New efforts are to be made for imparting a stimulus
to the con- tributions for the Nightingale Fund. The City is to have its pub- lic meeting, and a special appeal is to be made to the working classes. There is an uneasy suggestion of new stimulants, which tends to confirm a whisper that the collection clods not get on as it
should with the public at large. There may be various reasons for the backwardness. One is the want of cash. Everybody is pressed just now for payment, and finds by no means a corre- sponding pressure to pay him. The Christmas season has com- bined with a season of dear bread and of war, and cash is short in the pocket. Moreover, the design is not exactly of the kind to be immediately appreciated by the public, unless it be more com- pletely explained, especially on one point.
There would be a great desire to see ample honour given to Miss Nightingale; but, they say, the Crown is the fountain of honour, and the people, who do not follow the usages of Court life with nicety, think that Miss Nightingale might be made a Baroneas, lady Companion of the Bath, or something else that would be ho- nourtible and distinguished, without calling upon the million to give her a patent of nobility.
If the question be not one of titular honour, but of benefit, then the public could make a great fund for the purpose of buying her lin estate, or annuity, or anything else that would render her days
comfortable : but her days are comfortable already, and she wants nojand for herself. A college and school for nurses form the object
of the fund,—a good thing, but one that does not command the
enthusiasm of the million. There is a difficulty in connecting the idea of conferring a permanent and gonaral benefit upon hospitals
at large, with the idea of a gift to Miss Nightingale in person. Many a man who would give his sovereign to Miss Nightingale, does not see exactly why he should send it indirectly through a
nurse to the Free Hospital or St. Thomas's. If, indeed, it were understood that this is the lady's wish,—that it affords her per- sonally the opportunity of being where she most wishes to be, in a school for extending and perpetuating the benefit which she has conferred already upon hospitals,—the public would respond to the appeal much more readily and effectually. Explanation, elucidation—these are the things most required in appeals to the middle or working class.
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