Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-07-23
Woman's Part In War.

nevertheless, the part of sacrifice and
which are hardest. 1t has been well
said that in war the men plan, the
boys fight, the women suffer There
we see the brain, the strong right arm
and the heart of the war, and the heart
alone knows neither rest nor peace, the
strain under which it beats is never
relaxed. for to women, keenly as they
realize the pcrils of war, comes in war
time neither the stimulus of responsible
physical action.
A few women serve their country and
its soldiers as nurses in hospitals and
on the field. Their work is good and
necessary. Gods blessing on them for
it. But numerically they are so few as
to be out of the question in consider
ing woman's part in war. Thousands
of women by sewing or other work at
home add to the comfort and safety IF
|
But this sphere of activity is limited.
1t is woman's work, but not all of her
work in war. 1t is the least of the
things she has to do and can do. This
is not her part in the war that brings
her sacrifice and suffering.
Woman's part in war comes in the
tI.l do, Il lot. h,-
the absence of a son. a husband or Il
father, where she has time to think
and brood and remember and fear.
Between the camps and battlefelds
and the homes far away are bonds of
love and longing, anchored in the
hearts of the boys at the front and in
the hearts of the mothers and maidens
/ left behind. Probably We do not
realize. as the mothers do, the youth
fulness of our soldiers. The records
show that the average age of more
than two million men mustered into
the Northern armies in the war for the
Union was but % years. and the same
conditions are true of the present war.
We listened eagerly for the sound Of
| SIMPSONS and Skaters guns. and now
| we await the thunder of Miles artil
lery at Porto Rico and the crash of
! Watson's guns on the Spanish shore.
| We thrill with the news that an army
is crossing the Pacific to conquer lands
many thousands of miles away, and
expect other great victories on land
and sea to follow the magnificent
triumphs of the past three months.
With us it is excitement patriotism,
eagerness for the complete supremacy
of the mothers and wives and sisters
and sWeethearts of the boys behind the
| guns and in the camps? Do we realize
how many women there are to whom
the whole war centers in the one ever
present thought, what will become Of
my boy" When poor Ellis was struck
down, the other day, on the deck of the
! Brooklyn. the only American killed IN
that great battle. he never heard the
explosion of the shell which took his
life. But can we doubt that it's sound
has been ringing and shrieking every
hour of day and night in the ears of his
young wife in distant Illinois? And 50
of every home which makes its sac
riicc on the altar of our countrys
service
We have watched with pride the
rapid growth of our volunteer army
until it has almost reached the two
hundred thousand mark. but do We
realize that it stands for two hundred
thousand homes where there is a Va
cant chair and hearts filed With
anxiety and forebodinS? How many
sobs. struggles and surrenders of
women are represented in the army of
our boys.-of women no less brave,
noble and patriotic than those they
send to the front? We have read Of
the difficulty of holding troops in line
under fire when the conditions forbid
them to reply. Do we realize that for
every man thus in line of battle, eX-
posed perhaps for only few minutes
or a few hours. there are in all likeli-
hood several women at home under a
keen and more cruel fire, day and
night, through weeks and months, with
no opportunity for action and nothing
to do except to think and brood and
remember?
When we consider. therefore, the
sacrifice and suffering the cost and
conduct, of the war, let us remember
the part played by the women of our
land in the quiet of their homes. As
we count the gains of the war, its
benefits to America and humanity, let
us add keener realization, on the part
of the men of our country, of woman's
part in war, the part of anxiety and
sorrow borne by the matrons ami
9 maids who are left at home.