are any who are prepared to think I have traduced the present Is If i;vi If $1 if!. -i The Princess of Pless, Sister of the Duchess I Westminster, with the German Wounded She la Nursing Near Berjin. ; The Once Rather Frivolous Duchess of Westminster, Who Is Conducting a Soldiers' Hospital Near Paris. overstated the caae or vouna women wno are at 'aomewhere In France," let them And out from their particular heroine bow much time she gave to training, how she received her appointment, and how much real hard work she does day by aay That a few have striven hard and nobly I would be the last to deny, but these are ' not enough either to leaven or purify the mass or to elevate the action ot a class that might be better employed. Let us remember, too, that suffering is always with us and that even when war is over there will be far too much In all the great ' centres of our own country. Are these butterfly nurses prepared to remember In the future the profession they have Invaded to-day? Will they respond to the calls that are made to help, not young, attractive and . valian men, but men, women and children In every phase of helpless aess and hopeless ness? I do not think so. There is neither noto riety ' nor lime light In the sober, lerlous life of ye hospital nurse and sister; above all, there la a hard and neces sary discipline that calls tor much moral cour age to render tt tolerable. Physical oeorage Is seUom lacking either In men ar women whe are well-bred, and it may be freely granted that a certain measure Is demanded of the butterfly nurses, but there is ne re demption In this. To savor the full sense of -We 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, so strongly that I have not hesitated to write what la bound to offend some of 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 less than will be required of her later on;, that her war record and ber record when peace Is about to return will be scanned -.closely and critically by' generations of really free women 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 - the 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 and . altogether unworthy - of tbev . repre sentative of families that In many cases have earned their ample honors legitimate ly enough. Oreat Britain owes more tban It can ever repay to the nursing sisterhood, and it Is Intolerable that while their ellent herolma 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 werthy to associate with, ot whose tradltloa she Is Ignorant, of whose high discipline and complete restraint she Is Intolerant. There are three classes of women in out midst. The first earns reward and claims It, the second earns reward and does net claim It. the ldat claims reward and does not earn it. Of these classes the real nurse belongs to the second and the . butterfly alsterhood to the third- At such. a season as this there is no 'room in our midst fe the last and it would be well for us all If authority could spare a moment from, manifold activities firmly and ruthlessly to suppress it. The hardship Involyexl would! be of the slightest, the benefit serious and . . ; Orm.tt FrU(n RlThti Bir' i