St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-06-01
VOLUME 46---NUMBER 1892.

appear as the eulogist of woman. She
is indeed beginning to speak for her
self, and | am expecting the day when
she will begin to speak fOl us, when
she will do man some slight justice for
the little part he has played in history.
She knows all about it; she reads him
like the alphabet. She knows just
when he has been false and when true,
when his bravery was genuine, and
when it was from the fear of being
called coward, when he has been a
pretender, when he has been a hypO-
crite, when he has been so royal that
she could worship him without IA tiut-
ter of reservation, and love him with
out blush she has studied him, and
kept all these things in her heart. She
has shed tears enough over him to wash
away all his sins-to float him into
heaven, if he could go there by water.
She has fiattered him till his head
touched the stars. She has strength
ened his heart, and sent him out into
the world with IA shield and the injunc-
ton not to return without it, unless he
was borne upon it. She is always will
ling to hold out light 10y which he
can swim across the river to her, and
her smile is always worth the swim.
She is always ready to pray him out of
any mischief she has enticed him into.
She will make Il man of him if any
thing in this world can. Her cOnstan-
cy is Il prOverb she is the one thing
and is never twice the same, and that
never changes the one object that man
can confidently tie to. She is our ma
tional motto personitied-infi vari-
ETY. in unity. What she was yesterday
she will not he tomorrow, and she was
not the day before; she is everlasting
ly the same.
What she was to the soldier of the
Army of the Potomac | need not say,
whether she remained at home to sew
for him and pray for him, or followed
him atield with lint and bandages, or
went about in hospitals in the garb of
Il saint with the smile of an angel, the
picture of selt-sacrifice, to ''kiss him for
his mother" How her patriotism and
genius for organization shOne out in
that great army she created, second on
ly in Importance to the army in
the field, which cared for the
wounded and sick. When You are bal
ancing in your mind the cost of a
spring bonnet and ten thousand regal
las, remember that it was American
women who devised and executed the
greatest alleviatiOn ever known for the
miseries of war. Did she make any
less sacrifice than you, patient in her
lonely home, keeping up her courage
and yours need not say how you
thought of her cOnstancy and of her
pride in you, and your desire to play
the man partly for her sake-sweet-
heart or wife-heartened you and re-
fined you. You thought last at night
and first i'll the morning that she was
thinking of you, and the thought that
she would weep with joy in your vic
tory was the sweetest thing in it. God
bless her! how she stood by you and
was proud of you and loved you. Oh,
faithful heart, what is there in life so
sweet!
But | am not here to praise woman
OF the Army of the Potomac only to
give you, ''sweethearts and wives"-a
sweetheart is good wife is better I;
best of all is sweetheart and wife in
one person. Charles Dudley Warmers
| Response to a Toast at the Army of the
Potomac Dinner.