CHAPTER IV.

OTHER FEATURES OF THE WOMAN'S BUILDING.

Illustrated English Hospital Methods— Costumes of the Nurses Displayed to Advantage -Even the
Demonstration of Intense Suffering Proves of Great Interest— Surgical Instruments Used by
Nurses— Opal Glasses Used for Measuring Medicines— Display of Infants' Hygienic Clothing-
Models of Nurses— The Dainty Dietary Section— Gowns and Caps of the Sisters of St. Thomas
—Egyptian and Arabian Nurses in Nursing and Holiday Attire— Miss Marsden's Model Siberian
Leper Village— What a Denver Woman Would Do Illustrated— Work of Navajoe Indian Women
— Work of East Indian Women — Rare Specimens of Needlework — Mrs. Rogers' Culinary Lectures
and Examples in Cooking.

O room in the Woman's Building is attracting more
attention than that in which the British nursery exhibit
is displayed. This is under the control of the British
royal commission, under the presidency of Mrs. Bedford
Fenwick, who is herself a practical and professional
nurse. The exhibit is in charge of Mrs. Bond, at one
time one of Her Majesty's nurses. Mrs. Bond has, for
noble service rendered in her profession, been the
recipient of four medals, noticeably that of the Royal
Red Cross, conferred by Queen Victoria. The exhibit
is divided into sections and is placed in large glass cas^s against
the walls. The first section is devoted to specimens of all sorts
of ligatures and bandages used in binding wounds and in hospital service. The
bandages are of all materials, from gauze to oil silk, and are in infinite variety.
A model of a rack for holding bandages is in this collection. Below are the sur-
gical instruments used bv nurses in their profession, including everything from a
cambric needle to syringes and cases of scissors. Every sort of thermometer from
the wall thermometer to that used for testing children's food is here. Particularly
interesting are glasses for measuring medicine, made of opal glass. These are in-
tended for use in a dim light and are a great protection. This section also con-
tains a set of crockery to be used in typhoid cases, consisting of all the parapher-
nalia of the sick room. Each piece is marked typhoid and the use of it is considered
necessary in order to avoid contagion.

The second section is devoted to hygienic clothing designed by Miss Franks,
of London, the different articles being such as are worn by British professional
nurses and by them recommended to their patients. Of course all articles displayed
in this section are for underwear, and consist of flannel undergarments, ventilated
corsets for summer wear and knit ones for winter, stockings and the hygienic shoe

1 88 HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

invented by Mrs. Fenwick. This shoe is adapted for the sick room and is modeled
on the human foot. It is well ventilated, has steel springs over the instep and a
rubber heel, rendering it perfectly noiseless. The Eureka stocking clipper attracts
the attention of most women, promising as it does relief from the uncomfortable
garter. The clipper is so adjusted as to bear on no vein, and thus perfect comfort
and perfect freedom are secured. Infants' hygienic clothing is also displayed, and
here the articles are complete throughout, from the tiny inner band to the
outside robe.

The next section is devoted to splints, padded in various materials, and to
different baskets and bags used by nurses. The first to attract attention is Mrs.
Fenwick's ward basket, which is stocked with everything in daily use by nurses.
and the wonder is how so much can be packed in so small a space. Nothing is
lacking. There is the boxwood powder box, the bottle for rectified spirits incased
in boxwood, brush, comb, nail brush, tooth brush, whisk broom and duster. The
bag used by the Queen Victoria jubilee nurses in their work among the poor is also
on exhibition and is, like the ward basket, very complete in appointments, contain-
ing nearly one hundred articles. This is of oil silk, but instead of toilet articles,
it contains necessary articles for the sick, antiseptics, etc.

A pitiful section is that in which doll models are use to depict children in all
stages of suffering. Here a maternity nurse in pure white holds in her motherly
arms an infant in long robes. On a steel tent bedstead lies a little one who has
undergone the operation of tracheotomy. Beside the bed stands the steel steamer
which furnishes the warm air she breathes through the tube in her throat. On
another bed is a little girl under three years of age slung for fracture of femur, for
vertical extension. Special clothing incases the little limbs and flannel covers the
chest. There is, too, the model of a child suffering with hip disease, limbs extended
by means of the Bryant splint, and the same child convalescent and lying on a flat
couch, clothed in flannel. Another little one in long, woolen garments is in the arms
of the nurse, all ready for an operation.

Another exhibit which appeals strongly to the heart of the philanthropist is
the model of Kate Marsden's Siberian leper village. Miss Marsden is a profes-
sional nurse of the order of the Red Cross, an English girl whose heart was moved
with pity for the sufferings of the lepers in the lonely depths of the forests of
Siberia. Of her own accord she started on the mission which has become her life-
work, and no more thrilling account of adventures, whether by land or sea, can be
found than the story of her heroic search for those who since time was have been
accursed. She traveled 7,000 miles, 2,000 of them on horseback. Even after she
reached her journey's end her search for the unfortunates was long and tedious,
but at last she found them, in the heart of the forest, living in rude mud huts, in
the deepest degradation and despair. Her appeals for help touched the heart of
her queen, Victoria, and reached the ears of the Empress of Russia. They are
rendering her assistance. In Russia and Siberia she raised money enough to erect
temporary habitations for the lepers, and she is now in America for the purpose of
raising more money with which to complete her plans. She is at present in

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR. 189

Chicago, and can almost any time be found in her section. The exhibit at the
Fair consists of photographs and autograph letters, and a plan, of the village, or
rather leper station, which stands in the northeast portion of Siberia, in the
province of Takulsh. There are two immense hospital buildings for the use of
those utterly incapacitated for work, surrounded by a village of smaller houses,
where leper families can live as happily as it is possible for those so affected to do.
The village itself is located on a river, and back of it is a lake. The whole — as
well as the small huts in which the wretched people lived when found — is faithfully
reproduced in the model.

The women of Colorado make three interesting exhibits. The first is the
model of the house designed by Mrs. Coleman Stuckert of Denver for co-operative
housekeeping. For fifteen years Mrs. Stuckert has been working on this plan as a
solution of the servant girl problem. Her design provides for forty-four homes,
which will have from four to twelve rooms each, and will be entirely separate from
one another by sound-proof walls. They are to cover one block in Denver. The
houses will be occupied by the stockholders and no one will have a kitchen. But
in the inclosure formed by the houses will be a large common kitchen and a com-
mon dining-room, with thirty-four tables, each seating six persons. A common
laundry, a boiler and engine-room, and an electric-light plant are provided. The
families who occupy the homes in this community are to employ a competent
steward and buy their provisions in common at wholesale prices. First-class cooks
will be employed and meals will be served either in public dining-rooms or in
private apartments. These houses will be of marble, and as far as possible fire-
proof. The model, which is on exhibition, is made of plaster of paris.

A thousand specimens of Colorado wild flowers, scientifically arranged by
Miss Lanning, represent the beauty of the State's flora.

Many interesting Indian collections have been secured from the Navajo
Indians, who live on the reservation in the southern part of Colorado. The alcove
in the southwest stair landing has been ornamented with the blankets woven by
these Indian women. Two Indian women from the Navajo tribe weave blankets
in this booth. The blankets are of bright reds and of different designs. Indian
shields and drums, made of decorated skins, jewelry, beaded work, belts, bows and
arrows, and basket work are shown in the exhibit. A bust of the Indian Chief
Ignacio of the Southern Utes, carved from sandstone by Miss Nichols of Denver,
is placed at the entrance of the booth. A pair of locked antlers hang just over the
entrance. These were loaned by Mrs. E. B. Harper of Durango. The arrangement
of the exhibit has been directed by Miss Laura B. Marsh of Denver, who has suc-
ceeded in bringing into prominence the work of the Indians.

The exhibit in the British section is very interesting, especially the loan col-
lection of articles brought from India and of great value because much of the work
can never be duplicated. The articles have been gathered by British representa-
tives in that domain, and the loan is made to illustrate the art of needlework, cen-
turies old, of the Indian women.

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF LADY MANAGERS.

1. MBS. EDWARD L. BABTLETT,
New Mexico.

6. MBS. A. C. JACKSON,

Kentucky.

7. MBS. ANNA E. M. FABNUM,

Idaho.

12. MBS. MARY E. MCCANDLEGS,

Pennsylvania.

13. Miss MAKY E. BTSSELLE,

New Jersey.

2. MRS. TBOS. A. WHELAN

Utah.
5. MRS. JENNIE 8. MITCHELL,

Kansas.

8. MBS. MABI C. BELL,
Florida.

11. MBS. E. W. ALLEN,
Oregon.

14. MRS. M. D. FOLET,
Nevada.

3. MRS. T. J. BUTLER,

Arizona.

4. MBS. ALEX. THOMSON,

Maryland.
9. MBS. CHAS. H. 'OLMSTEAD,

Georgia.
10. MRS. PARTHESIA P. RCE,

California.

15. Miss CHARLOTTE FIELD DAILH.
Rhode Island.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR. 191

Mr. Archibald Constable loans specimens of various kinds of eardrops made
and worn by women in Peshawar. These are called phumni (silk and tinsel tas-
sels) and are made out of waste silk which becomes entangled when preparing the
floss silk for embroidery. He also sends a bourkha, or wrapper, used by Moham-
medan women of Peshawar when going through the streets to visit their friends;
English long-cloth embroidered with yellow Indian silk, the eyeholes in white cot-
ten thread embroidery. This bourkha was made and embroidered by the wife of
a member of an old Pathan family in Peshawar; a bodice embroidered and worn
by Hindu women at Sukkur on the Indus; four specimens of the ornamentation of
the inside of sole of women's slippers; four pieces of embroidered Peshawar leather
work, intended for a bag.

Lady Bayley loans a Suzanni silk embroidery on coarse cloth, worked by
Punjabi women; a piece of red tartan cloth woven by the women of a Burmese
tribe (Fakiahs) in Upper Assam, notable for the tartan pattern; red silk embroid-
ered borders woven expressly for the Manipur Durbar and given as presents on
state occasions.

There is a Toda cloth and bag made by the Todas, a race of people who live
on the Nilargiris Mountains. They have inhabited the hills of Southern India for
centuries, are a pastoral race, and their women hold a position in the family quite
unlike what is ordinarily the case in oriental nations. They are treated with re-
spect and are permitted much freedom. Their number does not exceed 800. This
was a loan by Mrs. David Carmichael, who also sends pocket handkerchiefs work-
ed by two Mohammedan girls, 8 years of age, in the Hobart School at Madras; a
wedding cloth worn by Jat and Baishnava women, woven and embroidered by them.
The red ground is woven but all else is embroidered. Two years' time was required
to make the cloth, and it is only worn on a wedding day.

Then there is a piece of embroidery worked by the Princess of Wadwhan;
a red cloth Phulkari called the Shishadar (looking-glass) embroidered in cream,
yellow, and green silks worked by the women in the Punjab — small, circular, slightly
convex mirrors being sewn in the pattern. It was loaned by Lady Lyall.

A scarf woven by a Tipperah woman, of the aboriginal tribe of the Hill of
Tipperah, is sent by Mrs. Ganguli, and also an Assamese lady's dress woven by wo-
men, a Nekhala skirt, a Rheiha wrap, and an Artria overshawl, a basket of bam-
boo made by lower caste women of Calcutta, containing models of fruit made and
colored by Bengalese women; four molds carved for the making of sweetmeats-
two of clay and two in stone; a model of a pearl and precious stone necklace.

In the collection are cut paper pictures done by a widow of Dacca and Bena-
res Saree with silver embroidery done by women of Benares; a Parsee
boy's dress made by the sister of Sir Famsetjee Feejeeboy and presented
by her to Mrs. Arthur Oliphant; a Mohammedan boy's dress made by the
Padshah Begum, wife of the first Sir Salur Fung Bahadur; a tablecloth worked
in gold embroidery by a lady of Bhera in Shahpure and the Indian Phulkari, or
looking-glass worked by an attendant in the house of Rai Bahadur Bakshi Ram.
Singh, of Rawalpindi, Punjab.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

A whole day or an entire week may be spent entertainingly in the Woman's
Building, and then one-hundredth part only could be faithfully seen and studied.
In the grand halls are paintings of American, French, German, Italian, Spanish
and other nations, which would make a fine gallery in itself. And, there are tapes-
tries, laces and embroideries, that would measure more miles than there are between
Chicago and Milwaukee. A special feature for a long time were the lectures on,
and examples in, cooking, by Mrs. S. T. Roger, of Philadelphia. It will be a long
time before such an aggregation of woman's work, as may now be seen in the Wo-
man's Buiiding, can be gathered from all parts of the world again.

MARBLE STATUE "SPRING"— MME. L. CONTAN, FRANCE.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.