The Red Book of Heroes | Page 9

such a head to be found? Then suddenly there darted
into his mind the thought of Miss Nightingale, his friend for years past.
It was on October 15 that Mr. Sidney Herbert wrote to Miss
Nightingale offering her, in the name of the government, the post of
Superintendent of the nurses in the East, with absolute authority over
her staff; and, curiously enough, on the very same day she had written
to him proposing to go out at once to the Black Sea. As no time was to
be lost, it was clear that most of the thirty-eight nurses she was to take
with her must be women of a certain amount of training and experience.
Others might follow when they had learnt a little what nursing really
meant, but they were of no use now. So Miss Nightingale went round
to some Church of England and Roman Catholic sisterhoods and chose
out the strongest and most intelligent of those who were willing to go,
the remainder being sent her by friends whose judgment she could trust.
Six days after Sidney Herbert had written his letter, the band of nurses
started from Charing Cross.
When after a very rough passage they reached the great hospital of
Scutari, situated on a hill above the Bosphorus, they heard the news of
the fight at Balaclava and learnt that a battle was expected to take place

next day at Inkerman. The hospital was an immense building in the
form of a square, and was able to hold several thousand men. It had
been lent to us by the Turks, but was in a fearfully dirty state and most
unfit to receive the wounded men who were continually arriving in
ships from the Crimea. Often the vessels were so loaded that the few
doctors had not had time to set the broken legs and arms of the men,
and many must have died of blood poisoning from the dirt which got
into their undressed wounds. Oftener still they had little or no food, and
even with help were too weak to walk from the ship to the hospital.
And as for rats! why there seemed nearly as many rats as patients.
The first thing to be done was to unpack the stores, to boil water so that
the wounds could be washed, to put clean sheets on the beds, and make
the men as comfortable as possible. The doctors, overworked and
anxious as they were, did not give the nurses a very warm welcome. As
far as their own experience went, women in a hospital were always in
the way, and instead of helpers became hinderers. But Miss Nightingale
took no heed of ungracious words and cold looks. She did her own
business quietly and without fuss, and soon brought order out of
confusion, and a feeling of confidence where before there had been
despair. If an operation had to be performed--and at that time
chloroform was so newly invented that the doctors were almost afraid
to give it, Miss Nightingale, 'the Lady-in-Chief,' was present by the
side of the wounded man to give him courage to bear the pain and to
fill him with hope for the future. And not many days after her arrival,
her coming was eagerly watched for by the multitudes of sick and
half-starved soldiers who were lying along the walls of the passages
because the beds were all full.
It is really hardly possible for us to understand all that the nurses had to
do. First the wards must be kept clean, or the invalids would grow
worse instead of better. Then proper food must be cooked for them, or
they would never grow strong. Those who were most ill needed special
care, lest a change for the worse might come unnoticed; and besides all
this a laundry was set up, so that a constant supply of fresh linen might
be at hand. In a little while, when some of the wounds were healing and
the broken heads had ceased to ache, there would come shy petitions

from the beds that the nurse would write them a letter home, to say that
they had been more fortunate than their comrades and were still alive,
and hoped to be back in England some day.
'Well, tell me what you want to say, and I will say it,' the nurse would
answer, but it is not very easy to dictate a letter if you have never tried,
so it soon ended with the remark,
'Oh! nurse, you write it for me! You will say it much better than I can.'
[Illustration: 'Tell me what you want to say, and I will say it.']
Would you like to know how the nurses passed their days? Well, first
they got up very early, made