The San Francisco call., 1898-05-01
RED CROSS LEAGUE
Continued from Page Nineteen)

stimulus of sympathetic companion ship.
 I know from experience how 1t is to have such help near when It IS needed A woman of this noble kind visited me twice day when I was laid up in Washington after the amputation of my leg. She was always jolly-had bit of interesting army gossip to re- late, or news from my regiment and brigade, and she told it in breezy way that braced a fellows spirits just to listen. She wouldn't let me give up to "the blues" if I had wanted to.
 One day I heard her cheery laugh as she entered the door, and thinking that the sheet was perhaps not as carefully arranged over my wounded limb as 1t should be when lady visitor was ex pected, I made an effort to adjust 1t. She laughed outright in her hearty way and said with a reassuring pat on the coverlid, Never mind that, my boy. I've seen men with less cover than that in Libby Prison" And weak as l was I laughed too.
 Mrs. Ricketts was the wife of Gen. eral Ricketts of Washington. He was wounded at the first battle of Bull Run in '61. taken prisoner and sent to Richmond with other officers of our army. AS soon as his wife heard of 1t she applied for a commission to pass through the lines. It was granted, and
  there several months and was the only woman in Libby Prison, doing practi cally all the nursing for the officers, and there were many of them there who were wounded at Bull Run.
 They regarded her as not only min istering angel, but several angels rolled into one, and there is no question but that her presence during that terrible ordeal saved their lives.
 AfterWard Mrs. Ricketts returned to Washington, where she devoted herself to visiting the regular army men, near ly all of whom knew her, in the hes pitals, talking to them making them laugh so that they might have faith to believe they were not going to die after all, and doing them good every day of their lives.
 It Is curious what influence the mind will exert over the body. I remember a case in point where two officers of the regular brigade had been injured, one with what was considered a mortal wound, bullet through the lungs; the other with a flesh wound-what we used to call a furlough, for a hole in the arm meant thirty days leave of absence at home.
 When I visited them the man with the perforated lungs who couldn't speak, smiled, and his bright eye show ed unflinching courage and determina- tfon. The other was very Respondent.
 odlu lIle surgeon, IT they continue in their present frame of mind the really sick man will recover from sheer grit and the man who is merely gloomy will die" And so 1t proved
 But If cheery woman had been there to pull him out of that slough of despond l believe he would have got well.
 When we came up from Fredericks- burg after the battle. of the Wilder ness, by boat, after being carried some fifteen miles, the surgeons came aboard to chop us up. I had already had my leg taken off. hut I had my owl sanitary commission to look after me my sister having come on to meet me.
 That fortnight was a busy one at Fredericksburg with the Sanitary Com mission, for the battle of Spottsylvania followed soon after. The ambulance corps had been sent on with the wound ed to Fredericksburg, where they were detained If convaleScent, or shipped on to New York and other places of hos p1tal safety if in serious condition, so the poor fellows who were wounded had to be sent from the field in army wagons without springs, and were worse off than we because they had had nearly two weeks more of fatigue.
 l have seen women writing letters have seen them reading home letters to men with holes in their heads, band aged so that they could not see-per- haps never could see again.
 The presence of these self-sacrif1cing women in the hospitals was blessing that cannot be overestimated.