The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-11-25


duties with a song on her lips, a song breath
ing words Of thanksgiving for a safe return
Of her soldier
Back and forth through the great depot
surged mighty throng. The blue coated
police, who usually seem 20 stern and heart
less, had not the courage TO attempt to re-
strain these people who had come to wei.
come home their soldier boys. And in an.
other Is minutes the first of them would he
there. Those who came first would be the
sick, and there were willing hands to care
for them. From al sections Of the city had
come physicians and nurses rendering their
services and begging that they might be &C.
cepted and they permitted to assist some Of
the sick. Hospital doors had been opened
wide to receive the blue uniformed patients
which this first train would bring. Car
riages from the finest homes in the city were
there to convey those who were able and
wished TO go to their homes to them,
wherever those homes might be. The mil
lionaire's mansion and the poor mans cot.
tage were offered as refuge for those who
had not homes to go to.
In the great mass OF humanity stood the
mother waiting anxiousy for that first train
to arrive. She had met comrade OF her
husbands and he had told her that when he
started for home on furlough he had left
her husband in the hospital. Her song Of
Thanksgiving had given place to tears, and
she had come not to welcome the strong
man she had given to his country, but the
invalid in blue
When the train came to a careful stop and
the colonel from the back platform signaled
for quiet not a voice was raised in cheers.
That was not the time Tor cheers, but the
time for help, and willingly was the help
given. Doctors were 80 plentiful that il was
with difficulty that the regmentsl sur.
geons found a patient for each Of them.
Trained muses. in their neat striped dresses
accompanied each sick soldier TO hospital
or home. Veterans, men with gray hair and
stopped soldiers who had served in the First
in years gone by, were there by the hun.
dreds TO assist in caring for the men who
mad made the old regiment famous in time
Of war az they had in times Of peace.
As each fever-racked soldier was carried
from the train and along the platform TO the
waiting ambuances that would convey them
to home or hospital the wife and mother
never missed a face. Each one IN ght be her
John, and the hands ~ willing to help the
sick were Just as unwilling to deny the cry.
ing wife the privilege OF seeing each face
Name after name was checked off, and still
her John had not been found, and then
came the last and that was not him, and the
tears flowed faster than ever as she worked
her way slowly through the crowd of hu.
mainly, who were waiting to welcome their
loved ones who We're coming on the trains
bearing the well members OF the regiment.
Her sorrow attracted the attention OF even
those who were rejoicing at the home COM
ing Of husbands, sons or brothers, and they
tued TO comfort her.
He Is in all probability well by this time
and will return in the regimental train"
said one.
There is no cause for alarm as yet, for it
is more than n month ago since the com.
rade you speak OF saw him, said another.
But the wife could not be comforted Her
John was so big and 80 strong that if he
once got sick he would not get well for long
time, ii he ever did. She quietly worked her
way out of the mass of people in the depot
and went to the armory, Probably by some
mlschance she had missed him and he had
been taken to the armory, where he would
need her, She went into the big stone build
,ns Jug, "nere she mar DO o'eeh gone 10 see th'I,
URN al lhe years before the war ana
ssaicneu through room after room TO hhd
'"1 missing i.i-eoaiu
lie was not III ms own company parlor.
nor IA the locker room above; Then around
the lohg D%cohy she wandered glanclng
INTO each company parior, INTO the ban
guet' the surgeon ana the colonels rooms
nut az were empty; ana sue went back again