Female Nurses for Soldiers.
— There are many women in one position or another, among
the Hospitals, mostly as nurses here in Washington, and among the military stations;
quite a number of them young ladies acting as volunteers. They are a great help in certain ways,
and deserve to be mention'd with praise and respect. Then it remains to be distinctly said that few
or no young ladies, under the irresistible conventions of society, answer the practical
requirements
of nurses for soldiers. Middle-aged or healthy and good condition'd elderly women, mothers of
children, are always best. Many of the wounded must be handled. A hundred things which cannot
be gainsay'd, must occur and must be done. The presence of a good middle-aged or elderly
woman, the magnetic touch of hands, the expressive features of the mother, the silent soothing of
her presence, her words, her knowledge and privileges arrived at only through having had
children, are precious and final qualifications. (Mrs. H. J. Wright, of Mansion House Hospital,
Alexandria, is one of those good nurses. I have known her for over two years in her labors of
love.) It is a natural faculty that is required; it is not merely having a genteel young woman at a
table in a Ward. One of the finest nurses I met was a red-faced illiterate old Irish woman; I have
seen her take the poor wasted naked boys so tenderly up in her arms. There are plenty of
excellent
clean old black women that would make tip-top nurses.
