ORDERLIES IN PROCESSION GOING TO BUCKINGHAM PALACE
Before the Endell Street Hospital opened in 1915, Miss Beatrice Harraden and Miss Elizabeth Robins were requested to join the staff as Honorary librarians, and the value of the library which they created cannot be over-estimated. The important educative influence which it exercised was due to the personal work of Miss Beatrice Harraden, who spent many hours daily among the men, sacrificing, during the whole period of the hospital’s existence, her own work and her leisure to their needs. Miss Robins was unfortunately unable to continue her help for long, but in the first weeks Miss Harraden and she made a fine collection of books and organised an ambulatory service for the wards. Magazines, newspapers, stationery, stamps, and very often matches, were supplied freely by the librarian, and the demands made upon this department were so heavy that it was necessary to give Miss Harraden two assistants, and in addition she was glad of the help which Miss Evelyn Glover gave in the afternoons.
At all hours of the day the librarians were to be met in the wards, getting orders for books, and giving advice or encouragement. Miss Harraden used to talk to the men till they felt that they wanted to read the books she spoke of. She catered for every taste: the old reader and the new reader were equally stimulated. Beginning with Tit Bits or Blighty, by way of Charles Garvice and W. W. Jacobs, they were led along the path of literature till they found themselves absorbed in Henry VIII. or Bacon’s Essays!
A proportion of the patients were educated men, with literary tastes, to whom a good library made all the difference. Six subscriptions at Mudie’s were taken out and placed at the disposal of such readers; so that books could be changed daily if necessary. The rule of the library was to provide every book asked for, on whatever subject and in whatever language. If these books were not in the library or obtainable at Mudie’s, Miss Harraden knew where to find them, and many valuable books, on seventeenth-century furniture, old silver, zoology and metaphysics, were lent to the hospital. The technical bookcase was well stocked, and those who had trades or hobbies were encouraged to read their own subject. There were many gardeners in the wards, who pored over books on rose-growing, ferns or chrysanthemums, and furious debates would rage as to the relative superiority of their favourite flowers.
Handbooks about motors, aeroplanes and engines were popular, and some men found interest in fossils and archæology. Men who had been in India said that they learnt more about that country from an illustrated book than from living there for seven years, and it was found that there was quite a vogue for the History of Mexico, Dante and Don Quixote. Abridged representations of Shakespeare’s plays in the recreation room would send up the demand for this author. One or two men studied for the London Matriculation examination whilst in hospital, the librarian finding the text-books and directing their course. To most of them, reading proved a great source of interest and a great education. Some, it is true, appraised the value of literature by its price! One man, who had been devoted to reading tales published at twopence and had been persuaded to read one of H. Seton Merriman’s books in the sevenpenny edition, told the librarian that ‘this sevenpenny author is an improvement on the twopenny ones. Perhaps I might try something better now. Have you a shilling author I could have?’
‘Oh! why did they bring me back? Why didn’t they let me die?’ groaned a poor young fellow, restlessly moving his head on his pillow. The presence of the librarian by his bed roused his interest. He was a musician, and he asked her to bring him the life of a musician. She brought The Life of Chopin, and a smile came over his face as she placed it in his hands. That afternoon, still smiling and still holding the book between his hands, he passed peacefully away.
In a neighbouring ward a man described himself as a sociologist, and said that the subject he wished to read was ‘one which you will not know anything about here.’ It was Woman’s Suffrage! With all her years of suffrage work behind her, Miss Harraden said nothing, but produced the books required. A few days later, she asked him: ‘Why did you think that we knew nothing about Woman’s Suffrage here?’ and went on to tell him something of the practical interest which she herself and other members of the hospital staff took in that movement.
‘But none of you ever talk about it,’ the man exclaimed with astonishment. And he listened earnestly while she showed him how the propaganda was going on all the time, though it was a propaganda of deeds and not of words.