The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-08-05
A SOLDIERS F

A SOLDIERS WIFE.
War brings to soldiers glory, hard
ships, wounds, death, but what does it
bring to soldiers wives
Down in the red brick officers row
at Jefferson Barracks there is a little
company Of brave women Who are
fully competent to answer that uues-
ton.
These women are the wives of the
officers Of the Third cavalry, now with
Shafter at Santiago.
Reader of newspapers who scanned
the lists of the dead and wounded VIC
Tins of the awful hell Of shot and shell
into which the American soldiers went
on Friday and Saturday a week ago
noticed the frequent recurrence of the
words Third cavalry after the anne
Of wounded officers II men.
To the great mass Of us those words
meant not more than the names of the
other commands that stood gallantly
the fire of the Spaniards on those days.
sui each mention of the gallant
Third in that fatal list carried a depth
of sorrow, anxiety and suspense in the
heart of one, two or three Of these wo-
men that women in civil life car know
nothing about.
The printing Of those names told to
these women a h%eartrending story Of
a husband or father wounded in a
strange land, maybe dying for the want
of proper attention, away from their
loved ones.
Since the war began and we Ameri-
cans went into it with much the same
spirit that we enter into everything
that commands Dull fleeing attention.
a great new national game to be play
ed n won with becoming g%allantry-
books have been written about the SOL
der, his life, his pleasures, his hard
ships, his dangers. We AVE bowed
down to u new Idol and worshiped,
but we have insisted with character
istic curiosity that we must know all
about the being we worshiped.
In u idolatry we have passed by
the heroine that helps to make u he
70, the soldiers wife.
The soldiers wife is essentially a
homebody, and it has ever been the fate
of such to pass unnoticed.
Sitting in the twilight of a cool par
lor in officers row at the Barracks,
one of these brave, enduring women
one who even them knew not but that
her husband might be nigh unto death,
told the Post Dispatch Of the anxieties
and sorrows that are peculiar to the
wives of soldiers.
The speaker was Mrs. Morgan, wife
Of Captain Morgan of Troop H, who
vas wounded while leading his men in
a gallant charge in the first days fight
ing at Santiago.
II don't believe" she said, "the pub
lie feels much for us in our sorrow and
suspense, simply because 1t knows
nothing about us. The home life of no
class has been kept more from the pub
lie gaze than that Of the soldier and
his family.
Everybody knows Of the soldier, par
ticularly if he does anything very brave
or gets wounded or killed, but nobody
knows anything of the soldiers wife
or his children.
1--WE are not like other women Wo-
men in civil life have a thousand in
~terests and duties to divert their at
tention, but we have none. We are
absolutely dependent upon our hus-
bands. They relieve us of all the care
and responsibility of the family main
%tenance. Other women may occupy
themselves in a thousand ways that
are barred from us.
sit follows, therefore, that When the
husband is carried from us by duty, as
he is very frequently, we nave nothing
which we cannot fill, as other women
can.
I'VE may be at a frontier post far
away from civilization, with a mail but
once a week. The order comes for op-
erations against the Indians. Our hus-
bands go from us and we are left alone
for days and weeks. We can ave no
news of the absent dear ones. We have
the consciousness ever present that
they are constantly in danger. We
have nothing to occupy our minds.
w are simply a little group Of anx
ious women, keenly conscious that
each has the same fears, the same sns-
pense, the same ~forebodings, and for
that reason we are Of little comfort to
each other, because we cannot divert
each other from the fear that hangs
owe us all.
I'VE live in a horrible nightmare that
may have an awakening in a still more
horrible reality.
Even here, where we are within
sight Of a great city, where no one
would think our lot would not be so
hard as upon the frontier, we find no
relief.
1--WE are here practically alone. We
have few friends, outside our own cir
Gle, who can be much comfort to us.
We have seen our husbands go away
into a foreign land-across the sea-
that is one of the horrible things about
this war to us women here, that seem
ingly trivial matter OF eighty miles of
water that separate US from those we
love and fear for. We know help
lessness. We know that II they are