Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-03-15

OSCAR WILDE AND CLARA BARTON
Five foolish virgins impoverished them
selves to the extent of one dollar aplce for
the sake of seeing Oscar Wilde pose and
dwadle before the fashionables, and Iiterdti
in Lincoln Hall, Washington One woman
appeared with sunaower pinned on her
cloak, and one or two others wore a bunch
OF lilies ut their belts, but Mr.. Wilde
seemed too absorbed in the ego to notice
'hess delicate attentions. The upper par,
of his dress resembled an English curate
and the lower part an Italinn brigand. In
his lecture, he said ian infinite deal of
nothing" about carved chests, painted
dotrways, Keats, Goethe. Ruskin, pre-
RaphaelitisLl and inspiration, word of
somewhat bad odor at the nations capital
Just now. Listening TO his platitudes, and
watching his posings. the words of Shakes
peare came involuntarily 10 mind: God
made him, and therefore let him pass for
q man."
The dream OF the asthete seemed the
more empty because we had listened only
few hours before to the story of Clara
Barton, whose face strongly resembles
the pictures of Jenny Lind. and whose
self sacrifice in behalf of the sick and
wounded soldiers has given her right to
the above title. The words of Ruskin's
disciple. though prettily strung together
with artistic skill, we're as sounding brass
or tinkling cymbal after hearing the ut
terances of this royal woman, spoken in
the quiet of her own room to the few who
begged the privilege of calling upon her.
The delicate hands of the man, encased in
lavender kids and caressing daity manu-
script, b d no beauty when compared with
those of the woman who went to the sta.
ton to meet the brave boys of the Massa-
chuseits Sixth, and bound up their wound.
received rs they came through Baltimore.
She was the only woman who served through
our civil war with neither pay nor com
mission, first going back and forth on the
Potomac boats. taking the men rs they
cume from the battle. field with blood and
mud dried upon their persons and getting
them ready for tho hospitals, and after
wards doing similar service in the
camps. Sensitive and womanly in the
highest decree. she shrank from the criti-
clsm involvei by such course. but even in
the toughest ranks she found her woman.
hood perfect shield. A charge of caval-
ry, rushing wildly on to an encounter,
would grasp the bride with one hand, and
doff their caps to her with the other. The
rebellion over, four years were spent in
hunting up missing soldiers. and then. as
she modestly put it, she told war stories
for lecture bureaus Nature at length
rebelled against the severe strain. and ono
night she stopped in the middle of her
s ory unable TO go on. After years rest
in Switzerland she found herself in the
midst of the Franco Prussian war, and
voluntarily became prisoner in order 10
minister TO the wants of the soldiers.
She was at the siege of Me2 and OF Paris,
and Il hundred days before Strasbourg,
first with the German and then the F on h
army in her labor Of love. The Grown
Princess sought her help in establishing
| hospitals on tho American plan, and this
work occupied all her remaining time in
Europe. She is now engaged as president
IF the Red Cross society of the Geneva
convention. phlanthropic movement fol
tn aIlovatlon of sufferers by war, famine
or flood. Thirty five nations have already
| signed the treaty, and Miss Barton has a
bill before the present congress urging
America 10 join the humane compact.
/ Our hearts burned within US as we listen
ed to her thrilling experiences. and some-
how her mission seemed far more grand
and Chrisllke than that of certain other
women who are at present clamoring for
rights from congress-but then we
are extremely oIdfashioned in our theo-
ries on such subjects. Wash. Cor. Con
greg0tionaliSt.