THE INVALID AND MODERN LIFE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 118, 24 June 1914, Page 4

THE INVALID AND MODERN LIFE.

"Miss Blank? Oh, yes, she's hardly able to move about at all, poor thing. Quite the old-fashioned invalid type of woman, in fact. One is dreadfully sorry for her, of course, but—- !" The implication was ° plain. The speaker, a young wife of the modern sort, full of health and happiness, immersed in all kinds of interests, sporting and social, had no time to devote to persons who allowed themselves to drift into a state of chronic valetudinarianism. Our world, indeed, has little patience with the invalid woman. Physical robustness is the new ideal. The sofa and the smelling-salts and the bathchair have gone out of vogue. Which is all to the good, as far as it goes. But genuine invalidism still exists, anl the lot of the invalid woman is made all the harder by this insistent demand for vigour and activity among her sex. This is why the ignorance—to say nothing of the callousness —of the remark concerning Miss Blank was so exasperating to me. For I happened to know that to many in her circle the invalidism of Miss Blank has proved a wonderful blessing.

AN INFLUENCE FOR GOOD. There are countless Miss Blanks, placid, gentle sufferers, all over the country; women whose ailments are the reverse of imaginary, who spend their lives on couches or confined to bed, yet who influence their environment powerfully for good. I wish I could write with appropriate eloquence a plea not for invalidism among women, but for the true perception of what invalidism stands for in the case of some women; indeed, in the ease of by no means the minority among invalid women. I take the example of Miss Blank, of whom that young bride had spoken so casually and so foolishly, and to whom some A day perhaps she may be eagerly repairing for comfort. Comfort —that is, perhaps, Miss Blank's richest talent; her power of giving comfort to those who are in trouble. It is a not unusual-gift" in invalids, at least in invalid woriien of tho

more intelligent sort. They acquire i strange worldly wisdom, as they lie anc look on at the currents of life fron which they are themselves cut off. Witl plenty of time for reading and foi thinking, they have a queer, an almosl uncanny knowledge of precisely thos( problems which might ordinarily hav< been beyond their, ken. A LIFE NOT WASTED. There are all kinds of things whicl poor Miss Blank has never seen am: never done —yet which she has viewet from numberless different angles owing to her reading and her thinking and tht long chats which she has had with hei friends. Some of her friends are married, some are not; some are women, a few are men; some are youthful, and some are middle-aged or old. To all of them she listens, to all of them she can tell something which they do no talready know. She is a clearing-house'oi ideas and of workaday wisdom. To imply that a life such as hers is wasted is absolutely the opposite of the truth. Many a healthful woman has a far narrower niche in the scheme of society than this hopeless invalid. Miss Blank can be confidante, sympathiser, ally, and unofficial arbitrator in a way for which the ordinary busy, woman simply lias no time —and probably nc ability either. TRUSTWORTHY AND IMPARTIAL. Miss Blank can pass judgment on a situation impartially, for she is perforce compelled to stand aside and take no action herself. Not that she is coldly aloof. Her heart is too tender for that. But her very helplessness adds weight to her verdicts. Lying on her couch,

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listening and pondering, putting in a kind word here and there, or silently allowing the story, whatever it is, to be told to its perhaps bitter end without interruption, you see Miss Blank as a listener, at once wholly trustworthy ami almost pathetically unbiased. She is not consulted as an oracle —she is loved as a friend. Despite the power she wields, she is almost comically humble. And this capacity for evoking love is,' j to be sure, every invalid woman's profoundest justification. Her delicacy draws out many of the finest characteristics of those whose charge she is. Miss Blank, herself beautiful in character, is I surrounded by associates, some of them ! her own' servants, whom her influence has made similarly beautiful. Purely by understanding people she penetrates to the best that is in them and draws it to the surface. i So many folks only crave to be understood! So many-are ugly only because no one has perceived the sweetness beneath a sour exterior! Despite her own affliction Miss Blank remains a stubborn optimist. But the washily sentimental has no appeal for her. She has watched, and heard too much of evil to be unaware of it. The tale-teller who is not quite honest is j very soon, fathomed —and enlightened. I know of women who '-'can't see anything in that unpleasant and cynical Miss Blank" —and I can guess the ! cause of their failure. They have come to her to babble idly about matters either too trivial or else too serious to be treated trivially. And Miss Blank, whose disinterestedness makes her | funnily fearless of consequences, has

, calmly told them what she thought; and it has not been pleasant hearing. It came about, not long ago, that her , disease took a turn for the worse, and , the news was whispered that she migh* die. If anyone still imagines that the i invalid woman is "out of it" to-day I : wish they could have seen the consternation which that news caused; I wish they could have seen the telegrams and letters from all over the country —from ' people with names which even I, her oldest intimate, had never heard; I wish they could have watched the. procession of anxious enquirers _at the door. Upstairs Miss Blank lay and fought for breath; -down below, dealing with the correspondence and the callers, I saw what her life had meant. So far from being a failure, it had been a triumph. And yet the pathos ef it! To think of this small, frail woman wield- ; ing such authority because she had ac- , cepted her invalidism as a gift, not as j a loss but as a profit!—X, in an Eng- ' lish exchange.