Hospital life for those well enough to enjoy it was far from dull. Witness
the white-clad nurse with her prim apron and hoopskirt on the right of the
photograph, and the band on the left. Most hospitals had excellent
libraries and a full supply of current newspapers and periodicals, usually
presented gratuitously. Many of the larger ones organized and maintained
bands for the amusement of the patients; they also provided lectures,
concerts, and theatrical and other entertainments. A hospital near the
front receiving cases of the most severe character might have a death-rate
as high as twelve per cent., while those farther in the rear might have a
very much lower death-rate of but six, four, or even two per cent. The
portrait accompanying shows Louisa M. Alcott, the author of "Little Men,"
"Little Women," "An Old Fashioned Girl," and the other books that have
endeared her to millions of readers. Her diary of 1862 contains this
characteristic note: "November. Thirty years old. Decided to go to
Washington as a nurse if I could find a place. Help needed, and I love
nursing and must let out my pent-up energy in some new way." She had not
yet attained fame as a writer, but it was during this time that she wrote
for a newspaper the letters afterwards collected as "Hospital Sketches."
It is due to the courtesy of Messrs. Little, Brown & Company of Boston
that the war-time portrait is here reproduced.
[Illustration: LOUISA M. ALCOTT, THE AUTHOR OF "LITTLE WOMEN," AS A NURSE
IN 1862]
[Illustration: SINKING OF THE ALABAMA BY THE KEARSARGE.
_Painted by Robert Hopkin._
_Copyright, 1901, by Perrien-Keydel Co.,
Detroit, Mich., U. S. A._]