The Portland daily press., 1870-07-04
PRESS.
ND
Monday Morning, July 4, 1870.
PORIIAANB
A Soldier Romance

During the late war a great manv articles
Oh clothing for the use ofthe army were manu-
iactured in st. Louis. Nearly all the sewing
was done by poor girls, huddled together in
upper rooms of. tall buildings with but few
windows. The work was tedious, hard. and
the pay small. Greedy army contractors had
no room in their avaricous greenbael<- loving
hearts for pity OF poor sewing girls, The city
was full of soldiers, gathered from all parts Of
the West. The prospects for ever marrying. TO
many Of those girls often, no doubt. seemed
small. But this has nothing particularly to do
with what we started out to write. One day
IN 1858, pretty girl, employed in one of those
ciolh-makinS establishments, rather un.
thoughtedly, stitched her name and address in
side gray woolen shirt, which she had lust
finished, in such a place that when on SOL
der the letters would come just over his heart.
The garment was passed to the foreman, ac-
cepted as being all right, and placed in a box
with hundreds OF others to be shipped and
the fair worker of the name scarcely again
thought of what she had done until one unu-
sually cheerful, bright day, some four months
afterward, she received letter. 1t was from
the army too! from stranger i'm a strange
regiment from strange State. She wonder
ed what il could mean. She didn't know the
writer, but made up her mind no harm could
result from answering his letter, and co.lss
quently did so. Many Letters followed. The
soldiersAw was modest and elegant in his Ian
guage, and the girl had reason to respect him.
The soldiers letters after awhile became very
interesting, and were looked for anxiously BY
the sewing girl. Ditto with the soldier. He
whiled away many an otherwise monotonous
hour writing to her. Many an otherwise sad
and lonely evening she pleasantly passed in
scrbbling to him. One evening, in 1864, while
on his way home on re enlistment furlough,
the unknown writer called at the humble
home of the girl on Morgan street, and intro
duced himself. 1t would sound story like to
say they both came to the conclusion at the
first meeting that they loved each other, but
such is the truth. He stayed in st. Louis sew
eral days longer than he intended. He came
near forgetting he had mother, father, broth
ers, and sisters, with prior claims upon his So
ciety. He finally went home, but when he
returned to the field he returned rid st. Louis,
and while there called at the little house away
out on Morgan street. He returned to his re-
giment at the proper time. The girls let
tiers then were the joys of his life. Without
them camp life would have been unendurabe.
She was as quite as deeply interested in his
effusions. She would sit and sew for hours,
and wonder if he would not wear some of the
garments she was makng-and think if she
were certain he would know how nice she
would make them. No use of lengthening out
short story. Some such state of affairs as de-
scribed existed until the final disbanding of the
army. At that time he did not return uia the
city so dear to him, for the treasure it held.
He went home first, and when he did GOODWIN
he brought away the sewing girl as his wife.
Shortly after the ending OF the ceremony he
explained to his blushing bride how he pro-
cured her address by showing her piece of
coarse gray flannel with "Julia -, st.
Louis, Mo-" upon it. He was an Iowa editor,
and now lives in Polk County. The same girl
makes shirts for him yet, and also for i've
years old boy, who calls the two of them pa
and ma.-Des Moines State Register.