The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-11-14

Lizzie Bryan is wonder Of gcntleleSs,
charity and. oheerfalness, but sac caIi 5
dagger, her last souvenir OF the war ana
which she uses as a bread-knife, and she
chews tobacco and regrets her age and her
lame leg that she cannot dance a jig with
even the faulty skill in which she still
SIMS a ribald song. Alas, Lizzie Bryan
has fallen upon III times-her bed is num-
bered and is covered with the chilly
( checkered blue of the paupar.
Lizzie Bryan refused the hand of a rebel
! colonel offered her during the Libby prison
incident, but has since married two men
of talent and wealth, one of them an eX-
pert counterfeiter and gambler and the
, other a gambler and drunkard, and Lizzie
regrets them both because they were
good men and very kind to her."
Lizzie has a daughter who Is song and
dance artist and the very best daughter
in the world" who never allowed her
mother to want until some months ago,
when she went blind.
STEPPED in misfortune--for. added to al
| that has been told, she is stone deaf-Sick
and friendless. it is still something ike
! listening to music 70 hear this old lady
talk. SO entirely kindly, charitable and
! sincere is she. telling the most remark
able bits of her strange history with the
simple matter-Of-fact of child. She
never learned 10 write. but her sweet, low
road OF good English and does not offend
( il even with slang.
Lizzie Brynn's Strange Career.
/ a stranger life story is not often writ
ten. She began it al Rochester, n. Y. as
an heiress with $4,000 to her credit when
she should become Of age. but, left an
orphan at ten, her twelve brothers and
sisters. too busy spending their own for
tunes to look after her. bound her out to
a farm and she was there put TO work like
a servant. With reference to these sis
ters and brothers and this shabby treat
mant she spoke the on.y resentful words
| in her narrative. II have never seen any
of them since" she said, ''and 1 don't
want to. If. OF al my brothers and sis
ters. not one could find time to take care
of such a little girl, then L have no love
for them. Still, il was a good beginning,
for 1 can cook, bake or brew as the re-
suit of it,
At eighteen years Of age she came into
| her fortune, which, through the manipu-
lations of the attorney who had charge,
proved to be only $500. With this she
went to New York, joined some friends
and left the old drudging life behind
She was back at Rochester shortly be-
fore the war broke out, and at time
when Dan Rice's circus was just begin
ming It's career Oh SOlU5 10
pieces, and she bought two trick horses,
Starface and Rudolph, and when she en-
listed at New York City to go to the
front as a nurse she took Starface with
her She only remained in the hospital
department for a few months after the
real bloody business of war begun, for
the people who had charge of it saw in
her quality of mettle that could be put
to better uses But the hospitals missed
her, she said, for she was CENTER than
the average nurse, and when they twist
ed the bandages recklessly she wound
them about tenderly, and she had a way
of buying some de-icacies for peculiar
sufferers, and OF stealing other delicacies
that she could not buy. And so when she
babe them good-5y many of them joined
their tears with hers.
She left the hospitals not by order, but
request, but freely placed herself under
orders in the fighting contingent, and
from that hour she was freebooter. She
put off her woman's dress and wore
boots and spurs and a little sword" at
her side. They wanted her to act as or
derry and carry dispatches, and this she
did till the close of the war.
II was wounded three times she SAID
but at no time seriously. never had to
&c to the hospital. but bandaged the
wounds myself and was dancing jigs at
headquarters or at some racket out of
camp before they had healed 1 wore q
false sole n my boot and in it carried the
dispatches. / have often carried dis
patches during an action, riding across or
around the lines, as the case might be-
with bullets flying all around me. 1 was