an utterly impossible subject, for I am requested to give a five minute disquisition on patriotism.

To come to Boston, where has ever been said the very last word upon such a theme, and talk about patriotism! To Boston, home of all the patriots, except one or two that have come out of Ohio! Boston, in whose waters—so they tell us over in Gotham-may still be tasted the faint flavor of Revolutionary Oolong, and whose famous Cradle of Liberty still gives forth, at dead of night, unsilenced echoes from generations of patriotic leaders dead and gone? Verily, the presumption of such an attempt is appalling!

And yet, after all, perhaps I am not quite fair to those who planned the intellectual menu of your feast. For in giving us a topic-wide as the world and long as the human race-it is also true that they have given one that at this time is engaging the thought and directing the energy of American men and women as it has not for a generation. Terrible, indeed, is war-to women doubly terrible! Pity that in this era of the world, progress and civilization must needs be advanced by an agency so hateful. But, if it be that force and arms must still play their part in the world's drama, shall we not be thankful that at such a time the fires of patriotism burn more and more brightly, and in the hour of national sacrifice, men and women realize more deeply the meaning of "Our Country."

If only the fire and enthusiasm that war enkindles shall survive when the bugle and the drum are silent, sacrifice will not have been in vain; for true patriotism seeks national welfare and prosperity, not from the glories of war, but in the arts of peace. And I think if, in the presence of men, disfranchised woman may be permitted to speak upon politics, the nation's answer on the 8th of November was a gloriously patriotic response to those who have sought with silver eloquence to lead her into paths of dishonor. Devotion to the welfare of our country! It is only humanity, applied to the land and people where we live.

It is laudable-not as the demagogue teaches, that we must exalt our own land and disparage others, or that love of America must involve enmity toward the world-but true patriotism is praiseworthy only when the means by which it seeks the welfare of America are consistent also with the well-being of mankind. For the Golden Rule was, I think, meant even for the Gentiles-and the world does not move onward, except all the peoples of it move onward together, in peace and prosperity and righteousness.

Then, in this widest meaning, may we as American men and women be truly patriotic-looking for the greatness of America in the welfare of the world. And if in this spirit we devoted ourselves to the nation's service, whether in camps of war, if need be, but most of all, God grant, in endless years of peace, America will be truly great-and whether it shall devolve upon her to dwell longer within the confines of her own seas, or reaching forth, to hold the scepter of worldempire, we believe that she is the star of promise rising with the dawn of the new century.

MISS STERLING'S ADDRESS.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I must follow directly in the words of my coadjutor and superior officer, Mrs. Snow, and say that to be asked to speak on "Patriotism" before a Boston audience is much like being invited to make contribution to the fuel of Newcastle. Why? Patriotism is part and parcel of every-day atmosphere, for the breeze that was started in Massachusetts some one hundred and twenty-three years ago at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill has been blowing keenly ever since. Even the waters of Boston Harbor are tinged with the tea that was set a-steeping so many years ago, and a rumor-a rumor probably started by an envious New Yorkeravers that the first articulate utterance of a well regulated Bay State infant is "My Country, 'Tis of Thee!"

So it might seem as if the tale were already told so far as this goodly State is concerned and the revolutionary record closed. But then there were others-twelve others-twelve other colonies in the revolutionary days who had some little part in the transactions of the times. Connecticut did no mean part at Danbury and Groton, and the speaker is proud of kin who had a hand in the fray. New York gave proof at White Plains, Harlem Heights and Long Island; New Jersey counted Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth on her roll; Pennsylvania bore faithful witness at Germantown, Brandywine and Valley Forge; Virginia boasted of Yorktown; North Carolina was proud of King's Mountain, and South Carolina equally proud of Camden, and each and every colony added its chapter to the volume which recorded the evolution of a nation. So while Massachusetts then set a noble example of patriotism, as she has furnished an admirable model in many things since, still we cannot give her all the praise to the exclusion of these others.

It was a curious fact after the first struggle was won, after Great Britain had tried conclusions with us a second time, after we had become firmly established among the nations of the earth as a very young relative to be sure-but certainly as kin if not as kind-that we should have forgotten the spirit that animated our fathers, that patriotism should have flickered and burned low. Little by little we forgot what it had cost-other matters pressed for notice-money getting, the race for place and power usurped the purposes of former days until this union of States became a disunion of principles. We fell out with one another. But the shot fired at Sumter that April day in 1861 roused half the nation, at least, to a remembrance of country and flag. It is not necessary to say much of that family difficulty. Those differences if not already forgotten were wiped from memory in the charge of San Juan Hill.

Then after the Civil War we forget again until the Centennial Exhibition caused someone to discover we had ancestors, and forthwith the forefather cult was started. From this period or to its influences date

the patriotic societies-the Sons of the Revolution, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Daughters of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Colonial Dames, those who approved of Benjamin Franklin and those who did not, and all these organizations started with a specific purpose the promotion of love of country and the diffusion of patriotism.

Now, there were then and, alas, are now, some to ask of our Government, that it shall clear the path for us, that it shall not allow any obstacles to remain that it can remove, that it shall give a fair chance to American ships to carry American freights, that it shall put them on a level with the ships of the other world, that it shall protect the American citizen everywhere, under the American flag, flying from an American navy, and that it shall open the door, wherever it can to the great outpouring of the industry of America. It has been said that as the Greek carved and painted so the American invents. Let our Government have wisdom in its foreign policy, wisdom in its treatment of our merchant marine, and the genius of American invention and enterprise will do the rest. (Great applause.)

The following extract from the Surgeon General's annual report is given here because the newspapers failed to print in full what was said of the contract nurses. This subject is of special interest to our Society.

After speaking of the "Medical Officers" and the "Hospital Corps" he writes as follows on "Contract Nurses:"

"The want of a sufficient body of trained Hospital Corp men necessitated the detail of enlisted men from the regiments for hospital duty in several of the camps and the employment of trained nurses at the general hospitals. Foreseeing the necessity of a large force of the latter, I applied to Congress April 28, 1898, for authority to employ by contract as many nurses as might be required during the war, at the rate of $30.00 per month and a ration. The pay proper to be paid from the appropriation for the Medical and Hospital Department. This was promptly granted. About the same time the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution offered its services as an examining board for female nurses, and a committee, of which Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee was chairman, was designated to take charge of the work. Thereafter most of the female nurses employed were selected by this committee, with the exception of those immune to yellow fever, who were recruited in New Orleans and other Southern cities, and a few who were enrolled at Montauk Point, Long Island, and Jacksonville, Florida, by the chief surgeons at these places.

A number of patriotic societies offered to provide the hospitals with nurses, but the committee referred to answered its purpose so well that

I did not feel the need of additional assistance, and was relieved from what would otherwise have been a serious responsibility.

Over 1,700 female nurses have been employed, at first at the general hospitals and later at the field division hospitals, when it became evident that the field service purposes for which the latter had been organized would have to give place to the imperative need of caring for the many sick men coming from the regimental camps. These hospitals ceased to be ambulance hospitals and their character of fixed field hospitals was promptly recognized by assigning contract surgeons and nurses to duty with them, and providing them with articles of equipment which can not be carried in the hospital wagons of a marching command. Female nurses were not sent to these field hospitals until their original function as an essential adjunct to a command mobilized for active service became lost in the current of immediate necessities.

Many of the trained nurses were Sisters of Charity, whose services were highly appreciated by medical officers in charge, as well as by the individual sick men, who were benefited by their ministrations. Others were obtained through the kind assistance of the Red Cross Society for the Maintenance of Trained Nurses, Auxiliary No. 3, and I desire to express my high appreciation of the valuable services rendered to the Medical Department by this organization.