The Hastings Standard. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16 1910 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.

Hastings Standard, Volume XIV, Issue 4539, 16 August 1910, Page 4

The Hastings Standard. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16 1910 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.

" When'er a noble deed is thought, When'er is spoken a noble thought, Our hearts, in id ad surprise. To higher levels rise." SUCH are the opening words of the charming poetic tribute paid many years ago by Longfellow to the good and noble woman who has just passed from amongst us to her long

! last rest. Well may the pact have written, " Honour to those whose words or deeds Thus help us in our daily needs."

Truly and well did Florence Nightingale establish a claim to be amongst those words and deeds entitled them to a place of love, honour and reverence in the nation. Born with a big, warm heart, wide sympathies, a clear understanding, and indomitabie courage, Florence Nightingale was a woman who could not fail to l£ave behind her a record of sweet womanliness and noble deeds. From early womanhood she took a keen interest in hospital and nursing work, and her studies were characteiistically wide and thorough. Her charitable institutions and organising work have made her name long familiar to the British people, but it was her labour amidst the horrors of the Crimean battle field—the nursing, cheering and comforting of Britain's stricken sons, that for ever enshrined her image upon the national hearr. Hundreds of thousands of women in England loved the name of Florence Nightingale, because it was borne by one who soothed the agony of wounded sons, brothers, sweethearts, and husbands, or when the last sad parting came, closed the eyes which could no longer gaze upon the sunshine or the stars. It was Florence Nightingale who undaunted by disease, undismayed by the horrors of suffering, | stole lamp in hand in the gloomy watches of the night amongst the crippled soldiers, smoothing feverish brows, moistening parched lips, listening to last sad messages,, or cheering into hope and desire to live those whose time had not yet come. Amidst trials, suffering and adverse conditions unparallelled in modern times she worked on with a heart that knew no fear and a spirit that defied subjection. So great was the enthusiasm over the work of Miss Nightingale that at the conclusion of the war a battleship was sent to bring j her home in triumph to the heart of the nation she had served so well. | But as modest as she was brave, as ! unselfish as she was self-sacrificing, she avoided the plaudits of the people I by passing home quietly in a French vessel, and gave her national present of £50,000 for the founding of a hospital. In all her works she has shown herself to be one prepared to give all and ask for nothing in return. Through all the horrors of the war she stood to her post with unflinching courage, often remaining on her feet 20 hours to see the wounded provided for, and it speaks marvellously for her magnificent constitution that though broken in health and saddened by the deep voice of human suffering, she yet lived to be ninety years of age. In the heyday of her womanhood her name was enough to thrill the heart of British soldiers, ajid the romance of her story sufficient to throw sweet glamour over the name of woman. Now, after ninety years of love and service, she dies one of the most picturesque figures in British history. In truth "Oil Kugland's annals, through the loilg Hareafter of her speech ami song, That light its rays shall cast From portals of the past." " A lady with a lamp shall stand In the great history of the land, A noble type of good Heroic womanhood/'