that the physician should have an assistant fitted to carry out his
views skillfully as well as faithfully; and the trained nurse was called
into being. She, as well as the physician, must have clinical education.
How strongly this need was felt is shown by the almost simultaneous
establishment of training schools in various countries. To Miss
Nightingale is due the impulse which started the general movement.
The New England Hospital claims priority in this country, in announcing
the training of nurses as an important part of its work in 1863; but its
school was not fully established until the return of Dr. Dimock from
Europe in 1869, who placed it on its present foundation. The methods
pursued in the various training schools now in operation are very
similar, showing that the work has been carefully considered and is
being satisfactorily done. Similar difficulties presented themselves to
those found in all industrial education, of which one of the greatest
was the impossibility of finding teachers trained for the work. Such
women as I have described might be very valuable nurses, but they had
not acquired their knowledge systematically, and were not skilled in the
art of teaching. The doctor knows what qualities are wanted in a nurse,
but cannot always give the instruction and discipline which will secure
their development. The women physicians had some advantage in this
respect. The very general employment of women as teachers has helped to
supply this need. A young woman who had a natural aptitude for nursing,
and the high moral qualities necessary for a superintendent of nurses,
and who also had the experience of a few years of teaching, became well
adapted to the new profession, and after a few years the training
schools began to furnish graduates who could carry on the work as
teachers.
Another difficulty was in the amount of time required for thorough
training. The pupils seldom had resources to support them during one or
two years of training. It is quite necessary, therefore, to pay the
pupils a small salary, after their first month of probation, in addition
to their board and lodging. This is sufficient to provide for their
inexpensive clothing and all other necessary expenses, so that the
graduate leaves the school without arrears of debt and able to look
cheerfully forward to the exercise of her profession. A great step has
been gained for women in thus raising this humble labor to the dignity
of a profession. The woman who has given one or two years to preparation
for her life-work, looks upon it very differently from one who has taken
it up only on the pressure of necessity and has to learn her business in
the doing of it. She feels a conscious strength in her position, which
ought to stimulate her intellectual powers and elevate her moral
character. It is true that the school gives her only the preparation for
her work, and she must get the best part of her education from life, but
she goes to her task with tools well sharpened for use, and a trained
power of observation which should make every experience doubly valuable.
Let her not lose in the pride of her acquisition the lovelier spirit and
conscientious fidelity which made the old nurse the useful and trusted
friend of the family.
The well-trained nurse is like another eye and hand to the physician.
She notes with reliable accuracy the changes of pulse and temperature,
keeps the record of nourishment and sleep, watches every vital function
with a practiced eye, and thus can give to the medical attendant a
photographic picture of all that has occurred since his last visit. She
carries out his directions intelligently, and thus enables him to
calculate on strict application of the means he wishes to use.
In 1886, by the report of the Bureau of Education, there were 29
training schools for nurses, 139 instructors, 837 pupils, 349 graduates,
in twelve different States and the District of Columbia. Some of these
schools are connected with public hospitals, others with private
charities. In a few cases the schools are independent of any
institution, but the pupils are employed both in hospitals and private
families.
The rules of admission are very similar in all schools. The minimum age
ranges from twenty to twenty-five, the maximum from thirty-five to
forty. As a general rule, twenty-five is a good age at which to enter a
training school; the constitution should be well established, the
character formed, and some experience of life gained before entering
upon this difficult work. Good education and character are required, and
in most cases certificates of good health and ability for the work.
The wages paid to pupils vary from seven dollars per month the first
year, and twelve dollars the second year, to sixteen dollars per month
for the highest grade of nurse, in a New York hospital. The time
required for study ranges from one to two years, the last being the rule
in a majority of cases. The Philadelphia school, which demands only one
year, has an additional course of one year to train superintendents.
The expense of supplying the nursing of the hospital by a training
school, in the only case known to me, is found to be about the same as
by the old method of hired nurses. Trained nurses receive good pay in
comparison with that of the ordinary employments of women, ranging from
ten dollars per week upward to twenty, thirty, or even forty dollars,
according to the difficulty of the case. While these prices are by no
means higher than should reward a nurse who has given years to
preparation for her profession and who works faithfully in it, they are
yet burdensome to many families. A surgeon will sometimes refuse to take
a case unless he can have the skilled nursing that he believes essential
to success, and yet the pay of the nurse will take all the earnings of
the father, on which the family rely for support.
But, on the other hand, the saving of expense in the number of
physician’s visits is to be considered, since he can trust the report of
the nurse, and so the patient is better cared for, without additional
expense. During the last months of study, the nurse’s work is among the
poor, under the direction of the dispensary physicians. Not only are the
patients much helped by this arrangement, but the experience is of great
value to the nurses, as they see a greater variety of work than they can
in a hospital and under differing conditions of life, and are thus
fitted to meet what comes to them in their future practice.
Societies are also formed by women for supplying nurses to the sick
poor. Such associations employ a number of trained nurses in attendance
on patients who are unable to pay full price. They work both in
connection with dispensaries and independently of them. Usually a nurse
makes two visits a day to her patient, doing for her whatever members of
the household cannot do, but she is always required to instruct some of
the family, if possible, in the simple methods of care of the sick. She
also uses her opportunity to enforce common rules of hygiene and
sanitary care on all the household. In this way it is hoped that much
may be done for the prevention of disease as well at its cure.
The “Visiting Nurse Society, of Philadelphia,” may serve for a good
model of such associations.[200]
While it has been impossible in limited space to do full justice to all
the good work now doing in the training of nurses, there are yet two
directions, of which I wish to speak, in which it should be extended. It
is desirable that women should be especially trained for the care of
insane patients, who need peculiar care both in institutions and in
private life. The extreme watchfulness and the power of control required
for this service seem to demand a special training, which would be
unnecessary or even prejudicial in ordinary nursing. This subject is
already engaging the attention of those having the care of the insane,
and I doubt not they will find means to carry out their ideas.
Again, I believe that nursing would afford a wide field of usefulness
for the colored women of our Southern States. Their qualities of
patience, sweetness, and affection are well adapted to this profession,
and when to these is added the intellectual education which is now
within the reach of many of them, there is no reason why, with good
training, they should not do excellent service. Many of the best nurses
in our Southern cities are of this class. The University of Atlanta,
Ga., has made some attempt to introduce nursing into its practical
education, and I hope other experiments will soon be made. So far as I
know the New England Hospital is the only one that admits colored pupils
to its training school. Here this measure has been entirely successful,
and no disagreeable feeling has arisen on the part of patients or any
one else. The colored students have maintained a fair average in their
standing, and some have been superior. A good education is the most
important prerequisite to the entrance of colored women into this field.
While my fruitful theme is by no means exhausted, I wish in conclusion
to add one thought, viz., that however decidedly these hospitals of
which I have spoken owe their existence to women, either as originating
or endowing them, in every case within my knowledge there is a union of
both sexes in the management of the institution. The arrangements are
very various; in some cases the managers are all women and the
physicians are men; in others all the physicians but the consulting
staff are women, while the board of management is divided between the
sexes; in others we find the women have full charge, with an advisory
board of men. This proves that women have been more anxious to secure
good management than to establish their own claims. It is an earnest of
future improvement when both sexes shall work together in all
departments of life, each bringing her or his peculiar talents to the
work, either as individuals or as representing a part of the community.
XIV.
CARE OF THE CRIMINAL.
BY
SUSAN HAMMOND BARNEY.
When Elizabeth Fry, in 1815, rapped at the prison doors in England, she
not only summoned the turnkey, but sounded a call to women in other
lands to enter upon a most Christlike mission. The reports of her work
in Great Britain and on the Continent, published at intervals during
several succeeding years, extracts of which found their way into
American papers, not only awakened admiration for the fearless courage
manifested in the self-denying efforts, but marvel at what she was able
to accomplish, and, from the reading, a few women in our land arose to
ask the question, “Lord, what will _Thou_ have me to do?” and in the
answer found new light upon the words, “I was in prison and ye visited
me.”
There was no talk about “going to work,” but, from their knees, two or
three women in New York, as early as 1830, began in the quietest manner
possible to visit the district lock-ups and prisons, making careful
inquiries concerning these places and their inmates, thus gathering up
food for thought, which sent them back to their prayers with something
definite to ask for.
In 1834 these women, with a few others, organized “The New York Moral
Reform Society,” with Margaret Prior for their first missionary, and
they made systematic prison visitation a part of their regular work.
From their own records, “Our Golden Jubilee, 1834–1884,” we quote: “Our
prisons were at that time in a sadly demoralized condition,—as our
missionaries went through these public institutions, gathering facts
relative to the spiritual condition of the inmates, they saw an urgent
necessity of reform and gave themselves no rest till it was
accomplished.” To their memorials, petitions, and personal appeals, the
State Legislature at length responded, and several reforms were
inaugurated, among them better arrangements for separation of the sexes
and the placing of matrons over the female departments. At this time
Mrs. Dora Foster was given charge of women at the Tombs, then used as a
police district lock-up, and she proved of such exceptionable character
and qualifications as to continue in favor and in office more than forty
years. A great change in the moral atmosphere of the place was effected
by her discreet management, and many and sore evils were prevented.
SPREAD OF WORK.
Reports of the work were taken to other cities, and in 1839 the society
became national in name, with vice-presidents in seventeen different
States, and in the next few years, particularly in New York,
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, we find the
women prominent in anti-slavery and other reforms, giving special
thought and personal efforts, toward the amelioration of the condition
of persons confined in our various institutions. Thus quietly was the
leaven working in many places, hindered, hampered, and limited by
prejudice against woman’s work, and the fear of their seeing too much,
if once admitted and allowed the privilege of inspection.
It is recorded, that on one of the ladies being denied the opportunity
which she sought of seeing and ministering to a sick _female_ prisoner,
while a minister was allowed to go in and on his asking the reason of
it, “Why,” said the official, “it wouldn’t have done, she’s too sharp;
_she_ wouldn’t have come in here and just prayed and gone away about her
business as you have; _she’d wanted to know the cause_”; and another
time when those in authority had been solicited by a public-spirited
gentleman to grant permission for women to go in and out these places on
their errands of mercy, they explained their refusal by saying, “That
until the State was ready to expend money enough for several changes, it
would only be inviting trouble to have such women spying round and
seeing everything, as they were sure to do.”
NEW YORK PRISON ASSOCIATION.
On November 23, 1844, a company of gentlemen gathered in a private
parlor in New York City “to take into consideration the destitute
condition of discharged convicts”; then a circular was issued, calling
for a public meeting on December 6, at which time the following
resolution, among others, was offered by Isaac T. Hopper: “_Resolved_,
That in the foundation of such a society (the New York Prison
Association), it would be proper to have a female department to be
especially regardful of the interests and welfare of prisoners of that
sex.”
Public meetings were held, and in June, 1845, a house was taken, two
matrons placed in charge, and a committee of ladies organized to
superintend and control its operations. A sewing department and school
were established, and at a later day a laundry.
In 1854 the women dissolved all connection with the New York Prison
Association, and were incorporated as “The Women’s Prison Association
and Home.” Up to this time the Home had averaged about 150 inmates per
year. We quote from one of their reports: “We will not dwell upon the
many years of up-hill work through every possible discouragement, but
proceed at once to the results of a pre-determined endeavor to take by
the hand the unfortunate of our sex and lead them to a better life,
where by patient industry they might earn an honest livelihood.”
In 1859 the association adopted as a distinctive name for its house
department that of “The Isaac T. Hopper Home.” The work has gone
steadily on, the women of the association having been to the front in
every effort for prevention of crime, and reform of the criminal girls
and women, and in their forty-fourth annual report, we find, “During the
year 119 women have been sent to service in families in the State, and
31 out of the State; 4 were returned to friends.” Only those who can
read between the lines can understand all that these items mean. To
those who talk glibly about “abandoned women” and the “utter
hopelessness of trying to save them,” the subjoined lines from the same
report might seem “mere sentiment,” but to those with clearer vision it
is the secret of their success. “We believe that woman, in her deepest
degradation, holds something sacred, something undefiled; and, like the
diamond in the dark, retains some quenchless gleams of the celestial
light.”
The prison committee, through its chairman, gave in 1887 an exhaustive
report upon the condition of prisons and station houses, and in 1888,
through their prison visitor, a female M.D., a careful report, both of
which contain items which are strange reading for nineteenth century
civilization and progress.
PERSONAL WORK.
In the autumn of 1844, Margaret Fuller Ossoli accepted a position on the
New York _Tribune_, and became an inmate of the Greeley mansion. The
prison on Blackwell’s Island was on the opposite side of the river, at a
distance easily reached by boat, and Sing Sing was not far off. Margaret
was to “write up” these places, and gladly took the first opportunity to
visit them. Her biographer says: “She had consorted hitherto with the
_élite_ of her sex, she now made acquaintance with the outcasts to whom
the elements of womanhood are scarcely recognizable. For both she had
one gospel, that of high hope and divine love. She seemed to have found
herself as much at home in the office of encouraging the fallen as she
had been, when it was her duty to arouse the best spirit in women
sheltered from the knowledge and experience of evil by every favoring
circumstance.” She herself said of a meeting where she addressed the
female prisoners, “All passed, indeed, as in one of my Boston classes.”
This was after Mrs. Farnum had been appointed matron, a woman of
uncommon character and ability, and the women already showed the results
of her intelligent and kindly treatment. Through the letters published
in the _Tribune_, on “Prison Discipline,” “Appeal for an Asylum for
Discharged Female Prisoners,” “Capital Punishment,” and others, public
attention and interest were awakened, and Mr. Greeley says, “I doubt
that our various reformatory institutions had ever before received such
wise and discriminating commendation to the favor of the rich as they
did from Margaret’s pen during her connection with us.”
Dorothea Dix, of blessed memory, whose specialty seemed the caring for
the insane, gave much thought and gracious ministry to those in bonds;
and many were indebted to her personal efforts in their behalf, both
while in prison and in the trying time of their release. She was also
fearless in lifting up her voice against abuses, and in favor of needed
reforms. She was so persistent in reiterating her protests, that
attention had to be given, and her demands secured changes which are
thankfully remembered.
In Rhode Island, as early as 1830, a young and gifted woman, whose heart
had been stirred by accounts given by her father, a prominent lawyer,
began to visit the institutions of the State; and through a long and
eventful life has continued her ministrations. Even now, in her
ninety-first year, she has not entirely laid down her work. By voice and
pen she has appealed stoutly against wrongs and abuses, and while she
has been the spiritual mother of numberless men and women, she has not
neglected the financial aid so important to those who emerge from prison
life. She was the originator of the “Rhode Island Prisoners’ Aid
Association,” and the founder of the “Temporary Industrial Home” for
released female prisoners, which was opened in 1880, and bears her name,
“The Sophia Little Home.”
Among the special workers should be named Miss Linda Gilbert of New
York, who has devoted much time to prison work, and in fifteen years
has procured employment for over six thousand ex-convicts; six hundred
of the better class of these she has by her own individual aid
established in business in a small way, and in speaking of the results
of her ventures in thus assisting them, she says, “I am happy to state
that not ten per cent. of the number thus aided have turned out
unsatisfactorily.” She has also presented twenty-two libraries to
prisons in six different States, and among other projects which she
hopes to accomplish is the establishing of a national industrial home
for ex-convicts, where various branches of labor can be taught and the
inmates put in the way of becoming self-supporting. When a little girl
of only eight or nine years, she used to visit the prison nearest her
home and take some little gift, if only a few flowers, to cheer the
prisoners, who learned to look upon her visits to their dark abode as
they would a stray sunbeam from heaven.
Elizabeth Comstock, of Michigan, upon whose head in childhood Elizabeth
Fry placed her hand as she said the kindly words, “Remember what I tell
thee, dear Elizabeth; to be Christ’s messenger to those who know him
not, that is the happiest life,” has so well carried out her avowed
purpose, “To bear our Father’s message of love and mercy to the largest
household on earth, the household of affliction,” that in thirty years,
mid duties urgent and varied, she has visited over 120,000 prisoners,
awakening hope and giving direction to many lives.
A long list of other names might be added, but our space is otherwise
needed.
REFORMATORY PRISONS FOR WOMEN.
In the year of 1873 startling revelations concerning immoralities
connected with the Indiana Southern Prison led to the immediate
occupancy of the buildings in Indianapolis, which had been under way for
two years and which were to be known as “The Reformatory Prison for
Women and Girls.” The institution was officered entirely by women, with
Mrs. Sarah J. Smith, one of its chief founders, for Superintendent. The
project was looked upon as a doubtful experiment, and the speedy
relinquishment of the idea prophesied. The board of managers consisted
at first of three gentlemen and two lady visitors. In 1887 Governor
Williams approved an act of the Legislature by which the general
supervision and government were vested in a board of women managers.
This was, at that time, and we believe still is, the only governmental
prison known, either in the United States or in Europe, under the entire
management of women.
The safe transfer of the women prisoners, seventeen in number, under the
charge of warden, chaplain, and matron of the Jeffersonville prison, was
considered a great event, “as two were dangerous and others below hope.”
The present Superintendent says: “We have no weapons of defense, not a
gun or pistol about the premises. Kind words and gentleness of manner
are almost sure to win. We have eleven lady officers, women of
refinement and Christian character, lending every thought to the
uplifting of their sex.” The financial showing in the seventeenth annual
report reflects great credit upon the management, while the large
percentage claimed as “permanently reformed,” attests to the
thoroughness of work and wisdom of methods.
In 1870 a number of influential ladies of Eastern Massachusetts—among
whom was Mrs. E. C. Johnson, the present Superintendent of the
reformatory—petitioned the Legislature for a separate institution for
the reformation of female prisoners, but it was not until the fall of
1874 that ground was broken at Sherborn for the erection of the
buildings. In September, 1877, these were occupied, and the work has
been eminently successful from the start. The system of grading adopted
in 1881 has proved very satisfactory, and over two hundred and thirty
inmates, ranging from fifteen to seventy-five years of age, find in it
an incentive to order and decorum. The aim is to prepare them, if found
trustworthy, to do good work as servants, and this is so far a success
that the demand is greater than the supply.
No one familiar with the old régime in connection with women prisoners
but would hail with thankfulness the improvements shown under the
present administration. Said an English critic after a visit: “I
remarked, ‘These people are almost of a hopeless type’; the reply came
quickly, ‘_Hopeless_ is not a permitted word here, we hope for all.’ I
came away glad to have seen such an experiment, hopeful for its success,
and confident that women had undertaken for women a beneficent work.”
Women in other States are agitating the question of separate prisons for
women, and in several feel assured of success in the near future.