Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1899-09-15
Her Dominion IN Home, and There
She Should Rightly Hule-Direetor
of the Spiritual Life Of the House
boId-Comforter of the Sick.

| ~ az tll-tt iAAN DO "a y 81 =
tion } ~ WIZ. T. f..l. 1 on at
some length that woman position was
higher in the world than mans. and
that, although she had often been de-
MED the right of suffrage, she al
ways did vote and always would
vote by her influence, and that her
chief desire ought to be that she
should have grace rightly to rule in the
dominion which she has already won.
began an enumeration Of some Of her
rights. and now resume the subject.
In the first place, woman has the
special and the superlative right of
blessing and comforting the sick. What
land, what street, what house has not
felt the smitings Of diseaseg Tens of
thousands Of sick bedsl What shall we
do with themg Shall man, with his
rough hand and clumsy foot, go STUN
bling around the sickroom. trying to
soothe the distracted nerves and allevi-
ate the pains of the distressed patient
The young man at college may scott at
the idea of being under maternal infu-
ences, but at the first blast Of typhoid
fever on his cheek he says. Where is
motherT' Walter Scott wrote partly in
satire and partly in compliment:
Oh. woman in our hours Of ease,
Uncertain. COY and hard to please,
When pain and anguish wiring the brow,
ministering angel thou!
think the most pathetic passage in
all the Bible is the description Of the
lad who went ont to the harvest field
Of Shunem and got sunstruck, press
ing his hands on his temples and cry
ing out. "Oh. my head my head
And they said. Garry him to his
mother. And then the record is, HE
sat on her knees till noon and then
died.
A MinisterinE Angel.
1t is an awful thing to be i'll away
from home in strange hotel, once in
awhile men coming in 10 look at you.
holding their hand over their mouth
for fear they will catch the contagion
How roughly they turn you in bed
How loudly they talk How you long
for the ministries of homel | know
one such who went away from one Of
the brightest Of homes for several
weeks business absence at the west A
telegram came at midnight that he was
on his deathbed far away from home
By express train the wife and daughters
went westward. but they went too late
He feared not to die, but he was in an
agony to live until his family got there
He tried 10 bribe the doctor to make
him live n little while longer. he said,
Il am willing TO die. but not alone
But the pulses huttered. the eyes closed
and the heart stopped The express
trains met in the midnight, wife and
daughters going westward, lfeless re-
mains of husband and father coming
eastward. Oh. it was a sad. pitltul,
overwhelming spectacle When we are
sick, we want to be sick at home
When the time comes for us TO die. we
want TO die at home. The room may be
very humble, and the faces that look
into ours may be very plain. but who
cares for that? Loving hands TO bathe
the temples Loving voices to speak
good cheer Loving lips to read the
comforting promises of Jesus
In our civil war men cast the cannon,
men fashioned the musketry, men cried
TO the hosts, Forward, march" J" men
hurled their battalions on the sharp
edges Of the enemy, crying, Charge
charged" but woman scraped the lint
woman administered the cordials, WON
an watched by the dying couch, woman
wrote the last message to the home CIR
Gle. woman wept at the solitary burial
attended by herself and four men with
a spade. We greeted the generals home
with brass bands and triumphal arches
and wild huzzas, but the story Is toe
good TO be written anywhere save IL
the chronicles of heaven, Of Mrs. Brady
who came down among the sick in the
lswamps of the Chickahominy; OF Annie
Ross, in the cooper shop hospital; OF
Margaret Breckenridge. who came tC
men who had been for weeks with theii
wounds undressed-some of them frozen
to the ground. and when she turned
them over those that had an arm let'
waved it and filed the air with theli
"hurrahp'- Mrs Hodge, who came
from Chicago. with blankets and VIII
pillows, until the men shouted: "Ihre'
cheers fer the Christian commission
God bless the women at homeF ther
sitting down to take the last message
"Tell nv wife not to fret about me, bu'
m meet me in heaven; tell her to tran
ND the boys whom we have loved s.
we'll: tell her we shall meet again IL
the good land; tell her TO bear my los
like the Christian wife Of Christian
.oldier." and of Mrs Shelton, int
whose face the convalescent soldier
looked and said, "Your grapes and co
logne cured me. And so it was ais
through all Of our war with Spain
women heroic on the field, bravinl
death and wounds to reach the fallen
. ! watching by their fever cots IN tn
West Indian hospitals or on the troop
ships or in our smitten home camps
Men did their work with shot and shell
and carbine and howitzer; women dl'
their work with socks and slippers ant
bandages and warm drinks and Scrip
ture texts and gentle strolnng Of tn
hot temples and stories Of that LAM
where they never have any pain. Mel
knelt down over the wounded and said
"On which side did You tightf Won
en- knelt down over the wounded an
! said. "where are you hurtf What ME
thing can l make for you to eatr Wha
makes you cryY' Tonight while W
men are sound asleep in our beds ther
will be light in yonder loft; ther
. will be groaning down that dark alley
, there will be cries OF distress in tina
cellar. Men will sleep, and women wa
watch