It was during the early sixties that I first became personally acquainted with Mr. Bradlaugh. The political Radicals of England, under the leadership of Mr. Edmund Beales, were then engaged in agitating for a further extension of the suffrage. I became acquainted with Bradlaugh when we were both ardent supporters of that movement. A Tory government was then in power; and the movement met, of course, with the usual Tory opposition. It was then that the government endeavored to prevent the people from exercising what they deemed their ancient right of public assembly in Hyde Park, London. The leaders of the movement had announced that a great Reform Demonstration would be held, on a particular day, in Hyde Park. The government issued a proclamation to the effect that the meeting would not be permitted to take place. The people, however, were determined; and, when the day came, a dozen or more great processions were wending their way from various parts of London to the Park. On their arrival, the people found the entrances to the Park closed, and guarded by police. The people were determined to hold their meeting, and to hold it in the Park. They were there in such vast numbers that, by bringing a little pressure to bear upon the stout iron railings surrounding the Park, the railings were found to be giving way. Another push, and down the railings went, prone on the ground; and then the people streamed by thousands upon thousands into the Park, held their meeting, passed their resolutions demanding reform and denouncing the government, and then, in all peaceableness, wended their way home again.

Charles Bradlaugh headed one of the divisions of that vast procession, and was one of the speakers on the occasion. He was then one of the recognized Radical political

leaders of England. We all felt, especially those of us who knew him most, that there was a fine political career before him in the English House of Commons, if he could only manage to get himself sent thither. I knew, and some others knew, that this was his one great ambition. The reform agitation of Edmund Beales was more than successful. The Reformers were very modest in their demands. The qualification for exercising the suffrage was then a ten-pound rental for towns and cities. The Reformers demanded that it be reduced to a six-pound rental. This proposal was denounced by the Tories, headed by the late Earl of Derby and Disraeli, as a proposal for "Americanizing our glorious English Constitution." Within six months after thus denouncing the proposal, the Earl of Derby, who was then Prime Minister, instigated thereto by Disraeli, and with a view of "dishing the Whigs," consented to the passing of a measure of reform which went further in the direction of lowering the suffrage qualification than even John Bright had ever thought it safe or prudent to go. Thus the railings of Hyde Park did not go down in vain.

The right of the people to assemble there for the discussion of their political and other grievances was vindicated, and the cause for which the people had marched in procession to the Park was more than successful.

Night after

This lowering of the suffrage gave Charles Bradlaugh the great opportunity of his life. When I read the news that Bradlaugh was "up" for Northampton, I was the minister of Stoke Newington Green Unitarian Chapel in London. I at once packed my gripsack and travelled down to Northampton, with the view of doing what I could to aid in sending him to Parliament. night, until the day of election came, I stood by his side, addressing meetings in the Northampton Market Square. I am prouder of having done this than I am of all other things I ever did in my life. for doing it were simple enough. I admired Charles Bradlaugh for himself, his massive ability and his quite incorruptible honesty. I was in full sympathy with his political views and aspirations. Although I had no sympathy whatever with his atheism, I did not hold him in any sort of disesteem on account of it; and I was, moreover, foolish

My reasons

enough to believe that no amount of heresy, on matters theological, ought to be allowed to disqualify a citizen from the enjoyment of the rights and the performance of the duties of citizenship. On this latter ground particularly, John Stuart Mill sent a very handsome sum toward liquidating Bradlaugh's election expenses. For myself, I was the only man in England at that time who, possessing any sort of conventional or other right to tack "Rev." on to his name, ventured to utter a public word in favor of sending Charles Bradlaugh to Parliament. The Unitarian minister of Northampton at the time sent a letter to the London Inquirer, the official Unitarian journal of that period, in which he grievously complained of the fact that, while he had been laboring to get the orthodoxies of Northampton to think well of Unitarianism, Mr. Applebee had more than undone all his work.

Events have fully justified the wisdom of giving Bradlaugh a place in the national legislative body. He did good and important work there, -work that only he could have done. When permitted to take his seat, he speedily won the regard and the esteem of all parties in the House. Even the preachers of Northampton, orthodox and others, soon ceased to oppose his election. At the last election for Northampton, three Unitarian ministers, I have been told, spoke in his behalf, and this without causing any of the hostile comment with which I was honored twenty-and-odd years ago. The world moves, and Unitarians move with it.

The first and last impression Bradlaugh made upon you was an impression of strength. As Browning would say, he "was ever a fighter." As you walked behind him in the street, by the peculiar swing of his massive shoulders he gave you the impression of a man bound for some goal, and determined, in spite of all opposition, to reach it. Yet, knowing him intimately, you soon found that beneath the strength there was a depth of sweet and gracious tenderness. He was inclined to be a little masterful at times, but always in a cause about the justice of which there could be no reasonable doubt. For myself, I had an unbounded faith in him,-in his integrity of purpose, in his fine sense of honor, in the simple uprightness of his life. I always felt that I could confide anything to his keeping, and

that all the wealth of the world, coined or uncoined, would not be sufficient to induce him to betray the trust. If he is now in that eternal world, in the existence of which he did not and could not believe, I am sure that he is already finding honorable work there. JAMES KAY APPLEBEE.

A NEW PROFESSION FOR WOMEN.

A SKETCH OF THE WORK OF THE ST. LOUIS TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES.

It was in 1883 that the St. Louis Training School for Nurses began its work in a small house on Lafayette Avenue, opposite the City Hospital. At the start high standards were established. Sixty applications for admission to the school were received during the first year. Only twenty of these applicants were received on trial, and of these twenty but nine were accepted as pupil nurses. This number was soon increased, and it became necessary to rent an adjoining dwelling in order to accommodate the In a short time the necesgrowing school. sity of more room was again evident. The houses were old and poorly built. Small rooms and dark, narrow passages gave a cheerless welcome to the tired women who came at night from a long day's work. What could be done to make the place more homelike was done; but the results were meagre. It was, after all, only a sleeping place. The pupils found little comfort in their cramped quarters, and the work of the school suffered. It was felt that a real home was indispensable, and the struggle to obtain it began. This is not the place to tell the story of this struggle. It is enough to say that the efforts of the school to raise money to carry on properly a good work met with a generous response.

Ground was secured on Dillon Street, not far from the hospital, and the William G. Eliot Home for Nurses * was built. The house is admirably planned and well constructed, and is in all respects a comfortable home. The school is open to women who have had a plain English education, and

*The history of the Mississippi Valley has been enriched by hardly another life so large and beneficent in its influence as that of Dr. William Greenleaf Eliot, the organizer of the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis and the founder of Washington University. One of the later outcomes of that noble, wise, and unselfish life is this Home for Nurses.

who have, or give promise of acquiring, that quiet refinement so necessary in a sickroom. Applications may be sent to the Superintendent of the St. Louis Training School for Nurses, 1224 Dillon Street.

Applicants should be from twenty-five to thirty-five years of age, and, preferably, of medium size and weight. A sound physique is indispensable.

On the approval of her application, the candidate is admitted to the school for two months, on probation, during which time her board and lodging are furnished free of charge. In the weeks of probation, the candidate is examined in reading, writing, simple arithmetic, and English diction. The examination is to test her ability to read aloud well, to write legibly, and to spell correctly, to take notes of lectures, and to keep simple accounts. If these tests give satisfactory results, the "probationer" becomes a pupil nurse, dons the neat uniform of blue and white gingham, the white apron and cap, and is a full member of the busy little community.

The training continues two years from the date of entrance into the school. The pupil divides the day between the bedside and the class-room. The instruction includes:

1. The dressing of blisters, burns, sores, and wounds; preparation and application of fomentations, poultices, cups, and leeches, and of minor dressings.

2. The administration of enemas, the use of the catheter, and the management of appliances for uterine troubles.

3. The management of helpless patients, making beds, changing clothing, giving baths in bed, prevention and treatment of bed-sores, and the best methods of friction to the body and extremities.

4. Bandaging, making bandages, and lining splints.

5. Care of patients' rooms; changing sheets while the patient is in bed; the best methods of supplying fresh air, and of warming rooms and hospital wards.

6. Certain emergencies, and how to treat them.

7. The preparation and serving of food to the sick.

The pupils are also taught to make accurate observations, and reports to the physician, upon the state of the secretions, ex

pectoration, pulse, skin, appetite, temperature of the body, intelligence,-as delirium or stupor,-breathing, sleep, condition of wounds, eruptions, formation of pus, effect of diet, of stimulants, and of medicines; also, the management of convalescents. Lectures are given by a staff of physicians on elementary anatomy and physiology, urinology, toxicology, and many other subjects.

For the services of the superintendent and nurses on duty in the hospital the city of St. Louis pays, each month, a sum which varies with the number of nurses employed. Out of this a monthly allowance of $10 for the first year and $12 for the second is made each pupil. This sum is allowed for dress, text-books, and other personal expenses, and is in no wise intended as wages, it being considered that the instruction given is a full equivalent for services. Board and washing are furnished without charge, and in illness all pupils have gratuitous medical attendance. The nurses have one day off duty once a month, and one-half of each Sunday. A vacation of two weeks is allowed in each year, and some time is given for daily exercise in the open air.

When the full term of two years is ended, the nurses thus trained are at liberty to choose their own field of labor, whether in hospitals or in private families.

Schools for training nurses have done much to make clear the evils of untrained nursing. Intelligent people see that the best results are to be expected only when the directions of the trusted physician are implicitly followed, and that the modern treatment of disease demands the continuous, thoughtful attention of a trained expert. The intelligent family is no longer content to trust a fight, whose loss means saddest bereavement and years of hidden pain, to the sole direction of a commander who is on the field of battle only half an hour in the twenty-four. He must have a lieutenant, an executive officer, who will see his orders carried out, who will call him to the spot if an emergency arises, and who can be trusted to act wisely in those crises where the right thing must be done

at once.

There are now, happily, many who know by experience the relief given and the confidence inspired by the presence of a trained

nurse at the bedside. But it is the doctor who can best bear witness to her usefulness. No one but a physician can appreciate the odds against recovery when the severely ill are left to the tender but awkward mercies of their own flesh and blood. It is not too much to say that the treatment of typhoid fever, of a severe pneumonia,—of a dozen other maladies,-in a private house, without a trained nurse, is a calamity. the best, it is giving the enemy a very long start.

At

Hospital training does not make nurses callous or unsympathetic. It is absurd to suppose that an untrained nurse is more a woman than a trained nurse. Far from it. The influence of a good school is all for true womanliness. Constant contact with suffering humanity does not make hard a tender heart. Tenderness, like all physical qualities, grows with the demand. It is the oil in the widow's cruse. Hospital training teaches merely that the eye must not be dim during an operation, nor the hand tremble which holds the fractured arm while the surgeon binds on the splint.

A trained nurse cannot be made in a private house. Only in a great hospital is to be found the immense number of cases necessary to secure that repetition and variety of experience which give confidence. The trained nurse is quick and helpful in the emergencies of private practice because she has repeatedly met similar emergencies in the hospital. She has been tried in the fire.

But the well-conducted school for training nurses does much more than make the hand skilful and the eye observant. The golden rule of the trained nurse is a soldierly obedience to the orders of the physician. She is taught that gossip is dishonorable, and that skeletons should be kept in closets; that she must be ready with the hand, and not with the tongue; that her calling is a noble one, and worthy of the best efforts of refined and cultivated women.

The life of a trained nurse in a great hospital is an arduous one; yet it is so full of human interest, so crowded with thinking and caring for others, that the days pass swiftly, and the momentous two years soon slip away. It is an exciting life. The early breakfast, the first sight of the great, sunny wards with their long rows of cots,

the quick glance from bed to bed, noting a vacant place where yesterday was none, the coming of the stretcher men bearing between them a new patient already bathed and clothed in the hospital uniform, the feeding of the very ill, the giving of the morning medicine, -so the day begins. It is eight o'clock and the doctor enters, going from bed to bed, questioning the nurse about the symptoms during his absence, and stopping now and again to explain some point of diagnosis or of treatment. Later come recitations, the surgical clinics, a bandaging class, or a half-hour in the autopsy-room. The afternoon is gone, directions for the night are given, and the nurse goes home.

What a beautiful home it is! Not every house has a character. This house has. It is wide and not too high.. The windows are large and clear. The eaves project. The dark red walls of pressed brick rise from a fresh, green lawn. Hospitality, comfort, neatness, and order seem inseparable from such a house. The interior is charming. How different from the hospital wards is this broad corridor with its graceful stairs, these large, bright, low-ceiled rooms! How different and how restful! This is the sitting-room, with its study table; and beyond is the well-appointed class-room. The comfortable dining-room has china for thirty guests. In it is held the Thanksgiving feast. On the upper floors are capital bedrooms.

Here we may leave the trained nurse to find in the beauty and comfort of her surroundings compensation for the toil of the day, and consider if this strenuous life of hers is worth living. Does it pay? Pecuniarily, it certainly does. A graduate of the St. Louis Training School for Nurses may confidently expect employment three hundred days in the year.

For this service she receives $2.50 to $3 a day and her board and lodging. Few women earn so much. Private nursing means contact with people of wealth and refinement,-people who appreciate the devotion of the nurse and who as a rule do what lies in their power to make her stay in their house pleasant.

But there are higher considerations than these material ones. The woman who seeks to make her life useful to others can find no better opportunity than this. It is a calling

in which the best pecuniary success is inseparable from persevering adherence to a high ideal.

A WOMAN'S OBSERVATIONS IN

GERMANY.

The military element in Germany strikes the American forcibly and unpleasantly. Forts and fortifications all down the Rhine, and on the frontiers of each petty state! Soldiers everywhere, until it seems as if all the young men of Germany must be in the army! What a tax upon the wealth of a nation to support such an army, and what a poor use to make of money and men!

After all, our boasted nineteenth century civilization has not wholly destroyed the savage element in society. The great powers, all armed to the teeth, defy one another to combat; and it is only the costliness of war and the uncertainty of the issue which prevents a great European war, and has prevented it for the last fifteen years. It will be for this more than for any other reason that there will cease to be wars: they are becoming so expensive and so destructive that even victory may ruin a nation.

Modern Germany rests upon an essentially military basis. The great railroads, the postal system, and the telegraph are all under government control, officered and managed on the same general basis as the army. In some respects this paternalism works well: accidents are extremely rare on German railroads, and, consequently, there is much greater security for life and property than on American railroads. But the American public is much better served, the American cars are much more comfortable, luggage is transported without extra expense, and transportation is much more rapid.

The rate of speed of travelling in Germany is about fifteen miles an hour. It would take about a week to make the journey between New York and Chicago at the average rate of German trains. The American could never endure this, and would prefer a little more risk with much more speed.

Everything in Germany being regulated by government, from the making of beer and bread to the management of the universities, no wonder Germany is the hotbed of socialistic theories. People accustomed to seeing government interfere in so

many things conclude that, if all things were managed, and differently managed, by government, there would be plenty and comfort for all. And, in those disposed to be rebellious under the existing order, theories of anarchy naturally spring up from irritation at the continual interference of gov

ernment.

It is astonishing how little poverty comes to the surface in German cities. Even in Vienna, where there is always great suffering among the poor, no beggars are seen on the streets. The people look comfortably fed and clad, and, with the continual drinking of beer, there seems to be no drunkenness; but the beer certainly must be of different quality from the American, and there must be something in the climatic conditions enabling people to drink it in larger quantities without apparent evil conse

quences.

The fact is, the Germans eat and drink at all hours and at all times. The German stomach must be differently constructed from the American, for this defiance of all hygienic laws produces no bad results. The German men and women and children thrive in bad air, upon unwholesome food eaten, not three times, but from five to eight times a day, and on an unlimited quantity of beer and very strong and bad coffee.

Food is much higher and poorer in quality than in America. Living is dearer in German cities than in American, if the same manner of living is adopted. Americans can and do live much more cheaply abroad than at home, because they live very differently. Dresden is one of the most desirable cities for Americans wishing to live in Germany. The beauty and healthfulness of its situation are enhanced by its broad and modern streets and beautiful buildings. The climate is very trying, but perhaps not worse than our New England coast. There is very little sunshine in winter anywhere in Ger

many.

Good apartments can be rented in Dresden for three or four hundred dollars per year; but there are none of the conveniences and comforts of American apartment houses,-no bath-rooms, no water save in the kitchen, no furnaces, and seldom gas. The sojourner abroad must be reconciled to mounting many flights of stone stairs, to cold halls, dark