Correspondence (incoming): begging letters, M

Tears filled my eyes when I read how you had turned the covers back, for your precious Boy.

I am a mother of three children two boys and one girl I thought who but a kind and loving mother thinks and cares for our own so tenderly.

We are sufferers of the great storm of Sep. 8th lost everything and gave what few things that wer [sic] saved like betting [sic - bedding] & dresses & clothing to others that had none.

We are thankfull [sic] our lives were spared hoping the work that is for us to do, will be done as He the giver of all good intended it should.

Trusting I have taken but little of your time.

I want to be named as one of your many admirers.

Mrs. W. E. Maxson

3928 M 1/2

To Mrs Leland Stanford

San Francisco Cal

in case this letter does not reach you in N.Y.

Catholic.. District.. Nursing.. in......... San........ Francisco

Catholice District Nursing in San Francisco.

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District Nursing.

For some years District Nursing has been one of the most important factors in charitable work. Many persons have only a vague idea of what District Nursing means. Therefore it may be interesting to set forth the main features of this most praiseworthy undertaking. Modern medical science makes much of nursing in sickness. The old fashioned rule-of-thumb nurse has completely disappeared before the trained nurse. The nurse of to-day must take a scientific course; must understand the doctor's orders and methods, and must be prepared to carry them out with utmost exactness. How necessary intelligence and accuracy are in sickness can only be felt by one who has received a scientific training. Even intelligent non-professionals often imagine they know better than the doctor and pay no attention to details which in the present practice of medicine are of the highest importance. Hence, whenever it can be done at all, the medical practitioner in serious cases requires the services of a trained nurse.

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The trained nurse, however, like all skilled help, costs money, so much money, indeed, that to employ one is beyond the hopes of the poor. Here it is that charity intervenes. Since the earliest times one of the great works of mercy has been to visit the sick. We must, however, visit the sick after the manner of our times. To-day the visitation of the sick not only implies the friendly call, the consoling word, the religious influence, but it especially implies the use of those natural means of healing or alleviating sickness which science has put in our hands. Hence the charities that operate in large cities have almost universally now added a district nurse or several district nurses to their staff. The District Nurse is then a trained nurse at the free service of the poor. She goes from house to house to perform for them the same services that any trained nurse performs in the sick rooms of the well-to-do. In some places her work is simply to carry out the doctor's orders in regard to treatment — important orders which in the case of her clients are so often disregarded as of small weight. The poor usually lack the appliances necessary for proper nursing. The nurse therefore carries with her everything necessary. At her headquarters she keeps a "Loan Closet" whence she must often furnish fresh linen and clothing; and at times she must procure proper food and delicacies as well as medicine. In many cases, especially in those which are chronic, the patient suffers chiefly from the ignorance, indolence of alcoholic habits of the family. Here the chief duty of the nurse is to keep the

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patient clean and comfortable, as well as to prevent bed sores. Not the least among the benefits conferred by the District Nurse is the instruction of the family in the elements of hygiene as well as in the elements of nursing. There is hardly a family in which some of the younger members is not quite capable of undertaking this work, while the number of families in which there is a profound ignorance of even the most elementary principles of hygiene and nursing is much larger than one would suppose. How to keep the house clean; how to ventiliate it effectively, and how to prepare proper food in the proper manner — these things are taught as soon as possible by the District Nurse in the families she visits. The District Nurse has opportunities for doing missionary work in the way of inducing people to keep clean and to live regularly. She explores the premises and removes unsanitary conditons, calling on the Health Officers if necessary. She learns the habits and the history of the family and is sometimes able to help them to better ways of living by bringing them to the attention of a Society or Church or of the "Friendly Visitor." Indeed, she is herself their best friendly visitor. But all cases are not in need of moral or hygienic regeneration, as all the poor are not careless or slovenly. The most pitiful cases the District Nurse meets are where the high mind and the industrious fingers have even in the most galling poverty kept that cleanliness, self-respect and refinement usually associated with economic comfort. In such cases there are times when special treatment is demanded that can be given

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only by a skilled person, and the trained nurse is welcomed by the anxious relatives who are unable to pay for such assistance. This is especially true in surgical cases needing aseptic dressing, in fevers needing ice-packs, frequent visiting, and records of temperature, and in the critical times of all acute cases. In the majority of cases to which the visiting nurse is called there is no one able to give the sick person any treatment at all. It is these cases that make her a necessity. She can spend an hour or two at the house, make the invalid comfortable for the day, fill any orders left by the physicians and prepare or superintend the preparation of food. Somebody from among the neighbours can wait upon the patient during the nurse's absence.

In this way the District Nurse can take care of the sick poor. But when there is absolute need of constant watching, the patient is sent to a hospital.

Sometimes, if the funds permit it, a care-taker is employed to watch the case continually under the superintendence of the nurse. This is more necessary where the asoociation that employs the nurses limits their hours from 8 or 9 A.M to 5 P.M.

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Catholic District Nursing.

The necessity for Catholic District Nursing is evident from the nature of the work. A very large proportion of the poor in cities is Catholic. The Catholic District Nurse can keep her patients within the influence of the Church. The children are now often gathered into the so-called non sectarian settlements through the agency of some District Nurse. A Catholic can turn them readily to the Church societies.

From the real good done by the non-Catholic District Nurses and the great kindness shown by them, it is not infrequent to find among the Catholic poor the idea that one church is as good as another. Though they themselves may not be willing to die without the Sacraments, the children brought up in neutral surroundings are not grounded in the same faith. It would be wrong to say that this state of affairs is general; but it occurs often enough to cause Catholics to think that they themselves should not refuse the means of gaining souls provided for District Nursing.

A nurse has greater opportunites among the poor than anyone else. She can go where no other person can find an excuse to enter. Sickness comes to every house sooner or later. The nurse sees the family as it is, not when on dress parade at the expectation of other visitors. She becomes part of the household and does not make a formal call in the best room with all the members on their best behaviour.

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Catholic District Nursing in San Francisco.

District Nursing has been carried out in San Francisco for some time and with much success by several non-Catholic societies. About a year ago