The National tribune., 1893-06-29
TIE RELIEF CORPS.
Gleanings from National Headqnar-
terS---NOteS from the Departments.
wOMAN'S WORK In THE WAR.

ferings by the Union Veteran Legion.
It may not be generally known that through
the efforts of Encsmpment AZ, Union Veteran
Legion, Willamsport, Pa. the National ritual
of that Order has been amended so as to in
clude recognition of woman in the services OF
Memorial Day. The recognition was proposed
two years since in Encampment AZ by City
Controller Staunton George, who presented
resolutions to this end, which were adopted
and later approved by National Encampment.
National Encampment ordered that each
year chair be decorated with immortelles as
a part of Memorial service, as token of re-
spect to woman's services and suferings in the
war. This custom was observed for the first
time at Williamsport on last Memorial Day.
Following are extracts from Comrade
Georges paper read before the National En-
campment:
Women have written of woman's work; it
has been casually noticed by men. That the
veteran of the war has ever given her work the
notice which it deserves have never observed.
A largo number of women of means paid for
and furnished substitutes during the war,
others actually bore arms and performed the
duties of soldiers. These, of course, deserve
some notice, but the woman whom we should
honor is the one who exhibited those traits of
womanhood which we so much admired, and
which clothed with the halo of reverence her
every act.
The woman of war times-her presence was
a poem; her perceptions, her calm judgments,
her skillful eIpedents upon all trying occa-
sions were wonderfully valuable, and have to
certain extent, but not commensurate with the
services rendered received the need of praise
from military and medical authorities. 10 the
suffering soldier her ministratons brought
c,,l, H., in 4 M
the restless was such that each patient IN the
hospital would fain have received her exquisite
touch
"Not poets dream alone,
But a presence warm and real
Seen, and felt, and known"
These experiences were not uncommon dur
ing those sorrowful periods Thank God
There were wives, sisters, daughters, who every
day fulfilled the measure of duty, the ministry
of affection or patriotism, with heroic tender
ness! Hundreds. aye thousands, all over the
land performed duties of alienation known
only to the limited circles in which they
moved. Could the roll have been preserved of
all these circles of industry, which met in every
village and hamlet in the land, what mighty
one il would make! The heroism, patience,
and fortitude of manhood at the front were
fully exemplified at home by woman, REIN
forced by energy, public spirit, and devotion
which knew no bounds. All honor to the wo-
man of war times! Hers was the privilege of
watching nursing, and caring for the wounded
and dying, even to the front of battle.
Look at the record OF Mother Bickerdyke;
and tell me, you who have seen valor upon the
field was there ever greater exhibition of
valor than shown by her in that self-imposed
task of alienation which carried her even to
the field of battle. in caring for the wounded
and dying? Who can measure the good she
did? Who can number the lives she saved !?
Eternity alone can reveal the extent Of her
work. Was it not q brave spirit which led her,
when challenged at her work by an army Sur
geon with Madam, you seem to combine in
yourself scI<-diet kitchen and a medical
staff; may / inquire under whose authority
you are working?" to reply: have received
my authority from the Lord God Almighty;
have you anything that ranks higher than
that?' This was but a volunteer nurse, with
no rank and no pay.
Do you remember at every village and hamlet
how refreshments were kindly provided for
the weary troops on the way to the front by
the hands of women of the war; and how
flowers were brought TO enliven the weary ones
within the dreary walls of the hospital?
And nearer home when the transports and
trains were crowded with the wounded and dy-
ing see her power for good. Her presence
brought order out of chaos at many an lily
manned and poorly provided hospital. Day by
day, hour by hour, after some one of the bloody
engagements, with the hospitals and ambulances
crowded with what in many cases, were but
wrecks Of noble manhood, see her. as assistant,
nurse volunteer, in the wards or the
ground, anywhere where her presence was
needed, with the murky, sickly smell OF decay
ing wounds and fostering sores. See her, dainty
woman from dainty homes, with basin and
sponge ready to assist even In tho repulsive
dressing of wounds, task whose magnitude
has far outreached the number and power of
the Surgeons to care for! This she did, or, OF
engaged at this, then in preparing savory
drafts to cool the feyer-parched tongues or
present to answer the call for application of
water to throbbing and swollen limbs, now
bandaged and heated. Did she not do more
than her duty?
And then again, perhaps she had boy, or
husband, or lover down at the front; she sits
and does what she hopes some one may do for
hers, if occasion needs; she sits and patiently
writes, for a manned one, letter that shall
first vey the news to wife, mother or sweet
heart the intelligence of the sad plight of her
loved one Behold this pictured See her with
the Madonna face, with the marks of Christ
like sympathy upon her countenance humbly
bowling by the cot invoking the blessing of
God upon dying one! And over there,
another in the perfection OF patience tanning
and now and again changing the cloth upon
brow racked with fever and pain. And
there, still another who having cared for,
nursed and tended until the last, poor boy,
disconsoIate in his desolation and loneliness,
with her eyes dimmed with tears of sympathy
as she tenderly closes the lids, gently draws
the sheet over the face, and with an inward
prayer that God may comfort and sustain his
! mother away back in the pine-clad hills Of
Maine or Granite State of New Hampshire,
pays the last tribute of respect, and waits
until the mufiled drums and the tramp of the
Corporal's guard dies in the distance, and then
| fulflls the promise of notifying the living
| These were some of the features of alienation
of wars miseries which fell to her lot.
Good deeds
Do no i'm pershable record find in the rolls Of
heaven" -
Comrades, have we done justice to her men,
ory? How pathetic the recolectons of those
scenes! See how anxiously she scanned. as wife,
mother, or sweetheart, the pages of wounded
and dead, to see if the loved name was there !!
| Oh, the anguish and solcitude, the fortitude Of
| those days!
Here a widowed one with despair pictured
| on her countenance. Yonder an oppressed one.
There loving GIRL with tho fame of hope and
| youth quenched and the fire of spirit gone
| from her countenance, because her loved one,
who had gone forth in the pride of his man
| hood, will como no more to greet her!
This WAS what woman endured, this was
| what she suffered. And yet, when the dire din
| and noise of battle sounded, she had said !:
go, my son. my husband, my loved one;
! obey the call of duty" and with Spartan firm.
ness had said her last goodby, and with pent-up
| grief turned to her household duties; had