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Show NO ROMANCE IN IT HARD, UNPLEASANT WORK IS THK LOT OF THK NURtKV AD IN MODERN WARFARE. ONLY THE ABLE'ARE WAMTED Hundreds ef Yeunj American We'iAeA, , However, Probably Will Sn B Oelng This Drudgery With M4kt Nervea and Brave Heart. y IOWARD B. CLARK. Washington. In the course, of th next yenr probably hundreds of youns;, women will start for Europe us nurses' aids, 11 kind of hospital assistant's assist-ant's Job which Is not as pleasant as the morning's work of shopping and the nfternoou's work of sitting on the veranda partaking of the savory tea with a slice of lemon In It, or perchance per-chance u modicum of cream. Experience In the European war has shown that young women who want to go to France ns tfurseti' aids should understand thoroughly what It Is that they will have to do when they get there. There Is a glamour about war for the young' woman as there; Is for the young man. Some American young women have gone to Europe only to return. because they found the work wns ndt to their liking' ' Names must"n6t be ised,' but the were severul young American women whoso fathers hold big official positions posi-tions and, with their families, high so-clul so-clul positions In these United States, who went Jo Europe to umlcrtuke the assistant nurses' work and who soon reached the point of desiring nothing better than a chance to get on n home-hound home-hound steamer to seek once mow- the routlno of a girl's everyday life In the land of the free where there were no hospital bumluges to wush and no lloors to scrub. Most of Them 8tlck. It Is to the credit of most of the American girls who went abroad, however, how-ever, tlmt they stuck to their Jobs, no matter how hard or uncongenial they were, and did their service for humanity in that devoted spirit which Americans like to call American. The fact that most stayed and few returned, re-turned, however, makes It none the less Imperative per hups that all who go In the future should know what they must do when they undertake their new work. Perhaps when our fighting men go on the line, later many of them to be brought back wounded, 110 American Ameri-can girl will feel like leaving her service, to come back' to the life of a country removed, so fur as actual fighting scenes are concerned, from the line of conflict. Perhaps the fact that .they .are. working for American soldiers will mako them all steadfast to duty. Some one In a recent magazine article arti-cle said that the average woman who Is not a trained nurso and who goes to a fighting country to aid the wounded wound-ed has a picture before her eyes of sitting on the rim of Are with the head of a fatr-halred, blue-eyed, wounded soldier' In her lap, a soldier not too badly wounded to look un-speakuble un-speakuble things Into the eyes of the ministering angel who gives him to drink and wipes the dew of battle from his-brow. This Is nil very well as a picture, but It does nor belong totheschooror the realist. The trained narse who goes abroad will have a place back of tho fighting lines and there she will have hnrd work to do, tender work, It is true, but. no such work ns that vlsloned by the ardent one who has read some of the Civil war romances. The nurses' assistant will not even bo allowed to do nursing work when she has progressed, after study and toll through the lanes of experience, up to the point where she can be trusted. What the Assistant Does.'', f V The nurses' asslstunt wilt wash and sterilize , bondages in cases where tho supplies 'liavojrunT shorthand It Is jjecessnry to 'recuse linen and gauze that ',bttcr, should be b'urned. She will scrub floors If. need-be und she wilt do ' work which she knows that 'almost any mald-of-ull-work would refuse to do In the piping days of peace In theso United States of America. Amer-ica. Trained nurses are used to the sick room. Many of them are accustomed to sights of horror. It Is different with tho volunteer nurses' assistant. She never has seen a man who was hit with anything harder than a tennis ten-nis ball. She has no realizing senso of what a war hospital means. Little wonder It Is perhups that the nerves of some of tho volunteer nurses' ulds who went abroad In the eurly days of tho war gave way under the scenes that came before them. Tho only point Is thnt the medical service wants tho help of only thoso who are able to give It. It docs not feel thnt It should bo called upon while ministering minister-ing to the wounded to minister also to those who become, hysterical at the sight of the wounded. It should not bo thought for an Instant In-stant thut thu Ue.slro Is to dissuade young women from volunteering to help the stricken of this greut war. The desire Is only to let them know that there Is little romance to the work nnil to give theiri nn umlerMand-Ing umlerMand-Ing In advance of the mitijre of the labor which they are to 'undertake. They must tnl:o 11 high heart' to aid their patriotism. ' r ! Vhe limit Smith Is eertnlnly n laxy cum. Isnt he?" sold Brown. "Should say lie was." replied Jones. "Why, he's oo tnzy to deny It." |
