Florence Nightingale Had a Way.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17837, 9 October 1929, Page 14

Florence Nightingale Had a Way.

Across and among obstacles thrown persistently by her family, her social position, her aptitude for friendship, her apparent duties, the girl zig-zagged in a devious path, yet faced always to her destiny. She loved her people devotedly; because of that affection she read aloud the Daughter at Home, which sounds peculiarly awful to modern ears. Because of that affection she conceded and compromised and followed the beaten path manv i years. The path meant county society in Derbyshire and Hampshire, meant visits in great houses and intimacies with brilliant people and London seasons and admiration and a marked place of her own in such doings. Always her quick sense of humour played through these functions. There was a dull evening among the great. Florence Nightingale writes: “After’ dinner they all stood at ease about the drawing room and behaved like so many so'diers on parade. The Queen did her very best to enliven the gloom, but was at last overpowered by numbers, gagged, and her hands tied. The only amusement was seeing Albert taught to miss at billiards." Julia Ward Howe visited the Nightingales at Embley—it was 1844 and Florence was twenty-four years old. Mrs Howe says a word about the girl’s appearance. She “was rather elegant than beautiful.” “Elegant" would likely be “smart” nowadays. “She was tali'and graceful of figure, her countenance mobile and expressive." Mis Gaskell, the writer, says more: “She is tall, very straight and willowy in figure; thick and shortish brown hair, very delicate complexion; gray eyes which are generally pensive. . . but can be the merriest eyes; and perfect teeth, making her smile'the sweetest I ever saw.’’ She certainly had a way with her; at a dinner she sat between two mighy men of lettens, one Sir Henry de la Beche, pioneer of the geological map of England, and one Warrenton Smytne, who was strong in Egyptian inscriptions. The girl drew out Sir Henry on geology and charmed him by the boldness and breadth of

her views. She incidentally proceeded into Latin and Greek, ami then’ the geologist had to retreat. She was also fresh from Egypt and began talking with Warrenton Smythe about the inscriptions, where lie thought lie could do pretty well; but when she quoted Lopsius, which she had studied in the original, he was in the same position ns Sir Henry. When the ladies left, Sir Henry said to Smythe : “A capital young lady that, if she h'adn’t floored me with her Latin and Greek,” “I havo been dowagering out with Papa,” Florence wrote. Mary Clarke.. “In the big coach to a formal dinner party where . . Mr Gerard Noel and I were very thick.” Dots not the girl talk like an American girl ? Her Americanism of type strikes one all along. The young Victorian female should by rights have said: “I accompanied my father to a formal dinner party, proceeding there in the large family coach where I had an enjoyable conversation with Mr Gerard Noel and we became on friendly terms.” Instead, “very thick.” Some people talk Victorian to this date; Florence Nightingale did not, at her date. It is evident she had the social gift. Wheatstone, “a man of marvellous ingenuity,” an inventor, was amusing a iiouso party at Embley one evening. One secs a large English drawing room, tlio women sitting about bored and resigned, the men struggling in from tiieir afterdinner hour. . . When Wheatstone, the live wire, suggests tricks, something to wake people up, make them laugh. . . He goes about and peers into the faces. “You,” he says importantly to a grayeyed, clear-eyed girl who had been most bored of all. “You conic with me, and we’ll make these people use their wits.” “Wheatstone later told Sir Roderick Murchison, who gives the little tale in his diary, that “if I had no other means of living, I could go about to fairs with her and pick up a good deal of money.”— From “A Lost Commander: Florence Nightingale, ” by Mary Raymond Sliipman Andrews.