The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-07-11
A VETERAN OF THE WAR.

A Woman Who Served the Country Nob1y
at q Very Trying Period.
NO." said the gray haired woman, 81
am not going to help to decorate the graves.
1 am more accustomed to handling lint
and bandages than flowers-that is, was
accustomed to it twenty odd years ago,
when l was nursing in Washington hos
pital Oh, yes, of course, after soldiers are
dead flowers are better for them than any
thing else, but l cannot help laughing even
now, when l think of an i'll contrived fell
low whose leg we were trying TO save, and
who was always in a bad humor except
when he was eating jellies and custards.
Just let anybody carry flowers to his cot If
they wanted to hear him break outl oh,
go to thunder with them fowersP he would
say (and l can't tell you what kind of
flowers he called 'ern); 4 thought you was
bringing me something to eat Usually,
unless his leg was hurting him awfully, he
tried TO keep from using bad words, but
the sight of flowers, when he was expect
ing something else, seemed to be too much
for him. He had long siege of it, but at
last he liIaped out of the hospital on
crutches, and bad letter from him some
months afterward saying he had thrown
his crutches aside.
Hospital nursing hard work? Tho
hardest l ever did in my life. You see l
went into it without any training. We
army nurses hadn't been taught to spare
ourselves, and we didn't. thought at first
I'd have to give up because l couldn' tsleep
at night for seeing the amputated arms
and legs and other sickening sights that l
had been among all day, but l held out to
the last, although was one OF. the young
est nurses in the hospital. When came
out at the end of two years work every
body said looked 10 years older than when
went in. had never been very strong,
and the doctor said / was too sympathetic
for such profession. l tell you it is
dreadful thing to hear men begging to be
killed to be put out of their misery! Some
Of the patients were shanming, making
the greatest ado over little flesh wounds,
but these were very few in comparison
with those who were really hurt.
"NO, l do no nursing nowadays. The
girls who are graduating every year from
training schools, with their heads crammed
with book learning and familiar with all
the recent discoveries and improvements in
medicine and surgery, would look down
on a nurse who learned all she knows dur
ing the war. For the last twenty-five years
have been supporting myself as a house
keeper. In hotel? No, haven't strength
enough for that. Sometimes l take care Of
a widower and his children until he mar
ries again, which he always does too soon
for my convenience, and sometimes l keep
house for a fashionable lady until go dis
tractcd with her pink lurcheons and orange
breakfasts and other new tangled arrange
ments. I consider myself a pretty good
manager, but the trouble Is that sometimes
there aren't servants enough for the work
that has to be done, so | have to fall TO and
help, which not only lessons the servants
respect for me, but usually brings on an
attack of nervous prostration that makes
it necessary for me to take a resting spell in
q working women's home, though / hate
dreadfully to see money going out when
there's none coming in.
"Ought to have a government pension?
Yes, that is what have often been told
1t is true | wasn't wounded during the
war L didn't shed any blood for the
Union, but / gave it pretty much the same
thing in my strength, and pension, no
matter how small it might be, would come
in very well to spare my savings when |
am out of work, and take away my dread
of being dependent on some one in my old
age My relations wouldn't let me 20 to
the almshouse, I know, but if l cannot
save up enough for little rest in the end
hope and trust l may die in harness.
There's many years work in me yet, if
what strength I have left doesn't giva way
completely; though 1t is discouraging to
receive smaller salaries every time make
a change as the years go by."-New York
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