MINISTERING ANGEL INVASION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 29, 11 March 1914, Page 4

MINISTERING ANGEL INVASION.

SOCIETY WOMEN BECOME NURSES. A plague of society women, "Modern Society" tells us, masquerading, as amaCteur nurses, . are making deadly preparations to invade Ulster should Sir Edward Carson and Galloper F. E. Smith push matters in the North of Ireland to civil war. v The ''smart set" matronj when she .takes up enthusiastically; ifche healing of fighting mei/ is not seldom regarded as a very distinct nuisance by military medicos and their henchmen.

'The War was a notorious in? stance of- this, for Kitchener was almost' driven out of his wits by the importunity of the host of would-be ministering angels, who descended upon the Mount Nelson Hotel, and divided honours in the matter of.-flirtation with the contingent of interesting widows who frequented that too-famous hostelry. 1

When K. of K. was in town immediately after his return from India,, he was heard ' speaking' in characteristically sarcastic veifi of the society nurse infliction. "There was a young woman, a pronounced brunette," said the conqueror of the Soudan, who came out to Cape Town disguised as a lady nurse, -her object being to keep her eye on her husband, who held a billet under General Forrestier-Walker at the base. Later. on he was unfortunately sent to the front, where, still more unfortunately, he was forthwith picked off by a wandering Mauser bullet. The widow was such a victim to the luxury of unrestrained grief that it was observed her raven locks turned amber in a single night.

'' Thus,'' abided his lordship, N with a malicious grin, "East and West does occasionally meet. The stricken widow ~on the Ganges puts ashes on her head as an indication of her bereavement, and the widow from the banks of the Thames applied peroxide of hydrogen as an advertisement of her uncontrollable sorrow."