Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-06-12
ONE AND ALL WEPT.
THE IDLEH SAW OUR GALLANT
SOLDIERS LEAVE RICHMOND.
SNIPFLING SISTERS.
Weeping, Wailing Women and
Worried Warriors, Who WriggIed
sage Suggestions.

Three thousand women crying and boo
l0Oing and smiling and sobbing and look
irg very red and miserable-this was
one OF the sights I saw at Union Depot
las. Sunday, when I went down to tell
ias troops good-by. OH It was horrible,
E-- 1t gave me the creeps all over, for
earwigs and weeping women are things
cannot abide. Somehow when l look
q &C these lachrymose daughters OF
I've. and gazed on their towseled. sad
expressions. my heart kinder gave a wild
hump against my vest-pocket, and a
great big lump surged up in my throat
Is it does when l suffer from nervous
dyspepsia. 1 felt powerfully uncomfort-
able, and hoped nobody was looking at
TIE. l thought that Il would never do
Tor an old soldier who had smelled gun
powder and lodged bullets to go SWIVEL
Ing around like a teething baby. but 1
S., couldn't help It. II wasn't the boys
that made me so sad; it was the sight
CT all those petticoats pinned to fearful
fzces-those rags and bones and hanks
a. hair"-that looked as IL the world
would never be bright for them again.
o. course, It's no use whimpering just
lecause a few hundred strong young
fellows put on soldier-clothes and get
Jaty for business, but when every
bess-take-it woman in the land tunes
Up and lets loose the siuices of her grief.
then want to quit or cry, too Not
that I'm a sensitive, hot-house flower,
but simply because. as I've said before,
{, gives me the creeps 10 see the good
souls in trouble It's Ike when they
have Mysteries. You don't know whether
10 throw water on 'em, or 10 roll 'em in
he door-rug, or 10 offer 'em new
bonnet, or 70 let EN- faint In your arms,
c, what-in word, you wish the earth
would open up and swallow you just as
Il you were a quinine capsule.
There's no doubt the sight at the depot
vas a pathetic one, for boys, with all
their tarnatlon meanness, are good fell
lows. and we couldn get along with
Out them; but. between you and me and
the gate-post. i don't think The ladies'
would have cried over them as lnuch as
they cid If they had known how red
ths.r dear noses were going TO get or
how plainly their lamentations showed
mat some Of them were getting o. IL
seems 10 me feminine tears are conTagl-
Gus. anyhow IL one woman opens up
ta0ther viii quickly follow and soon
third one weeps because the first two
.vok 50 miserable. And then, by and oy'
the whole kit and kabOodle viii start |
s. on general principles, without any |
Particular reason, and make things SO |
gloomy that you feel Ike takinS 10 |
drink Maybe this accounts for some o! /
Inc tears that flowed at the station. Foi
by part 1 didn't want TO Kill our boys
without giving them any show, or even /
before they had gone into battle, but the
ladies' appear 10 have commenced tho
casualties long before The nrst Tram
Vas started They simply didn't want
70 be cheerful, and ION the quiet De
lsye they went 10 that depot Just 10
make trouble My eagle-eye detected
several who were expanding oceans or
brine on fellows whom they had bull
oozed for years. Hero was a girl weep
Ing over a duffer who had scuffied for
ages 20 be her sweetheart. There was
a puff-faced, red-snouted lass who was
literally spraying the community all
o. account Of a freckled-faced chap
whom she habitually rejected thrice
week. On this side beheld iachry-
mose damsel who bemoaned the oe
ltrture OF fourth cousin; on thar 4
cav a sister who chung like sheep
burr to younger brother, whom sllo
had always classified as nuisance
and an about me were women crylhs
o. general principles, and a-ralshs
haty and s~playing the very mischei,
It's a way they have, and a darned bad
way Il Is, too When I felt that creepy
tanc -of-music-u your-back SENSATION
tthe realized that something IKE
pail OF yarn Was In my throat. got
saiung mad with the whole ssz-mas,