Page:Irish In America.djvu/231

Rh the city, its shores washed by the ever-moving tide of the Sound, lies Ward's Island, 110 acres of which are now in possession of the Commissioners, and devoted to the varied purposes of the institution. The stranger is astonished at beholding the splendid groups of buildings that, as it were, crown the island—asylums, refugees, schools, hospitals; the latter for surgical, medical, and contagious cases. These buildings were capable last year of accommodating more than 1,500 persons, and they are added to according to the means at the disposal of the Commission. On the 10th of August, 1864, was laid the foundation stone of an hospital with accommodation for 500 patients; which hospital, designed and furnished with all the latest improvements, is admitted by competent judges—including Miss Nightingale*—to be one of the most complete in the world. I visited this hospital in March, 1867, and though not qualified to pronounce an opinion which would be of any


 * Miss Nightingale addressed the following letter to the General Agent:—

32, South Street, Park Lane, London, w. : April, 22, 65.

'SIR.—I have extreme pleasure in acknowledging your kind note of February 22, and some copies of an account of your proceedings at the laying of the stone of your new Emigrant Hospital.

'It will be an admirable building, and much better than any civil hospital of the size in this country.

'It is a noble thing to do, to build such a building—not for your poor, but ours.

'All to whom I have shown copies of your report feel, as deeply as I do, the importance and nobleness of your work.

'I have distributed the copies you have been good enough to send me, to our Government officials, to our Commissioners of Emigration, and to persons in authority who would feel a deep interest in your work.

'When completed, you will have a magnificent example of sound hospital construction, and one which certainly deserves to be followed elsewhere, and no doubt will be.

'I wish that my health permitted me to acknowledge more worthily your noble works, or to come over and see them, than which nothing would delight me more.

'But I am overwhelmed with business—complete prisoner to my room from illness, from which there is no recovery; and I can only beg that you will believe me, Sir,

'Your most faithful and grateful servant,

'FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.

'Bernard Casserly, Esq., General Agent Commissioner of Emigration, N. Y.'