Her first endeavour was to help and encourage the soldiers in sending home a portion at least of their pay. She formed an extempore Money Order Office, in which, on four afternoons in each month, she received the money of any soldier who desired to send it home to his family. About £1000 was thus received monthly in small sums, which, by post-office orders obtained in England, were transmitted to their several recipients. Her uncle, Mr. Samuel Smith, undertook the English agency for her. After the Cabinet Council, just described, Lord Panmure wrote to the Commander of the Forces in the Crimea, adverting to Miss Nightingale's "cry," and remarking that if a soldier wanted to send money home he could do so through the Paymaster, but adding that it had been decided to increase the facilities. In the following month (January 1856) the Government accepted the hint of Miss Nightingale's private initiative and established offices for money orders at Constantinople, Scutari, Balaclava, and "Headquarters, Crimea." "It will do no good," wrote "Mars," convinced against his will; "the soldier is not a remitting animal."[192] But in fact, during the following six months, a sum of £71,000 was sent home.[193] Miss Nightingale felt much satisfaction in having been the means of "rescuing this money from the canteen." She was instrumental also in establishing a rival house, named, after a soldiers' battle, the "Inkerman Café." This was pleasantly situated close to the shore of the Bosphorus, midway between the main hospitals at Scutari. Miss Nightingale devoted much attention to the details of this coffee-house, and framed the list of prices. In all such work for the good of the soldiers, she found a cordial supporter in Sir Henry Storks, who had succeeded Lord William Paulet in the command at Scutari in the latter part of 1855. Sir Henry agreed with her, as he wrote, "that drunkenness can be made the exception, not the rule, in the Army"; and in later years he referred in grateful recollection to the time when "we served together at Scutari." [192] _Panmure_, vol. ii. p. 28. [193] _Statement_, p. v. Her personal influence with the men was great. "I promised _Her_ I would not drink," or "I promised _Her_ to send my money home," they would say, "in such a tone," as Mr. Stafford recorded, "as if it were ingrained in the very stuff of them." A curious and, as I think the reader will agree with me, a pretty illustration of this side of Miss Nightingale's work, was brought under my notice during the preparation of this Memoir. On January 23, 1856, Miss Nightingale wrote the following letter from Scutari to the Rev. R. Glover, then Chaplain to the Forces at Maidstone:--