The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-22
A FAMOUS WAR NURSE
MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE CHATS
ABOUT "MOTHER. BICKERDYKE.
Her Faithful Work in Behalf of the
Union SOldiers-Incidents of Hos
pital Life in War Time.
Boston Letter in New York Times.

her army record transcends that of any
other woman" said Mrs. Mary A Liver
more, speaking to a reporter for the New
! York Times yesterday of Mother BECKER
dyke. IF she only lived in Chicago
! should have started by this time to be with
her on her eightieth birthday. but Kansas
| Bunker HILL Kan.'-seems so much further
away that DO not feel as if l could try it.
! So have written her a long letter, which
she will receive on her birthday, July q.
| and sent her my last photograph. taken the
| day l was seventy-five, so she may see
| how much l have changed in the years
| which have passed since we used to work
| together"
Mrs. Livermore. sitting at window of
her elm-shaded home in Melrose, Mass,
/ looking down across the lawn to one of the
tiny lakes which dot the NiddleseX Fells.
appeared so sweet and gracious that the
newspaper man resented the imputaton of
change. "Oh. yes, l have Mrs. Liver
more replied. when a person puts off be-
ing i'll until she is over seventy-fve years
old, as L did illness then makes deeper and
deeper and more rapid inroads.
But of Mother Bickerdyke, and not of
me-" she resumed She was the best nurse
l ever knew. She had the instinct which
led her to know what was just the best
thing to do for every case. With it
she had heart so big and kind that she
would go to no end of trouble to do things
to make her patients happy, believing this
did quite as much as medicine to recover
them.
Il remember once a poor young fellow in
the hospital had set his heart on having a
baked potato to eat. She had told him just
as soon as it was prudent for him to eat it
ShOll6 have
upon the coveted delicacy so persistently
that finally she went and got four nice new
potatoes, washed them c.eAn uried them
and then warmed them. Then she brought
them to the sick boy, for he was not very
much more, and said: There, my poor boy.
here are four nice potatoes. You shall have
them in the bed with you where you can
touch them and look at them, and just as
soon as it is safe for you to eat baked
potato you shall have one, just like the
best of these, cooked for you. Inc man
was happy as a child. He boarded up his
treasure and crooned over 1t, and was quiet
and contented
"Along came the ward surgeon on his
rounds. He discovered the potatoes, asked
how they came there, and when he knew
tossed them out on the floor. Mother
Bickerdyke happened to be out of the room,
bat she came in before the surgeons round
of that ward completed, The potatoes
were on the floor and the man. weak with
pain and illness, was crying 1t took only
glance for her to comprehend what was
the matter.
A SURGEON REBUKED.
"'Who threw those potatoes down there?
she asked.
~ did said the surgeon.
what did you do it for?
" Because it was foolish and unneces-
sary to have them where they were. I'm
not going to have the beds here turned
into potato hills
Mother Bickerdyke swooped down on
the potatoes and, gathering them up in her
apron, brought them back to the patient.
DO you think anything foolish she said.
warmed them, so they can't possibly hurt
him. Then she turned to the bed. There
b hr y 99Y b sad hem baeR 1d you
shall keep them in bed till they sprout II
you want to- And he kept them until he
was able to eat his potato baked.
1.-The first time 1 saw Mother Bickerdyke
was in Chicago. She was a nurse there
then, supporting her two little boys boys l heT
South to obtain control of the important
strategic point of Cairo, ILL.,, four compa-
MES of young men had been hurried from
Chicago with some brass cannon. 1t was
of these guns that resident of Cairo spoke
to me some time afterward, saying, Ihem
brass missionaries they sent down mere dlo
a powerful lot of good about maxim folks
know which side they was on.
Mrs Bickerdyke was a member or Dr.
| Edward Beecher's church. Coming out of
church one Sunday afternoon some ladies'
| had stopped to talk of the war. and Moth
take care of my Jim and Hiram, Id go
down to Cairo to take care of those boys.
| They'll be sure to get sick the first thing,
for they don't know anything about taking
| care of themselves Which was pretty
| nearly true and, besides, on account OF
the Chicago people taking such an interest
| in them, they were constantly sending them
| down supplies of plum cake and turkeys
| and such things in season and out.
while Mrs. Bickerdyke was talking to
some one else a number Of the ladies had
got together in corner of the church to
| talk among themselves. In a few minutes
! they came to her and said: Mrs. Becker
| dyke if you will go down to Cairo and take
| care of the soldiers, we will take care of
| Jim and Hiram She went and that was
| the way her life work began. The ladies,
true to their promise, sent the boys to a
| most excellent school in Beloit, Wis. and
| kept them there or at an equally good insti-
| tuition jim. as you know, is now a pro-
fessor in a college at Salina. Kan. and it is
| with him that his mother lives.
FIRST MEETING WITH GRANT.
Grant, then colonel. was then in COM
| mand at Cairo. Mother Bickerdyke had
| never seen him, but when she found the
| sick men in tents on low, unhealthy ground
| and found there was a large. empty brick
| building on higher ground she went to him