The Irish standard., 1888-05-12
WISCONSIN,.

that so TO make q HESGc!asS Sa!ecAlau'
He is deserving Of unqualified success.
Sisters of Charity.
Some time ago lecture Was given at
Phenix, Arizona, by the famous Coy
ernment scout, Captain Jack Crawford,
and during his campfire talk as he
called il, he paid 3 touching and we'll
deserved tribute to the Sisters OF Chari-
ty iii the following words:
cat the battle OF SpotsZlornis / was
severely wounded and sent to the Sat-
terlee Hospital at Philadelphia, While
living upon a cot in the hospital, bat
Ting with pain with all my boyish
strength, when the doctors had said
could not live, and when [ cauld almost
feel the icy kiss Of death upon my pallid
brow, one of those angels Of mercy, a.
black robed Sister Of Mercy, lnelt by
my cot of pain and prayed and watched.
She is with the angels now. BY her
careful nursing that good Sister saved
my life Aud that was not all She did
for me. When I entered the army
could not write my oWn name. and a
printed book was to me q hieroglyplic
puzzle. When l became conya]escent
Sister Valencia taught me to read and
write, and it is to her owe Che founda-
tion upon which built the little edu-
cation now possess.
'Of all Gods green and beautiful
earth there are no purer. no nobler, nc
more kind-hearted and SELF sacrificing
women than those who wear the sombre
garb Of the Catholic Sisters. Daring
the war I had many opportunities for
observing their noble and heroic work,
not only in the camp and hospitals, but
in the death-swept field of battle.
Right in the fiery front Of dreadful
war, where bullets Kissed in maddening
glee, and shot and shell flew wildly by
with demoniac shrieks, where dead and
mangled forms lay with pale, blood
Hecked faces, yet wearing tie scowl Of
battle, I have seen The black-robed
Sisters moving over the field with their
solicitous faces wet With the tears OF
sympathy, administering to the wants
of the wounded and whispering words
OF comfort into the ears SOON to be
deafene1 by the cold implacable hand
of death. Now kneeling On the blood
bespattered sod to moisten with water
the bloodless lips upon which the icy
T., Il y, h Il 1DEt TO Ia
imprint; now breathing words OF hope
of immortality beyond the grave into
the ears Of some mangled hero, whose
last shot in our glorious cause had been
fired but moment before; now holding
the crucifix to receive the last kiss from
somebody's darling boy from whose
breast the life blood was FLASHING, and
who had offered his life as willing
sacrifice upon the altar of his country;
now with tender touch and tear dimmed
eyes binding gaping wounds from which
most women would have shrunk in hOr-
ror; now scraping together pillow
forest leaves upon which some pain
racked head might rest until the spirit
took it's flight to other realms-brave,
fearless of danger, trusting Implicitly
in the Master whose overshado owing eye
was noting their every movement;
standing as shielding, prayerful angels
between the dying soldier and the hor-
rors of death; their only recompense the
sweet, soul-soothing consciousness that
they were doing their duty, their only
hope of reward that peace and eternal
happiness that awaited them beyond
the star -emb1aZoned battlements above.
Ah! my friends, it was noble work.
CHOW many veterans of the war, who
wore both the blue and the gray, can
yet recall the soft, soothing touch of
Sisters hand as he lay upon the pain
tossed couch of a hospital! Can we
ever forget their sympathetic eyes,
their low, soft-spoken words Of encour-
agement and cheer when the result of
the struggle between life and death yet
hung in the balance? Oh! how often
have followed the form of that good
Sister Valencia with my sunken eyes
as she moved away from my cot to the
cot of another suferei, and have
breathed from the most sacred depths
of my family beating heart the fervent
prayer, 'God bless her God bless her =
my friends, l am not a Catholic, but
I stand ready at any and all times to 81
defend these noble women, even with 81 81
my life, for ! owe that lite to Them;