The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-09-24
A LOVE STORY.
Ministering to Sick fioiaI
Effects of Chicken Soup.

Ministering to Sick ficia
Effects of Chicken Soup.
We were sitting in our room at thu
Glades Hotel, in Oakland, Nd, ont
day, says Don Piatt, with a charming
lady who had dropped in on visit
One of our windows looked into that o.
another room 80 placed by the projec
ton of the main building that half o.
it's interior could be seen. We were
looking at and admiring little chubby
blue-eyed two year-old, white as snow
who was pulling q bouquet to pieces
and tossing out the fragments, or clap
ping her little hands with delight as
train went laundering by.
"These rooms" said our fair visitor,
"have some very tender associations fol
me-"
"Why so ?" we asked.
WE'LL" she answered, "during the
war the greater part of the hotel was
seized by the Government as a hospital
and we were crowded into few rooms.
My sister and I had this. In that room
where that little beauty is were two
Union officers, one sick of the fever and
the other of wound. 1t was hard to
tell whether they were slowly dying OF
slowly getting well. never saw such
CHASTITY skeletons to be alive. We were
'secesh,' and not modest about it either,
but still our hearts ached or the poor
young men, SO i'll, perhaps dying, SO far
from friends and relatives"
"It bothers one to know how this
should be hospital" we said, "it is
SO far removed from active opera
TONS"
"It was thought" she answered,
that the mountain air of the glades
would be more favorable to recovery
than elsewhere, so this was made hos
pital. One day one of these officers
dragged himself to the window, and
under the impulse of the moment my
sister asked if we could do anything
for them, and he answered, gasping for
| breath, that a little chicken soup would
save their lives. Chickens were rare in
those days-an army is hard on poul-
try. The men will work all night, after
marching during the day, to secure a
few chickens so that while the hos
pital nurses and physicians had an un-
limited supply of actual luxuries in the
way OF wines, potted meats and canned
vegetables, they were without anything
| fresh.
eve knew where few chickens were
hid in cellar, by neighbor, and we
coaxed one out of the owner, and after
a deal of vexatious trouble-for at every
turn we were met by fixed bayonet
and an insult-we got the soup ready,
and as the guard in the hall would not
permit us to approach our patients, my
sister attempted to hand the bowl to
the officer in the window. Just as he
was feebly reaching for it, and she
stretching herself half out to give it to
him, a harsh, ugly voice below cried
aloud. Look out there-poison.' She
nearly dropped herself, soup and all.
Drawing back, she hesitated for O Sec
ond, and then she took the spoon and
began eating the broth. ooh bother 7
cried the officer, don't waste it that
way-Tm not afraid ; and SO she gave
him the soup. 1t seemed to revive
them, and they continued steadily to
improve, as day after day we supplied
them with chicken broth until the cell
lar was empty. During this time we
sat at the window talking, and we sang
to them-sang MY Maryland and all
the Southern songs we knew, until they
were well enough to leave the hospital
and return to duty. They both seemed
sorry to go, and forced on us a quanti-
ty of hospital stores and some coffee,
which last we needed sadly. Then one
gave ring, and the other brooch, as
tokens of their kind feelings"
"And did they never return ?"
Zone did not, for, poor fellow, he
was killed in the very next battle in
which he was engaged. His companion
wrote us about it, and the writer insist
ed upon opening a correspondence with
my sister; and soon his letters grew
into love letters, and after time they
were engaged. Nearly year subse-
quent to this, our patient got leave of
absence, and came on to be married.
He put up at hotel, and, will you be-
ieve it, our own brother, who was in
the Confederate service, and knew
nothing of my sisters affair, led band
of guerrillas at night into town and
captured his intended brother-in-law
from his bed. This not only deferred
the marriage, but deprived the young
West Pointer of his promotion, that
had been promised for gallant services
in the field. 1t was really aggravating,
for exchanges had almost ceased. and
it looked as if the lovers would have to
wait until this cruel war was over be-
fore they could be united. Procuring
passes, we went through the lines and
appealed to JEFF Davis. jeff said he
would put my brothers prisoner in his
sisters keeping. They have been hap
PLY married these many years. He is
brevet brigadier-general now, and it all
came of our nursing the enemy in that
ROOM"