THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



379 



A CUP TO CHEER THE WOUNDED SOEDIER ON HIS ROAD TO RECOVERY 



In the refreshment hall of an evacuation hospital scenes such as these are almost hourly 

 occurrences, as men who are not seriously wounded are dismissed. The evacuation hospital 

 is the institution through which the men customarily pass on their way to the base hospital. 



ulation and many practical hints for her 

 later career. 



Above all, here she found what she had 

 been seeking- all through her passionate 

 and purposeful girlhood — a way to be 

 "of service to God" by being "of service 

 to man." Intensely religious from child- 

 hood, she had never been satisfied with a 

 religion whose chief object was the sav- 

 ing of her own soul. Lab or are est orare 

 might have been her motto, and here at 

 Kaiserwerth she found a means of trans- 

 lating prayer into work. 



Her novitiate ended, she returned to 

 England and began the practical task of 

 hospital nursing. She encountered many 

 obstacles — some of the most stubborn 

 from loving friends still opposed to what 

 seemed to them the quixotic throwing 

 away of a dazzling social career for the 

 drudgery and meanness of hospital life. 



That the brilliant Florence Nightin- 

 gale, whose social gifts fascinated people 

 of genius in letters and diplomacy, should 



deliberately ally herself with the Mrs. 

 Gamps of the then humble, despised, 

 menial, and frequently dissipated public- 

 nursing service, seemed nothing less than 

 an atrocity. But Miss Nightingale was 

 as determined as she was brilliant and 

 pursued her way in spite of opposition. 

 The point which sentimental biogra- 

 phers of Florence Nightingale miss is. 

 that with all her gentler humane quali- 

 ties she was like the sternest men of ac- 

 tion in her will and purpose. Merely 

 being "good" and "sweet" would never 

 have carried her over her difficult road. 

 Frequently she had to be hard, in the 

 better way of hardness, the way of all 

 great leaders and organizers and aggres- 

 sive fighters against tradition and inani- 

 tion. 



A REMARKABLE COINCIDENCE 



She was preparing to organize a school 

 for nurses, modeled in part on the Kai- 

 serwerth plan, when Russell's article ap- 



