Rangitikei Advocate. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 9017, 3 December 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

WE hoar a great deal about Socialism, says au English journal, at the present day, "both in tnis and in other countries but tho more we hear the more difficult does it become to form any clear idea of what Socialism means. We have eloquent exponents of tho Socialist idea who paint wonderful pictures of what the world would,.bo if their conceptions were realised. But their lucubrations are such stuff as dreams are made of, and offer no chain of causation that can load the waking mind anywhere near their shining conolu sions. When we turn to their practice we aro even more hopelessly puzzled, since we find them ill the conduct of their own affairs just as keenly individualistic as the rest of mankind. Buddha preached a gospel of self-abnegation which few of us can accept in its completeness. But he at least gave a practical illustration by divesting himself of the rank and wealth which were his by birth. Other groat reformors have iu. the same way dared to treat their beliefs as vital.things to bo acted upon hero and now, and have acted upon them for their own part without regard to consequences, and ■without waiting until the world was ready to make things easy for them by universal acceptance of their principles. Whore ate tho practical Socialists? Where arc the men who, boiurj abb to command tho good thin■'•■'■. of this life, acquire thoiu in t!u- ; sweat of their brow or by the toil of their brain, only in order to givo au example of that sublime usefulness which their theories demand from the entire community? Benevolent and liberal some of them may be, but the. widest benevolence and tho most lavish liberality are equally to be found entirely dissociated from Socialism. Something more than the exercise of ordinary human virtues is needed to enable the world to understand, and to compel the world to do homage to, a theory of society which demands its complete reconstruction upon hitherto untried lines. Some demonstration of this kind is all the more urgently required because, alongside of the excellent persons who give us fascinating though unsubstantial pictures of a Socialist paradise, there are. other persons, also calling themselves Socialists, whose ideals are those of simple anarchy, and whoso practice conforms thereto as far as is possible without seriously engaging the attention of tho police. Winch are tho true Socialists—tho dreamers of beautiful dreams which do not affect practice, or-tho preachers of destructive theories which bring forth the immedatie fruits of violence and dishonesty?

AMONG the women whoso names are written not only on the scroll of fame but als v o in the hearts of their contemporaries none takes a higher p!::'••} than Florence Nightingale, ami the news that the King has conferred on her the Order of Merit will have been wolcomed all the work! over. The deeds which 'made Florence Nightingale famous have not been forgotten, but a generation has passed away since her great work was done, and therefore it may not be unfitting to give a few notes describing why, r.O years ago, her name became a household word. Born in 1820, Florence Nightingale carlv showed a taste for nursing. As "a child she loved to nurse and bandage her dolls, and her first season in London after her presentation, instead of being devoted to social pleasures, was spent in an examination of tho working of hospitals and other charitable institutions. England was then sadly behindhand in matters of nursing and sanitation, and therefore Miss Nightingale went for training to Germany and to Paris. In 185-1 the country was stirred to its depths by the report of the sufferings of the sick and wounded in tho Crimea. There was an utter absence of the prepaiations necessary for receiving the sick and wounded of a large army, aud the hospital at Scutari was in a deplorable state. A Patriotic Fund was set on foot, and Miss Nightingale, with a body of hospital and volunteer nurses, was sent out to the Crimea. The story of her labours at Scutari is one of the brightest pages in British annals. She gave herself body and soul to tho work. She would stand for 20 hours at a stretch to see tho wounded accommodated. She took her place in the operating room to hearten the sufferers by her presence and sympathy, and made her nightly rounds of the wards, lamp in hand, stopping hero and there to say a kindly word to some patient. She evolved order out of chaos, and the death rate in the hospitals, which soon contained 10,000 men, was reduced by her care from 42 per cent, to '2 per cent. She was stricken down by fever, but refused to leave her post till the British evacuated Scutari in July, 185 G. The enthusiasm aroused in England by her labours was indescribable." A man-of-war _was ordered to bring her homo, and l-ion-don prepared to givo hor a triumphant reception; but she returned quietly in a ;French ' ship, crossed to England, and escaped to her country home before the news of her arrival leaked out. Her health was permanently affected by her terrible experiences, but the quiet life she led was full of usefulness. With tho £50,000 raised in recognition of her services she founded the Nightingale Home for j training nurses, and through the whole of her long life she has been I ever ready to assist in every movement for 'irtproviug the quality of the nursing proviied in the army aud elsowhere. The soldiers, statesmen, artists, and men of science who are decorated with the Ordor of Merit will feel honoured by having Florence Nightingale added to their number, and tho public will warmly approve the recognition by His Majesty of the unselfish and devoted labours of the heroine of the Crimea.