The Pittsburgh Post from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 38

Four SUNDAY 3IORXING, THE PITTSBURGH POST OCTOBER 27, 190f. Her Dream and Its Some Qneer Ideas of the TRAINE D-O a ALLOON i sometimes the waiting is both long and dreary. The professional nurse, on the contrary, usually begins work as soon as she receives her diploma, and often she has done a certain amount of private nursing before her graduation. From the hospital she passes directly to the Nurses' home, which provides a shelter with conveniences, telephone service and other accommodations pecuharly suited to nurses' needs. The Professional Nurse.

She cannot always secure a room to herself, truly, the head of the house usually being well awake to the fact that with very slight probability of more than half her lodgers being off duty at the same time to rent rooms singly or for exclusive use is to throw away money. Bbt many a nurse occupies the room part or all of which she rents but a few nights yearly; perhaps, when well established, ujes it merely as a place in which to keep her few personal possessions, receive mail, etc. A popular and efficient nurse not long since merrily declared that, with two roommates, she had not met either of them for six months, had not slept in the common chamber In an entire year. Personality counts for much in the trained nurse's career. The first few-anxious weeks or days or hours of waiting, afraid to leave the house for fear of the longed-for "call," never daring to do so without careful directions as to destination, proposed length of absence and similar details, must be endured by all nurses prospective, though now and then a young graduate has so attracted the attention of the visiting hospital physicians by good work that she is at once assigned for a "practice." Put after the first case or two, with ordinary tact, good luck and devotion to duty there need be no anxiety, financial or otherwise.

Good nurss, even when strangers to a city, usually manage to establish a paying clientele in short order. All physicians keeD lists of nurses who have a By May Ward. ONCE In the life of every' girl there comes a time when she dreams sh would like to become a nurse. Here is what she pictures to herself: 9 ministering angel to a wounded youth, who awakens to a vision of blue ana white loveliness to become engaged; then Europe, diamonds, automobiles, servants and happy ever afterward. Here is what she gets: Scullery work; taking care of tramps; ncrubbing floors washing down walls; a bed in the bathtub; twenty-four hours a day service, and complaints from those she serves.

A nurse who is not of the complaining kind, who has been no more and no less nuccessful than hundred of other nurses, and one who knows what she is talking about, tell this plain. unvarnished tale, and every word is true as any truthful nurse will affirm. TTtdnlng schools all over the country are advertising for pupils, where a few years ago there were many hundreds of names on the waiting lists. Hospitals can scarcely be supplied with help nowadays, where 10 years ago there were 10 women ready for every vacancy. This Is the reason: young women of refinement, used to care and attention In their own homes, refuse to be treated as upper servants, or to subject themselves to cold food, poor beds and lack of proper, comfortable rest.

"Only once in the ten years I have been a nurse have I ever been told to go out and take the fresh air without being Hired to ask for this sto's one of these nurses. This Is one of the reasons why many self-respecting women refuse' to become nurses. Tills Is what a nurse who has been long in the business will say with emphasis: "Paid nurses have fine time, do they? "Well, you will have to show me. If any woman believes this, I'd advise her to leave home and start private nursing for six months, and she will sing ic time from the other side of her mouth, and if she Isn't ready then to get back to her bonus, crushed, humble, battered down, browbeaten, and generally cowed into subjection, then I'll miss my guess, and I'm pretty good at guessing. "Inside of 6ix months at the nursing business she will sympathize with Sairy Gamp and Betsy Prig in choosing a place 4 Fulfilment a fate as this, but die must smile and smile even if she is asked to geti down all fours after the pet poodle, who has run underneath the bed, sht must smile.

I "That's the reason every nurpei wears Cheshire cat smile all the time. It iGoks beatific, but underneath It lis like pur buckwheat batter. Then the, wife or the sister or the mother of fhe pa tient will tell her that the last nurse ii the household made eyes at her hus- THE LAVATORY. band, or fattier, or wrother, ot they will tell how long it took her to cr that she ate three crabs for one luncheon, but the nurse is supposed to smile through it all. "In a splendid marble palace at Newport one nurse was obliged to take hor meals in a lavatory, and when she objected, she was called a "person' and her money and baggage were thrown out the back entrance at her at the same time.

The sarcastic gorgeous flunkey who bowed her out scarcely deigned to look at her when he slammed the door behind her. "The beds the nurses sleep on! Mat-tresBas without springs, springs without mattresses, beds with neither springs nor mattresses, but with cords and half-f lied "ticks," cots that squeak every time the nurse breathes hard, blankets folded up and laid on the floor, any old thing that could by any stretch of the imagination be called a bed. "Then In the morning the mistress of the house asVs If the nurse has slept well, and that same galvanized smile must be put to work, and the nurs, thinking of that S25, mjst say "yes" though she means a thousand "The patient recover, and back to her 'suite' the little nurse speeds with her $2o. which looks as big as a mountain to her thn, but which louks like 30 cents after she has paid her room rnt, the registration fee, her share of the. telephone bill, and has laid in a supply of coffee, crackers, rady-to-eat food ml glngersnapn to tide her over until the next patient Is taken 111.

Then the whole thing happens all ever again, and the same horror confronts her, and the galvanized smile Is put to work, and she knows that she In rally a nurse. 'Died In the discharge of duty' Is the Inscription cvir th grave cf a trained nurse, but better stt'l wou'l be th erection of a tablet to who hnd survived." It is not a path of nor Is It a a rule highly paid, when on considers the length of tine aiid the Btrenuou. work involved in the business of caring for the sick. Nevertheless the profession has its good points, which are sufficient to preserve Its ranks from undue depletion. ET WITH HER BAGGAGE.

For one thing, there is no limit and no nationality restriction; there is no dullness, no monotony, and best of Is usually plenty of work. Physicians, lawyers, writers, artists, teachers, all expect a certain time of "waiting" duty before professional success comes, ami I I SHE DIDN'T DREAM OF THIS. Early Aeronauts while the earth moved around beneath, them, they would have only to descend in an oblique direction, and, passing without effort from one parallel to another, they would find themselves without fatigue transported into the favorable climate they sought, and which the rotation of the globe had substituted for the land they rose from. Starting from this hypothesis, Linguet. after having calculated the rotary speed of the earth, and reckoning that of many sublunary regions much less, proposed to aeronauts to imitate the migratory birds, to rise rapidly like them into the higher regions of the atmosphere, wait there a NAVIGATED.

certain time to allow the balloon- to lose the speed of the horizontal or circular movement acquired by the machine, while it was near the earth and participated in its motion, to watch from the height of this observatory the movement of the globe and then to regain its surface when the country proposed to be visited should be observed beneath. One might in this manner, avoiding the wear and tear of his aerial carriage and without stirring, as it were, traverse vast space in little time. "What a mag-niflicent idea, only to be destroyed when the futility of the whole scheme melted into This Is a tolerably, fair specimen of the chimerical ideas of many experimenters of a half century go. As was-observed, no man has as yet succeeded in inventing a machine capable of traversing the air at his will in any certain direction; yet the possibility is always there. The man who will invent a machine to traverse the air -with certainty and safety will acquire immortal renown, besides a fortune.

The navigation of the air is said to have been a dream of Archimedes, and had not the eiege of Syracuse cost him his life his dream might have -become a reality. Long before his time the navigation of the air had become a study of the Greeks. The idea of inventing-a machine to enable men to navigate the air, seems to have occupied their minds, and the myth of Daedalus and Icarus undoubtedly originated from some early ideas of air navigation. The Use of Gas. "When Henry Cavendish, in 1765, discovered the great levity of hydrogen gas, or inflammable air.

as it was termed, the celebrated Dr. Black, ot Edinburgh, conceived that a bladder filled wdth gas must ascend into the air. Cavallo, who made experiments based an this theory in 17S2, found that a bladder was too heavy and paper not airtight. Soap bub bles, inflated with the gas, rose with great rapidity. It was reserved- for the brothers.

Stephen and Joseph Montgolfler, in France, to make the first public exhibition of a balloon, inflated with hot air, rising into the atmosphere to eend up the first short. The Jtlont-golfiers did not attribute the ascending power of the balloon to the rariflcation of the air, within It produced by heat, but to a peculiar gas arising from the combustion of the wool and straw which they burned in inflating their balloon. M. Charles, a professor at Paris, sent up the first gas-filled balloon. Pilatre de Bozier, who went up In a balloon constructed by himself, and the Montgol-flers, in lTSS, was the first man who ever ascended with one of these machines.

This was a fire balloon. In November, when he and the Marquis d' Arlandes ascended from the Castle of la Muette, in the presence of an immense multitude, they came near being burned to death. M. Charles and M. Robert were the first to go up in a balloon filled with hydrogen gas, and th aerostat waa in the same form and pretty much as at the present day.

January 7, 1785, Blan- chard crossed the Lngiish channel from Dover to Calais in a balloon, having Dr. Jeffris, of Boston. for a companion. Pilatre dc Rozier and Mr. Romain lost their lives in an attempt to cross from the French to the English shore of the channel.

On this occasion they had two balloons, one above filled with gas and the other below filled with hot air supplied from a coal fire by which they meant to increase or diminish their ascending power. The machine took fire and the mangled bodies of the aeronauts, klled, probably by the explosion of the gas, fell to the earth. This is only one of the many fatal accidents that have happened to navigators of the air since the first balloon was invented XH years. ago. fliwoiH5vaiKiWii AFTER having lain dormant for a number of years the taste for ballooning has recently been revived, as indicated by the wide popular interest in the great balloon race held during- the past week from St.

Eouis. The various ascensions lately made by daring; aeronauts, who, experimenting in aerial navigation, liavo attracted as numerous and enthusiastic crowds as those whjch in the past century greeted the experfments of the first adventurers. The drejam of scientific men lor a hundred years or more has been the navigation of the air, but no man has as yet succeeded in inventing a machine capable of traversing SOME EARLY tlie under his guidance in any re-cuiiied direction, vet the possibility of cur-li nec omplishrnent lias been admitted by many scientific and practical persons. As the Fuhjeot of aerial navigation is now attracting much attention it will be interesting ((, know that the airships of U-day are, not. very much in advance of those of over half a' century ago.

The pit fire that accompanies this article was firt published Hopton. It illuMraiea a variety of machines by which inventor fondly hoped to bo able to navigate the uir Instead' of floating through space, the sport of every current. As none of these contrivances have proved successful it would be l.jlo to attempt a minute description of the machines or an cxj'h'tmtfon of the various theories held by their tl'-s'gners. Mirecvpr, most of the devices sufficiently explain themselves, although others sir Inexplicable. One, of the fust, if not the very first, baiioons was launched in the air on June 17K5, Announecy, a town in France.

The first ascension tooK place in Paris, on November "1 following, and 'yet before the end the same year a hundred projects for the direction of balloons had been proiiosed, described, published or announced. Knthusiajsts of that 'day said Nmmeroiuis happy in not being acadcmizable? Have you considered the lot of the unfortunate "All their lives they are hampered by thc academic pose. Al! their lives they write, they talk, they think for the academy. Should we, who are happily withdrawn from this torture, attempt to seize it? "In truth it is an opportune zeal that has taken possession of us women. Don't you see if the.

illustrious band should consent to receive any of us, everyone of us would become a candidate, deserving or not? For my part 1 confess I would be embittered if I didn't win, and all the others would feel the same way. "The change would make all but a very few women of letters unhappy, and still unhappter the men who would have to make the selection." NO GROG PGR STOKERS. THF. stokers of the Busitania get no grog. Grog, indeed, has been practically banished from the allowance of the ocean greyhound's stoker.

It used to he thought that only grog kept the stoker alive, but now an opposite belief maintains. Stokers work four-hour shifts in a temperature running from li-'O to bJO degrees. This heat burns them like the sun; their faces are perpetually red. as though they had returned from the seashore, and if they eat and sleep abundantly, and if they also let grog alone, it is claimed that their work is healthful, that they may live to a ripe old age and that they will be immune to colds and to consumption. A stoker worked like a lion wfien under grog's influence and did not feel the heat of the stoke hole at all; but this alcoholic exhilaration passed off half an hour, leaving the man very weak and dispirited, a ready prey to disease.

Stokers were peculiarly liable to drunkenness under the groff system. In their cas.e, as in the case of cooks, intense heat seemed to give them an unnatural craving for alcohol. But drunkenness sine grog's abolition has became rarer and rarer among them. Ou nearly all bners, from the Lusitania down, the stokers are, at least during the voyage, to'-al abstainers, Kew York Press, a few things her chic Tittle bag, and pins her medal on her bre flst, and starts down the crooked stairs. land that very day her face takes on fiat frozen expression that every nurse carries to the grave.

Her First Case. "Timidly she pushes the button and enters the house which Is all upset by illness, and full of nervous women, not including the patient. All of the sisters, HAD TO EAT OFF cousins and aunts of the sick person are on the spot to tell what they did when Fannie, or Louis, or James, or Peter were sick with, just that same disease. She must handle all of these cousins and aunts with suede gloves, must not offend, must cater to the whims of all of them, not excepting the pet poodle and a rich old uncle from Montana. "She must never openly disagree with anything they say, and she must nurse her patient, who is usually the least of her troubles, and must keep him or her men- tally amiable and physically comfortable.

Patient must not be crossed goodness, no! "Woe to the nurse who dares to do It, even in carrying out the physician's orders. If she does, she is complained about, and then it's out with her, and In with another nurse. "Few medical men are brave enough to uphold the poor little nuife. They have troubles of their own. and offending the family means the withdrawal of their patronage, and the doctor usually decides against her, discharging the nurse, then enter the big lump again, and the cold wedge of custard pie.

"People believe that there Is something different about the nurse than about the ordinary mortal. Though she may be on intimate terms with the family, she is of them, not with thern. The servants can't place her in the household, and usually despise her cordially, feeling that the, like themselves, works for a living, and hate her for her education and breed-Ins. "The family look upon her as a sort of human machine, one who always feels perfectly well, and who does not a breath of outside air a female Sunny Jim with a smile that won't come off. "She must always be Immaculate, with a collar that never wilts, a cap that never goes awry, an apron that is spotless, no matter how many sponge baths she has given, no matter how many flights of stairs she has chased up and down, nor how many tons of Ice she has cracked and packed in bags.

"She Is not supposed to do any menial work oh no! She is supposed only to carry out. the orders of the physicians, but no scullery maid would do, or be asked to do the menial work the average family expects the nurse to do, yet with this she is expected to be immaculate at all times. "She must shine with cleanliness, no matter how many hours she has sa.t by her patient's bed, and very often f.hc is expected to evolve a bath, out of nothing, like a magician in a show. For sometimes she is told with freezing politeness that the family would rather she would not use the bathtub, though more often their objection Is veiled in the excuse that the 'splash of water disturbs the "So the poor little nursemaid takes her morning 'tub' in a basin throe inches deep, bathes in sections as It were, yet somehow maneges to look respectable, in spite of this drawback. "At night she must sit in a high-backed stiff chair, for a cozy rocker or Morris chair might induce drowsiness, and she must eit In semi-darkness, because a light might hurt the patient, so sho is deprived of reading, and the earth might be swallowed up by on earthquake, or engulfed in a deluge, and she would never know it, for reading a paper might disturb the darling patient by its ralttle.

And the Night Lunch. "Chapters might be written about what her limcli does not contain. It usually consists of a few crackers, with a bit of cheese that looks and tastes though someone has robld the mousetrap, arid a of blue milk. Cold, hungry, sleepy, dull from lack of outdoor exercise, the poor girl wonders what ehe has ever done to deserve such ill PUT OUT ON THE STRt that the invention of the Montgolfler brothers was the point of departure, the assured basis of the regular transportation of men and merchandise through the air; that aerial navigation was certain, and would be the ultimate ratio of future locomotion. Enthusiasts of the present day hold the same opinion.

Steering: the Great Problem. The problem of air navigation has never been solved in a satisfactory way. How to steer and guide the balloon or ship after it has been launched into the realms of space is still uncertain. IDEAS OF HOW THE AIR WAS TO BE There have been successfully proposed, since the first balloon was invented, the reaction of the heated air of the Mont-: goitiers' lire balloon on the ambient air, by means of large valves opening in the sides; hydrogen gas, or atmospheric air, compresed externally or internally in the envelopes of balloons; employment of steam, electricity and even gunpowder; the arehimedian helix, or screw; oars, sails, paddles, the reversed parachute. enormous bellows, etc.

This Is not all: some have proposed the use of, trained birds of huge size, such as eagles, condors and vultures. The later idea was first enunciated in Binguet, wishing. las he said, to come to the assistance of the "Parisian Promethean," devoted several pages of his "Annals" to the examination of this curious method of traversing the air. "Even if every other resource should fail." says he, "have we not the birds?" Since that date, this method has often been suggested, and by persons who fancied that they had hit on the idea for the first time. The cut.

in the engTaving, of a large bird drawing a balloon, illustrates a plan proposed, in in 3S45, by Madame Tessorie. She published a book on the subject, in which she seems to indicate as nwst particularly suited to the purpose of towing a balloon, the great vulture of the Alps, the wings of which in their full extent often measure 14 feet from tip to tip. It is seen to poise itself in the air and remain suspended sometimes for whole hours. "The bird," says Madame Tessoire, "would be held at- proper distance from the -car by a trace, which would start from a collar around its neck. passing under its wings and through a ring attached to a surcingle going around its body.

The reins would i lead from its beak, being fastened to a ring inserted through both sides of the beak, in order that he should feel readily the hands of the aerial coachman. The whole harness ought to be supple, light ami very strong. After having pointed out the manner of taming them. Mad ante Tessoire adds that her confidence in vultures arose from what she saw of one in Portugal, in the fort, of Caisenils, about 60 miles from Lisbon. It had been brought there very young, but in all Its strength and beauty.

It was perfectly obedient to the officer who owned it and would fetch and carry like a dog. The vulture would at intervals take a leave of absence and return of its own accord, sometimes at the end of eight days. And it was always seen to direct its flight to the sea, it was conjectured that it went to Africa, whence It had been originally brought. It will be seen from the above that this female aeronaut seriously considered bird.s as useful auxiliaries In aerostation. This woman was not alone in her opinion.

Roch, a distinguished writer of that period, thought the eagle and the condor suitable to determine the direction of a balloon in calm weather. Linguet, whom we have before cited, gives in one part of his "Annals," another theory of aerostation and certainly a very triumphant and vitorious method of travel ing through the afr. To Imitate Birds. A Swedish naturalist was engaged on the subject of the migration of birds. He had made numerous observations.

Xot finding in the migratory feathered species a power of flight and organization sufficient to account for their journey from one country to another in search of the temperature and climate they required, and which was necessary to their pleasure and existence, this learned man asked himself if these birds, instead of cutting the atmospheric mass horizontally, did not rise perpendicularly till they reached a stratum of air of which the circular rapidity was less than that of the earth? After having remained there for a time which their Instinct would" indicate, proved eatisfactory, and such nurses frequently are able to "pick and choose" among the offered cases. Many will handle only certain diseases, or work for certain doctors. Plenty ot competent, tactful women never have a holiday moment "between cases" unless, for the purpose of securing a brief rest, they temporarily refuse to "register" at the hospital or nurses' home handling their caiis. Plenty, again, have holidays enough in course of their regular work. The Strange White Mallard.

WINNIPEG, Oct. 23. -Where he hatched. In what marsh he fit 23. Where he was taw the light of day.

where is the water in which first paddled about in his mother's wake these and many other interesting things about him wlii never be known; but that he was hatched, that he did swim about and thaj he grew to be a fine, largo white mallard duck, there can be not the smallest doubt in the v.nrlfj. becau he was shot and killed at the mouth of the Ked river, about 15 miles north of Selkirk, and to-dey his body is in the chop of a Winnipeg taxidermist awaiting the completion of tho work necessary to convert him into an exhibit that will be talked of by many a hunter of future days, far white mallards are rare birds indeed; so rare that old duck hunters in thlw land of the wild Manitoba, have never heard of a white mallard before. Whether this rara avis flew out of the Far North or whether he Is the product cf one of the nearer haunts of kind cannot ie told, but the first public knowl-f th' white mallard of 1'7 was when ho made Us appearanae among the duels that throme the marsh at the mouth of the lied river at this season. Thi? event took j)'ae about ten. days p.po and the whit mallard was at otK-e marked by the Indian hunters along the I.fike mnp-hei by reason of his, sr.uwy piiiiiiittv, shirpty in contract ith th brown coloring of his kind.

At otiOi tt Vwejuiv the ambition of every man of the Indian markfrnen to securo th. white wild dirk for hi own and en on' prayed that ih dock with which the cr.O'V whti bird flew might wine V'iv past the j.Ue where he l.iv hidden in t' redr- or tint good fcr-tu'n would the flight of the whit mallard within ot of bin canoe as It crossed the waters of Iak Winnipeg. For si week these pr: vers remained unanswered, atid the wh.tc mallard biit free air with his fnowy pinions and fed among Ms du-ky tiighttn.tte, a marvel among thine of everyday happening. for the whit" mallard if he had sta.d In lie fo Kf.rlujdon of the marsh whi' li fiavo him birth Hnd where, marked as Bps his white plumage in contrast with thai of hi? it brought him i.ti. of that distinction that attended his advent into the larger world of the Tied lliver etidvous.

Fat followed iip-n the flight of the mallard snort mid when, jitter avoiding ail the lui-s set forth for his l. afte't directing hit osi wing out cf gun rang of the ifi! m.ni lie l.i ft npproaehe.i the cunningly rom-eabd blind of Indhm a ve ran durk hunter of th in- itoba th redinnn's ten guue fhot out a. spiteful streak of fire and 1 iolcp pierced wing ami ho-lv of th'T milliard ami ne ieu phu.ij.lv down, with the crash and the vphts-h of a bird stopped short lit rapid (light. A Minute more and the while beauty VI)i tiecurcly hi in tho bottom of Indian John's canoe and Ids life's story wns over. but.

stuffed and mounted, he wtll live again lo ton ms taio io many. an 1 to revive, perhap have pafsod. recollc-c milliard of Manitoba. after long years on of the white the list Mine. George de I'eyrebrune, with 32 volumes of pur romance, followed by tlse (Vimtesse do Pnlega, who tits Mine.

Fesneur. with 30. Mcriy of the women writers are titled. Besides those already mentioned arc the Tntchess de Urissao, the IHichess de riolmn, Use Ibichess. de Koche- Juyon, the Haronne do Hay and the P.aronne de Ficrrebourg, who have published chicily poetry and sa ys.

"Wives of author: not infrequently try thelr iuitirl writing, too. The of Alpiionso I has won considerable fame with elj-hi volumes of fiction; Mm. Kd in ond Ros.tar.d has published a volume of verses which is much prnised, and Mine, Catulie MemU-s likewise Mme. Fornrnid Gregh. tin; Baronne de Bay.

Mme. Amebo Mesnreur, who has published ten volumes; Mme. Felix Faure-Goyan and Mme. Andre Corthis nave rocognizfd standing in poetry. Mine.

Marceiie Tinavre writes laborious analytical studies. Her "Maison du Feche" modi? a sensation about live years ago and was translated into almost every language except Kug-lish. Mmes. Gabrielle Keval and Jean Poin-merol are also analytical. Mme.

do Re-gnier. who has written four bonks under the pen name of Gerard d'l Iouvilie, is famous as a stylist. She Is the wife of the poet Henri de Regnier. Camil'e Pert is a sociological novelist, Severin is a journalist and Mine. Maximo Villemer a feuilletonist.

Mme. Fred Gresac, Mile. d'Oiiiac and Mme. Judith Gaulior, also a poet of high repute, have written successful plays. Mme.

Gamier is now collaborating with Pierre Lot! on a Chinese play, in which Sarah Bernhardt is to appear an an empress of China. Mine Daniel Lesneur ss not puffed up by the honor thrust upon her as candidate for a seat in the academy. Site is already a member of the executive committee of the Soeietie des Gens de Let-tres, the great mutual aid organization of the French literary world. She is the first woman to hold this position. Interviewed by another woman.

Marguerite Prevost, on the academy question. she said- "The successful candidacy of a woman for the academy is eventually possible, even probable. But someone will have to break in, and I don't care to do that. And, let us see, are not we women ipff French Women Writers where the 'fish was good and will not wonder that they took to the black bottle orget some of the things they saw. 'TNi Tinriilna- bmdnesa has been spoken of as 'such a dignified profession that most nurses are a little backward in telling of the truth about their work.

The dignity of being a physician's assistant has been lauded to the sky. and those on the outside see only the romance, not the actual work. "Put neither nurse nor physician recognizes the romance in being cook, scuU-Hon. waitress, nurse and general utility woman night and day for an entire familya nighthawk, a etomachless, machine-like creature. The nurse falls to see any romance in any of these.

"It looks romantic, this spotless white cap and kerchief and crisp blue gown; it sound romantic this ministering to picturesque suffering man college boy perhaps, son of rich puTents American beauty roses and lilies son suddenly be-, coms conscious and sees the ision ot white kerchief, cap and crispy blue gown, end then and there begs her to tiy to 1 Europe with him. turns over his bants account oh. It sounds lovely. i The Actual Facts. "But here Is whJ.t it really is: Studylrg in a hospital for three years, if unfortu- nate enough to be accepted as a pupil: separating dirt from the human wiatorny, cleaning up after operations, and so on for three times 52 weeks until she becomes a skilled nurse and ready to graduate, "Dainty hands have become three sizes larger than they were when she entered the school, and have taken on the appearance of broiled live lobsters, and in all probability she has become fiat footed and has developed housemaid's knee or appendicitis, but oh, joy! She is ready to graduate.

"So soma fine day. amid ferns and pa'ms and flowers, with speeohes by the mayor and music by the band she marches out on the platform and bows as nhe receives her diploma. "Witn that precious diploma In her flst she etarts out into the world. She is very brave and is full of ideais, but that wounded youth and that trip to Europe stand out prominently in the picture she forms of her future. The thought of the $23 a week she is going to make spurs her on, and ehe- hunts lodgings, locating In one of those colonies of nurse3 miscalled 'Nurses' Homes, that looks on the outside as desolate as a sarcophagus and feels on the inside like a crypt.

With two or three other embryo Clara Bartons she engages a room or a 'suite' (forgive the word), and goes out in search of a nurse's registry. After having deposited the $3 or $10 fee, she feels that her feet are- firmly planted on the bottom rung of the ladder, and that she is 'going up-like a rocket. Perhaps she does this, but if she does chances are she will come down like the stick. "She probably hasn't great deal of money, but this is overbalanced by the ambition she has. Hope lives eternal, and visions of the fortune she Is soon to have keep up her spirits.

"Poor little girl! Two weeks, perhaps three weeks, pass away in the iodoform- laden atmosphere of her She lies awake nights listening to the snores of ftome other nurse, passes her days in the same atmosphere, not daring to go out for fear the telephone will ring, with some millionaire stranger at the other end, asking her to come quickly, as his favorite son has Just been thrown from his hunter and 1s laid up with a broken leg or arm. "Every time a step sounds on the staircase a lump as hig as an orange comes in her throat, and the pit of her stomach feels as though a wedge of custard pie had lodged there. "The awful agony of those days and nights! Her head feels like the hurdy-fcurdy at a dime show, and she thinks of 1h pansy bed and the hammock under the vines back home, and the lump grows larger until it is as big as a grapo fruit now, and the wedge of pie Is, oh, so heavy, tind she counts the money in her jJttle purse, and figures out how much a tt'-k'-t at two cents a mile will cost hack to Putixsutawncy. or Possum Glory, or wherever is he came from. "And then, one glorious day, when thing: worn the very blackest ever, t'.

onderful case her first case Sit wonders if sil" as ah dons hr. crisp i.Me s-iit, and pad" her little v.cs cap, mid tho white kerchief and HKRE are 5,000 women of letters in France to-day, that Is to say. women who have published books, who contribute to the magazines or who write, professionally for the Twenty years fipo there were only about It is estimated that in 10 years more thoy will number attleast The present number of literary men authors and journalists is put at about Twenty years ago, the curious statistician figures out. women provided 'only 4 per cent of the published matter in France. To-day they furnish about 20 per cent of the copy for bocks and periodicals.

They write extensively for the daily papers, generally signing their articles; they nor only contribute to the magazines but edit and publish some of them, and many of their books are among the Parisian best sellers. Out of their increasing prominence in literature has grown at least a demand for the election of a woman to the French academy. If there is one woman writing for every five men, they argue, the men might, well spare them one place among the 40 immortals. There are threu seats vacant at present and an agitation has been started, in which practically all the women and some of the men are in earnest, for the election of a woman to fill one cf the places. Francois Coppee, himself one of the most distinguished of living French writers, looks forward with complacency to the time when the Academy's doors will be open to women.

But so far Paris has refused to take the proposition quite seriously. The agitation was started one evening in the famous literary salon of Mrne. Juliette Adam, who is a historian and an author of 20 published volumes. The choice fell upon Mine. Daniel Lesnour as candidate, only she herself dissenting in favor of Mme.

Adam. Mme. Lesneur is a problem novelist. She has o0 published works to her credit and one successful play, "Marquis de Valeor." By far the most prolific of women writers in France is "Gyp," in private life th de Martel. She has pub lished 03 volumes of li it, satiric, gossipy fictiun.

This fs nearly three times os many as any of her competitors, for the next on.