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 AN ANGEL OF MERCY-FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 The most barren desert is not without its oasis, where 
 the gi-een grass springs up and the flowers blossom. Nor is 
 there any region so girt with ice and sand, that its desola- 
 tion is unrelieved by the lichen clinging to its native rock 
 and greeting the eye with its verdure. So the darkest 
 scenes of human history are often relieved by the revelation 
 of some angel of mercy and love, commissioned for deeds 
 that warm the heart with holy admiration. This gives us 
 hope of our humanity, even in its darkest and most forbid- 
 ding forms. The scenes of the Crimean war in 1854 and 
 1855 are thus relieved by the heroic and philanthropic devo- 
 tion of one whose name will Uve, enrolled upon the bright 
 page of the world's benefactors, long after the illustrious 
 generals who led in the conflict have been forgotten. The 
 death-defying charge upon the field of Balaklava has not 
 more certainly become "stoi'ied" in the world's history than 
 have the philanthropy and heroism of Florence Nightingale. 
 Miss Nightingale was born, according to the best author- 
 ity we have seen, at Florence in the year 1823. She re- 
 ceived her Christian name from that renowned and beautiful 
 Italian city. She was the youngest daughter of Mr. William 
 Shore Nightingale, of Embley Park, Hampshire, and the Lea 
 Hurst, Derbyshire, in England. She was a young lady of 
 singular endowments, both natural and acquired. She early 
 acquired- a knowledge of the ancient languages, and of the 
 higher branches of mathematics; whde her attainments in 
 
 109
 
 110 CELEBRATED WOMEN. 
 
 general art, science, and literature were of no common order. 
 Her command of modern languages was extensive, and she 
 spoke French, German, and ItaUan fluently as her native 
 Enalish. She has visited and studied the various nations of 
 Europe, and has ascended the Nile to its farthest cataract. 
 WhUe in Egypt she tended the sick Arabs with whom she 
 came in contact; and it was frequently in her power, by ju- 
 dicious advice, to render them important services. Graceful, 
 feminine, rich, and popular, her influence over those with 
 whom she came in contact was powerful as it was gentle 
 and persuasive. Her friends and acquaintances embraced a 
 large circle, and included persons of all classes and persua- 
 sions; but her happiest place has ever been her home, where, 
 in the center of numerous and distinguished relatives, and in 
 the simjilest obedience to her admiring parents, she dwelt. 
 Her personal appearance is described by Mr. Trenery in his 
 Crescent City, as he saw her engaged in her mission of 
 mercy. He says she is one of those whom God forms for 
 great ends. You can not hear her say a few sentences, nor 
 even look at her, without feeling that she is an extraordinary 
 being. Simple, intellectual, sweet, full of love and benevo- 
 lence, innocent — 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 
 so exultingly. Nothing can be sweeter than her snule. It 
 is like a sunny day in Summer; and more of hoUness than 
 is expressed in her countenance one does not often meet on 
 a human face as one passes along the dusty highways of life. 
 Through all her movements breathes that high intellectual 
 calm which is God's own patent of nobility, and is the true 
 seal of the most glorious aristocracy — that of mind, of soul! 
 From infancy she had a yearning afi'ection for her kind — 
 a sympathy with the weak, the oppressed, the destitute, the 
 sufl'ering, and the desolate. The schools and the poor around 
 Lea Hurst and Embley first saw and felt her as a visitor, 
 teacher, consoler, and expounder. Then she frequented and
 
 AC 
 
 FLOEENCE NIGHTINGALE. ^ 111 
 
 studied the schools, hospitals, and reformatory institutions of 
 London, Edinburgh, and the continent. It ajjpears by her 
 evidence lately given before the English Army Medical Re- 
 form Comnussion, that she has devoted her attention to the 
 organization of hospitals for thirteen years, during which 
 time she has visited all the hospitals of London, Edinburgh, 
 and Dublin; many country infirmaries, and some of the mili- 
 tary and naval hospitals in England; all the hospitals in 
 Paris, where she studied with the Sisters of Charity; the 
 institution of the Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserwerth, on 
 the Rhine, where she was twice in ti'aining as a nurse; the 
 hospitals at Berlin, and many others in Germany, and at 
 Lyons, Brussels, Rome, Constantinople, and Alexandria; and 
 the war hospitals of the French and Sardinians. Soon after 
 her return home from the continent, the hospital established 
 in London for sick governesses was about to fail for want of 
 proper management, and Miss Nightingale consented to be 
 placed at its head. Derbyshire and Hamjjshire were ex- 
 changed for the narrow, dreary establishment in Harley- 
 street, to which she devoted the whole of her time and her 
 fortune. While her friends missed her at assemblies, lec- 
 tures, concerts, exhibitions, and all the entertainments for 
 taste and intellect with which London in its season abounds, 
 she whose powers could have best appreciated them was sit- 
 ting beside the bed and soothing the last complaints of some 
 poor, dying, homeless, hapless governess. Miss Nightingale 
 found pleasure in tending these poor, destitute women in 
 their infirmities, their sorrows, their deaths, or their recov- 
 eries. She was seldom seen out of the walls of the institu- 
 tion; and the few friends whom she ndmitted found her in 
 the midst of nurses, letters, prescriptions, accounts, and inter- 
 ruptions. Her health sunk under the heavy pressure. Thus 
 it appears she had received a special training for the great 
 work to which she was providentially called. 
 
 When the accounts of the sufferings of the soldiery in 
 the Crimea, of the additional rigors that they were endui'ing
 
 112 CELEBRATED WOMEN. 
 
 from want of oircctual hospital treatment, and from defective 
 management in supplying stores and necessary relief, she 
 kindled at once with an enthusiastic desu-e to remedy the 
 evil. The extent of that evil may be gathered from the ftict 
 that there was, in the first seven months of the Crimean 
 campaign, a mortality among the troops of sixty per cent. 
 per annum from disease alone — a rate which exceeds that of 
 tlie great plague of London, and a higher ratio than the 
 mortality in cholera to the attacks. One of the chief points 
 in which the deficiency of proper comfort and relief for the 
 sick and wounded sufferers was felt, was the want of good 
 nursing. To send out a band of skillful nurses was soon 
 found to be one of the most essential of all supplies. But 
 unless these were really skilled, more harm than good would 
 certainly accrue; zeal, without experience, could effect httle; 
 and a bevy of incompetent or ill-organized nurses would prove 
 an incumbrance, instead of an assistance. Now it was that 
 a field was opened for the wider exercise of Miss Nightin- 
 gale's genius and philanthropy; and now it was that her ad- 
 mirable abilities were secured for this great object in view. 
 At the request of the Right Hon. Sydney Herbert, Miss 
 Nightmgale at once accepted the proposal that she should 
 undertake to form and control the entire nursing establish- 
 ment for the British sick and wounded soldiers and sailors 
 in the Crimea. Indeed, it is asserted, that by a strange co- 
 incidence — one of those coincidences arising out of urgent 
 necessity felt and met at once — she had, herself, written to 
 Mr. Herbert on the very same day, volunteering her services 
 where they were so much needed. The task was one which 
 involved sacrifices and responsibilities of formidable magni- 
 tude — the risk of her own life, the pang of separation from 
 her family and friends, the certainty of encountering hard- 
 ships, dangers, toils, and the constantly-recurring scene of 
 human suffering amidst all the worst horrors of war, together 
 with an amount of obstacle and difficulty in the carrying out 
 of her noble work wholly incalculable. Few but would have
 
 FLOEENCE NIGHTINGALE. 113 
 
 recoiled from such a prospect; Miss Nightingale, however, 
 met it with her own spirit of welcome for occasion to devote 
 herself in the cause of humanity. Heroic was the firmness 
 with which she voluntarily encountered her task; glorious was 
 the constancy with which she persevered in and achieved it. 
 The same force of nature which had enabled her quietly and 
 resolutely to accumulate powers of consolation and relief for 
 the behoof of her fellow-ci'eatures, enabled her to persist stead- 
 ily to the end, and carry out her high purpose with a suc- 
 cess, holy as it was triumphant. 
 
 The history of her enterprise has been well written by 
 the author of "World-Noted Women," and we shall present it 
 in very nearly her own words, only correcting in points upon 
 which additional light has been given, and relieving the na - 
 rative of the tedium of too minute detail. On Tuesday, the 
 24th of October, 1854, Miss Nightingale, accompanied by 
 Rev. Mr. Bracebridge and his wife, and a staff of thirty-seven 
 nurses, set out from England. On her way through France, 
 she and her companions were received with the most re- 
 spectful attention; hotel-keepers refusing payment for their 
 accommodation, servants dechning the customary fees, and all 
 classes vying to show sympathy with their mission. On pass- 
 ing through the French metropolis, one of the Paris journals 
 made a characteristic remark upon Miss Nightingale's appear- 
 ance, which, coming from the source whence it did, was the 
 extreme of intended compliment and interest. The jiaper 
 observed that "her toilet was charming, and she was almost 
 as graceful as a Parisienne." On the Friday following, Miss 
 Nightingale and her companions embarked at Marseilles in 
 the Vectis steamer, and, after a stormy passage, they reached 
 Scutari on the 5th of November, just before the wounded in 
 the action of Balaklava began to arrive. Five rooms which 
 had been set apart for wounded general officers were, happily, 
 unoccupied, and these were assigned to Miss Nightingale and 
 her nurses, who, in appearance and demeanor, formed a strong 
 contrast to the usual aspect of hospital attendants. Under
 
 114 CELEBRATED WOMEN. 
 
 such management the chaotic confusion of the vast hospital 
 was quickly reduced to order: the wounded, before left for 
 many hours unattended, now scarcely uttered a groan without 
 some gentle nurse being at hand to adjust their pillow, and 
 alleviate their discomfort; tears stood m the eyes of many a 
 veteran while he confessed his conviction, that indeed the 
 British soldier was cared for by his country, since ladies 
 would leave the comforts and luxuries of home to come and 
 tend him in his misery. Far from realizing the fears which 
 had been entertained by officials, that this new addition to 
 the staff of a military hospital would not work well. Miss 
 Nightingale and her nurses were "never found in the way 
 except to do good." 
 
 In the mean time the reports of the condition of the des- 
 titute suffering and dying soldiery had created universal sym- 
 pathy in England. It produced a sort of spontaneous action. 
 A subscription was set afoot, and in less than a fortnight 
 the sum of £15,000 was sent into the Times office for the 
 above purpose. The proprietors of that journal sent out a 
 special commissioner, Mr. Macdonald, to administer this fund, 
 from which thousands of shirts, sheets, stockings, flannels, 
 quilted coats, and hospital utensils, besides large quantities 
 of arrow-root, sago, sugar, tea, soap, wine, and brandy were 
 supplied. Whenever, as after the battle of Inkermann, crowds 
 of wounded arrived, there was feminine ministry at hand to 
 tend them; and when medical stores failed or demand arose 
 for articles not forthcoming, the Times commissioner supplied 
 Miss Nightingale at once with what was needed, if it could 
 be procured by money in the bazars or stores of Constanti- 
 nople. This promptitude of Mr. Macdonald in seconding Miss 
 Nightingale's exertions, deserves all praise; for it mainly en- 
 abled her to carry out the immediate requisites of her plan. 
 His own excellent letters, written at the time, give a most 
 vivid picture of the difficulties she had to contend with, in 
 the shape of ill-contrived arrangements alone, besides other 
 obstructions to her procedure. A rule of the service which
 
 FLOEENCE NIGHTDSTGALE. 115 
 
 required that articles — needed for present use — should be ob- 
 tained from home through the commissariat, and a regulation 
 which appointed that a "board" must sit upon stores already- 
 landed, before they could be given out, will serve as instances 
 to show what were the obstacles against which Miss Nightin- 
 gale had to exert her energies of discretion and presence of 
 mind. To comprehend the evils occasioned by such impedi- 
 ments, an exti'act from one of the nurse's letters will offer an 
 example : " I know not what sight is moi"e heart-rending, to 
 witness fine-looking, strong young men worn down by ex- 
 haustion, and sinking under it, or others coming in fearfully 
 wounded. The whole of yesterday was spent in sewing 
 men's mattresses together, then in washing and assisting the 
 surgeons to dress their wounds, and seeing the poor fellows 
 made as comfortable as their circumstances would admit of 
 after five days' confinement on board ship, during which time 
 their wounds were not dressed. Out of the four wards com- 
 mitted to my charge, eleven men died in the night simply 
 from exhaustion, which, humanly speaking, might have been 
 stopped, could I have laid my hands on such nourishment as 
 I know they ought to have had." 
 
 In the article of hospital clothing, the same deidorable 
 effects resulted from the delay and confusion which existed 
 before Miss Nightingale's remedial measures came into opera- 
 tion. The original supply of these articles, inadequate as it 
 was, had long been reduced so low, that but for the pur- 
 chases made with the money of the fund, and distributed 
 through Miss Nightingale, a large proportion of the invalids 
 must have been without a change of under-clothing, con- 
 demned to wear the tattered, filthy rags in which they were 
 brought down from the Crimea. A washing contract existed, 
 indeed, but it was entirely inoperative; and the consequence 
 was, that not only the beds, but the shirts of the men were 
 in a state foul and unwholesome beyond desci'iption. To 
 remedy this, a house well supplied with water was engaged 
 
 at the charge of the fund, close to the Barrack Hospital, 
 
 16
 
 IIG CELEBRATED WOMEN. 
 
 where the clothing siii)plied by jMiss Nightingale might be 
 cleansed and dried. Her supervision had an eye for all 
 needs ; her experience had a knowledge for all that should 
 be done; and her energy enabled her to have canied into 
 effect that which she saw and knew ought to be effected. 
 
 In ten days after theu- arrival JMiss Nightingale and her 
 assistants fitted up a sort of impromptu kitchen, and from 
 this hastily-constructed resource, eight hundred men were 
 daily supplied with their respective needed quantities of well- 
 cooked food, besides beef-tea in abundance. They who are 
 acquainted with the plan of cookery pm-sued in barracks, 
 where all a company's meat and vegetables are boiled in one 
 cojjper, the portions belonging to messes being kept in sepa- 
 rate nets, will know how that food is likely to suit the sickly 
 appetite of a fevered patient, and how invaluable a system 
 which provided the needful light diet, prepared with due 
 quickness, as well as nicety, would be in hospital treatment. 
 This was effected by Miss Nightingale's kitchen, even in its 
 early operation, and it subsequently attained a degree of ex- 
 cellence productive of extensive benefit, scarcely to be esti- 
 mated by those unacquainted with the importance of such 
 details. Her extraordinary intelligence and capacity for or- 
 ganization showed itself in subordinate, as well as principal 
 points of arrangement. In what might be called "housekeep- 
 ing duties," she showed womanly accomphshment, no less than 
 nice judgment. When the nurses were not needed at the 
 bedsides of the sick and wounded, they were employed by 
 her in making uj) needful articles of bedding and surgical 
 requisites — such as stump-pillows for amputation cases. Not 
 only was the laundry in excellent working order, but l^y 
 the strong representation of Miss Nightingale, the dysenteiy 
 wards were cleansed out, and general purification was made 
 a diligently-regarded particular. During the first two months 
 after her arrival, when there was no one else to act. Miss 
 Nightingale was the real purveyor of those vast establish- 
 ments — the hospitals at Scutari — providing what could not be
 
 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 117 
 
 obtained through the regular channels of the service, and es- 
 jjecially from her kitchen, supplying comforts without which 
 many a poor feUow would have died. Her name and benev- 
 olent services were the theme of frequent and grateful praise 
 among the men in the trenches; and the remark was uttered 
 that she made the barrack hospital so comfortable that the 
 convalescents began to show a decided reluctance to leave it. 
 Stores of shirts, flannel, socks, and a thousand other articles, 
 which she and her nurses distiibuted ; brandy, wine, and a 
 variety of things, requii'ed at a moment's notice, and which 
 could be procured from Miss Nightingale's quarters without 
 delay or troublesome formality, rendered her the virtual pur- 
 veyor for the whole of that period, during which she was avow- 
 edly the person in whose keeping rested not only the com- 
 fort, but the existence of several thousand sick and wounded 
 soldiers. One of Mr. Macdonuld's impressive sentences serves 
 to paint the condition of the spot in which Miss Nightin- 
 gale at that time drew breath. He says: "Wounds almost 
 refuse to heal in this atmosphere ; the heavy smell of pesti- 
 lence can be perceived outside the very walls." In one of 
 the last letters he Avrote, before he was compelled, by fail- 
 ing health, to return to England, the Times commissioner 
 bore the following earnest testimony to Miss Nightingale's 
 excellence. It aftbrds a beautiful picture of her in the midst 
 of her self-imposed task of mercy and charity. These are 
 his words: "Wherever there is disease in its most dangerous 
 form and the hand of the spoiler distressingly nigh, there is 
 that incomparable woman sure to be seen; her benignant 
 presence is an influence for good comfort, even amid the 
 struggles of expiring nature. She is a 'ministering angel,' 
 without any exaggeration, in these hospitals; and as her 
 slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor 
 fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When 
 all the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence 
 and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate 
 sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her
 
 118 CELEBEATED WOMEN. 
 
 hand, making her solitary rounds. The popular instinct Avas 
 not mistaken, which, when she set out from England on her 
 mission of mercy, hailed her as a heroine ; I trust that she 
 may not earn her title to a higher though sadder appellation. 
 No one who has observed her fragile figure and delicate 
 health, can avoid misgivings lest these should fail. With the 
 heart of a true woman, and the manners of a lady, accom- 
 plished and refined beyond most of her sex, she combines a 
 surpi'ising calmness of judgment and promptitude and decision 
 of character. ... I confidently assert that, but for Miss 
 Nightingale, the people of England would scarcely, with all 
 their solicitude, have been spared the additional pang of 
 knowing, which they must have done, sooner or later, that 
 their soldiers, even in hospital, had found scanty refuge and 
 relief from the unparalleled miseries with Avhich this war has 
 hitherto been attended." 
 
 The difficulties of Miss Nightingale's task were not only 
 those arising out of its own appertaining perils and sacrifices, 
 and those which resulted from official mismanagement, but 
 she encountered much opposition springing from professional 
 prejudices and jealousies. On their first arriving, so far from 
 being welcomed, the advent of the nurses was looked upon 
 as an evil, resented as an interference, and treated with 
 tacit, if not open discountenance. At the best they were 
 tolerated, not encouraged. Cabals were got up, ill feefing 
 fostered, party differences disseminated and fomented. Pas- 
 sive resistance in every shape was resorted to, to prevent the 
 installing of the nurses in the military hospitals. Against all 
 this nothing but the exquisite tact, firmness, and good sense 
 of Miss Nightingale could have prevailed. Having proved 
 herself a vigorous reformer of hospital misrule, she had to 
 encounter the tacit opposition of neai'ly all the principal med- 
 ical officers; her nurses were sparingly resorted to, even in 
 the barrack hospital, while in the general hospital, the head- 
 quarters of one of the chief medical authoiities, she held a 
 very insecure footing. But the return of this person to
 
 FLOEENCE NIGHTINGALE. 119 
 
 England, the continued deficiency of the purveying, and the 
 increasing emergencies of the hospital service, enabled Miss 
 Nightingale to extend the sphere of her usefulness; and thus, 
 together with her own admirably patient perseverance, she 
 succeeded in having her nurses employed in their jjroper 
 posts, and her own system established in perfect working 
 order. The results are briefly summed up. After she had 
 introduced her system there and brought it into successful 
 operation under her powerful will and genial presence, the 
 mortality diminished, and during the last six mouths the 
 mortahty among the sick was not much more than among 
 the healthy Guards at home, and during the last five months 
 two-thu'ds only of what it was at home. In one sentence 
 the world may read her devotion to her mission of army, 
 medical, and sanitary reform: "I was never out of the hos- 
 pitals," she says, "never out of the hospitals night or day." 
 The Hon. and Rev. Sydney Godolphin Osborne, in his 
 deeply-interesting work upon Scutari and its hospitals, gives 
 a description of Miss Nightingale, as she appeared exercising 
 her vocation among the sick and dying. He says: "In ap- 
 pearance, she is just what you would expect in any other 
 well-bred woman, who may have seen, perhaps, rather more 
 than thii-ty years of life; her manner and countenance are 
 prepossessing, and this without the possession of positive 
 beauty; it is a face not easily forgotten, pleasing in its smUe, 
 with an eye betokening great self-possession, and giving, when 
 she wishes, a quiet look of firm determination to every fea- 
 ture. Her general demeanor is quiet, and rather reserved; 
 still, I am much mistaken if she is not gifted with a very 
 lively sense of the ridiculous. In conversation, she speaks 
 on matters of business with a grave earnestness one would 
 not expect from her appearance. She has evidently a mind 
 disciplined to restrain, under the principles of the action of 
 the moment, every feeling which would interfere with it. 
 She has trained herself to command, and learned the value 
 of conciliation toward others, and constraint over herself I
 
 120 CELEBEATED WOMEN. 
 
 can conceive her to be a strict disciplinarian; she throws her- 
 self into a work, as its head — as such she knows well how 
 much success must depend upon the literal obedience to her 
 every order. She seems to understand business thoroughly. 
 Her nerve is wonderful; I have been with her at very severe 
 operations; she was more than equal to the trial. She has 
 an utter disregard of contagion. I have known her spend 
 hours over men dying of cholera or fever. The more awful 
 to every sense every particular case, especially if it was that 
 of a dying man, her slight form would be seen bending over 
 him, administering to his ease in every way in her power, 
 and seldom quitting his side till death released him." 
 
 Delightful is that intimation that Miss Nightingale gives 
 token of being "gifted with a lively sense of the ridiculous." 
 Possessing the exquisite perception of the pathetic in exist- 
 ence which her whole career proclaims her to have, it would 
 have been a defect in her nature, nay, a lack of the com- 
 plete feeling for pathos itself, had she not betrayed a ca- 
 pacity for receiving humorous impressions. Humor and pathos 
 are so nearly allied, in their source within the human heart, 
 so mingled in those recesses whence spring human tears at 
 the touch of sympathy, that scarcely any being deeply af- 
 fected by mournful emotion, can remain insensible to the keen 
 appeal that resides in a ludicrous idea. Shakspeare, who 
 comprehended to perfection every impulse of humanity, af- 
 fords multitudinous illustrations of this close consociation of 
 a sense of pathos and a sense of humor in the finest natures. 
 That particular feature chronicled by Mr. Osborne in his per- 
 sonal description of Miss Nightingale, is just the exquisite 
 point, to our imagination, that crowns her admirable qualities. 
 It accords with an intensely-beautiful account of her that was 
 related by Mr. Sydney Herbert at a iniblic meeting convened 
 in Miss Nightingale's honor. He said an anecdote had been 
 sent to him by a correspondent showing her great power 
 over all with whom she came in contact. He read the passage 
 from the letter, which was this: "I have just heard such a
 
 JFLOEENCE NIGHTINGALE. 121 
 
 pretty account from a soldier, describing the comfort it was, 
 even to see Florence pass. 'She would speak to one and to 
 another, and nod and smile to as many more; we lay there 
 by hundreds; but we could kiss her shadow as it fell, and 
 lay our heads on the pillow again content.' What poetry 
 there is in these men! I think I told you of another, who 
 said: 'Before she came there was such cussin' and swearin'; 
 and after that it was as holy as a church.' That consoling 
 word or two, that gentle 'nod and smile' in passing, were 
 precisely the tokens of sympathy that would come with such 
 home-felt charm to those manly hearts from a face possessing 
 the emotional expression which we can conceive it naturally 
 to have, just the woman with just the countenance to exer- 
 cise an almost magical moral influence over men's minds. We 
 are told, eye-witnesses have averred, that it was singular to 
 remark how, when men, frenzied, perhaps, by their wounds 
 and disease, had worked themselves into a passionate refusal 
 to submit to necessary operations, a few calm sentences of 
 hers seemed at once to aUay the storm; and the men would 
 submit willingly to the painful ordeal they had to undergo." 
 Noble being! Exactly that blended firmness and gentleness 
 which makes a woman's nature so all potent in its beneficial 
 ascendency over manhood. Rough, brave fellows, that would 
 have resisted like iron any amount of men's pei'suasion, would 
 melt at once into submission at a "few calm sentences" from 
 those lips of hers. We can fancy the mouth, capable of 
 smiles, or quivering with deepest feeling, compressed into reso- 
 lute steadfastness, as it persuaded the men into reasonable 
 acquiescence with what was for their good, while betraying 
 the latent sympathy with their every pang. 
 
 Among all her anxieties, responsibilities, and . more vital 
 affairs, also, she found opportunity to attend to intellectual 
 needs; for on one occasion, we find from a letter written in 
 the camp before Sevastopol during the Spring of 1856, that 
 "through the exertions of Miss Nightingale a considerable 
 quantity of school material, such as maps and slates, was
 
 122 CELEBEATED WOMEN. 
 
 supplied to the schools." From her own stores she supplied 
 books and games to cheer the dull hours of convalescence; 
 and was foremost in every plan for affording the men harm- 
 less recreation. On her responsibility she advanced from the 
 "Times Fund" the necessary sum for completing the erection 
 of the Inkermann Cafe; she aided the active senior chaplain 
 in establishing a library and school-room, and warmly sup- 
 ported him in getting up evening lectures for the men. She 
 took an interest in their private affairs, and forwarded their 
 little savings to their families in England at a time when 
 there was no provision for sending home small sums; she 
 wrote letters for the sick, took charge of bequests for the 
 dying, and punctually forwarded these legacies of affection to 
 relatives; she studied the comfort of those who recovered, and 
 had a tent made to protect such of them as were permitted 
 take the air from the searching rays of an Eastern sun — 
 moreover, enduring the mortification of a refusal of the hos- 
 pital authorities to have this tent put up. Her activity of 
 intelligence was almost miraculous; one of its pei'sonal ob- 
 servers. Dr. Pincuffs, declares: "I believe that there never 
 was a severe case of any kind that escaped her notice; and 
 sometimes it was wonderful to see her at the bedside of a 
 patient who had been admitted perhaps but an hour before, 
 and of whose arrival one would hardly have supposed it pos- 
 sible she could already be cognizant." 
 
 Miss Nightingale would not hear of going back to En- 
 gland till the war was over; although her health and strength 
 were so far impaired that when a yacht was placed at her 
 disposal by Lord Ward to admit of her taking temporary 
 change of air in sea excursions to recruit her for further 
 work, she had to be carried down to the vessel carefully and 
 reverently in the arms of the men, amidst their blessings and 
 prayers for her speedy recovery. Iler noble devotion had 
 touched the hearts of her countrymen long before her work 
 was completed, and the nation's gratitude could not be re- 
 strained from its eager desire to bestow some pulilic token of
 
 FLOEENCE NIGHTINGALE. 123 
 
 acknowledgment toward a woman, who, they felt, had earned 
 so imperative a title to theii- affectionate thanks. A testimo- 
 nial of some sort was agreed ujion as the only means of ex- 
 hibiting their unanimous feeling, and of permitting every one 
 to contribute their share in the offering. But of what was it 
 to consist? Sums of money to a lady in affluent circum- 
 stances, would be futile; ornaments to one whose chosen 
 sphere Avas by the bedside of the sick, the poor, and the dy- 
 ing, would be idle. Any gift to herself, who had given her 
 most precious possessions, her time, her attentions, her sym- 
 pathy to others, was not to be thought of. In the first place, 
 it was like an attempt to reward that which was beyond re- 
 ward; to pay for that which was a free donation, and, more- 
 over. Miss Nightingale distinctly declined receiving any thing 
 for herself. The only thiag that remained, then, was to raise 
 a fund for benevolent purposes, and to place it at her dis- 
 posal, that she might apjn-ojmate it according as her own 
 j^hilanthropic heart and admirable practical judgment should 
 think best. Public meetings were called, presided over by a 
 prince of the blood royal, and one who had been a personal 
 witness of Miss Nightingale's grand work in the East; and 
 attended by peers, members of Parliament, and some of the 
 highest men in professional repute. They debated the ques- 
 tion of the proposed "Nightingale Fund" in the noblest spirit 
 of consideration — consideration for the delicate feelings of her 
 who was the object of this testimonial of a nation's grati- 
 tude, and consideration for those who were desirous of mak- 
 ing this public proffer of their homage. It was decided that 
 a "fund to enable her to establish an institution for the 
 training, sustenance, and protection of nurses and hospital at- 
 tendants" would be the best form for this National testimonial 
 to take. This determmation met her cordial and heart-felt 
 approval. 
 
 And now the time approaches when her noble duty in 
 the East came to a close, by the declaration of peace. The 
 
 date of her intended return to England was kept a profound 
 
 17
 
 124 CELEBRATED WOMEN. 
 
 secret, out of dread of that publicity wliich she has ever 
 carefully shunned. Not only were the day and the spot of 
 her probable landing preserved unknown, lest the popular 
 welcome that would have greeted her arrival should take 
 place ; but desirous of maintaining the strictest incognito, she 
 refused the offer of a passage in a British man-of-war, and 
 embarked on board a French vessel, passing through France 
 by night, and traveling through her own country unrecog- 
 nized, till she arrived at her own home in Derbyshire, on 
 Friday, August 15, 1856. There was one gracious welcome 
 that Miss Nightingale could not but accept, and that was 
 from the royal lady who was the sovereign head of the 
 army, which had so long been the especial object of Miss 
 Nightingale's devoted care. A visit of some days at Bal- 
 moral, where the Queen was then staying, in highland seclu- 
 sion and enjoyment, was spent by Miss Nightingale in the 
 sunshine of kindly favor; being treated, dming her sojourn 
 there, with the most marked distinction by her Majesty and 
 every member of the royal family. 
 
 Since her retm-n home. Miss Nightingale's name has met 
 the public ear only in the quiet deeds of practical goodness 
 consistent with her whole career, or in the record of patient 
 suffering, her constitution never having recovered its tone of 
 health. The recent accounts of her failing strength render it 
 quite probable that, before the public shall read these pages, 
 Mercy's Missionary will have become Heaven's Angel. 
 
 In Florence Nightingale aU the world glorifies a woman 
 who embodies the principle of devotion, in the widest sense 
 of the word; true devoutness to God — worshiping him by 
 best service, in benefiting her fellow-mortals, and fervent con- 
 secration of herself to a high and immortal cause.