The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1878-11-07
WOMEN OF THE SOUTH.
The Noble Army who Have Sacrificed
Their Lives to the Yellow Fever
Sufferers,

little D. Blake in the Evening Telegraph
The sad record of the ravages of yellow
fever at the South continues week after
week, darkening these fair autumn days
with the shadow of a gloomy cloud that
broods always on the Southern horizon,
down every sympathizing heart
with constant oppression in thought of
the suffering and misery that we can do SO
little to alleviate. Only one bright spot
appears in all the sombre history, and that
ia where is written in letters of light the
trial has called forth.
Men have left comfortable homes TO has
ten 10 the fever stricken districts, and risk
their own lives in the effort to relieve
others. Already many of them have fall
en- martyrs to their devotion, and all the
world honors these heroes of battle more
terrible and almost more dangerous than
those of conflicting armies. But more
transcendent even than the stories of mans
noble self-sacriffce, are those which come
to US of woman's untiring fidelity.
Women, too, have left dainty homes
and comfortable surroundings to go among
the horrid scenes contagion, death and des-
pair. Ladies of gentle lineage and deli
cate rearing have volunteered to quit the
security of the bracing Northern climates,
and seek out the dangers of the infested
cities of the South. They have shrunk
from no scenes, however revolving, where
their ministrations might bring alleviation,
endowed with natures e&quIstely sensitive
4. f,,11 4 IL, ~ aP hnI~
they have ventured into squalid homes
and endured hardships and deprivatlons
without a murmur. These gentle sisters
of mercy can show also their list of mar.
tyrs, and day after day the papers bring to
have fallen victims to the pestilence whose
terrors they have striven to assage.
In every family where the fever has ap.
peared the woman have faced the destroyer
unfinchingly and devoted themselves tc
the work of nursing the sick, although
death himself has stood beside them, ready
| to demand their lives at the reward of theil
devotion. All through the ages the story
of the Pompeiian sentry who stood at hi
post rather than save his life by flight ha
been held up for the admiration of man
kind; but Memphis and New Orleans ant
Vicksburg contain their thousands of wo
men-sentinels on duty by sick beds-wht
have calmly braved death rather thar
abandon their places.
"Not one wife has deserted her usbant
in all this terrible season." thus runs tn
record repeated again and again. Me-
have field from their wives where the vel
low fend has laid his ghastly hands o.
their beauty, but women have nursed an
watched beside their life's companion, al
though their own lives paid the forfeits c
fidelity. Honest hearted men Throughout
the country have acknowledged this hero
ism. General James Shields in a recen
speech said that, "While men had turne
recreant towards in the face of the feve
and fed even from those whom they pre-
fessed to love, when attacked by it ther
was not single instance wherein women
courage had failed, nor one story of a VIC
: man who had quilted her place when thos
of her family where attacked. The Rev
Mr.. Courtney, lately at St. Thoma
Church. paid glowing tribute to tn
work of woman in the fever district
speaking especially of the devotion show
by the Sisters of St. Mary in their nul
sing of the sick, and reiterated the fac
that while mans vaunted courage ha
failed before the touchstone of danger {
infaction, woman's constancy had not ono
faltered.
Nor does the record end with the here
I ism of Sisters of Mercy and the loyalty {
wives; even in the ranks of those member
of our sex who are its sorrow and its hi
initiation there have been found nobl
> hearted ones. The story has gone roun
e the world of how notorious woman
Y Memphis, when its dark hours cam
!, closed her house against the abandone
men who had made it their resort, an
r turned it into fever hospital, herself ar
e her companions faithfully nursing tho
h who were brought thither, while lat
news adds that already some of tho
:, who thus redeemed darkened life ha
u added their names to the roll of hero
d and martyrs.
b So the noble history of woman's Sc
;. sacrifice is complete. Saints and sinner
. gentle and simple, in all ranks of life, tn
y have shown themselves possessed of t
= very highest qualities of courage al
n self-sacrifce, and yet when womed ask
themselves a better recognition; VIII
athirst for knowledge, they ask for a
mission to our colleges; when, longi
Ie for freedom, they ask for the right
epreaentation-they are met with sne,
- or with reminders of their mental infia
ity and physical weakness. In the face
J. such record of womans courage as Il
lie fearful ordeal of fever has shown, is it
n. much to demand that those who ha
\ shared mems labor and transcribed
- loyalty shall be his equals in liberty"