The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-28

l Idu lclI lIlt country. lJLt pore u CUlll l within the week. When she was l stronger, she used to sit all day in a
 willow chair on the lawn in front of her
 house, watching her baby, watched by | an Irish corporals wife, her servant. The women were not over-nice to her. l The colonels wife, a grand old lady,
 tried to comfort and serve her, but the 1 Weak-lOoking mother would not be pet 1 ted and served, and sWeetly withdrew | behind smiles and courteous words, l She was ineXplicably reticent, visibly
 relieved, even when that kindly old lady
 went away from her. In fact, she was
 afraid of the other Women-afraid of
 their friendship and tongues Her hus- l band had told her-before he left, before
 she had joined the regimental women I not to know them as long as he was | away, not to gossip with them, not to
 become intimate with any, the incest of l them. She obeyed. With her baby, her ! letters to the major, and his to her, she | spent the whole summer of the war
 without an acquaintance at the fort or
 in the city. Two people knew her lit
 tle-the contract surgeon who attended | her in her illness, and newspaper re- l'llSl, Nilb lOuItl llti tl HIS Niltll liC followed the trail of the letter-man.
 She was twenty years old. her heart as tender as a Mariposa lily, but she stuck
 it out until the major came back to Camp Wyckoff Not a breath of scan-
 day ever touched her, for she married into the army from her home in Con necticut village.
 "The furry of scandal separated the
 women. The colonel+s wife and daugh-
 ter withdrew from the others Day in
 and day out the beautiful old lady In
 lace cap, sat on her porch, sewing woolen bands for soldiers, She kept her
 daughter sewing at her side, The
 mother of two captains wives came to
 live with their daughtens-two other
 little garrisons withdrawn from the bat
 tie of the gossips. A captains wife and
 a lieutenants wife, mother and daugh-
 ter formed another little camp of their
 own Opportunity for gossip decreased
 civilized society at the fort dWindled
 to a thin ceremonial, and jealousy
 sprouted as rank as the sword-grass on
 the parade.
 Jealousy in the army becomes viru-
 lent on occasions, in degree astound-
 
 to thosie who watch women tear their skirts climbing social ladders. The Army Register lies on the table in every house. In it the position, pay and history of every woman's husband is marked, and the position, pay and history of the husband of the other wo- men. Each woman knows her hus- bands place, and the place of the other women's husbands, and knows that the others know that she knows, Any step in her husbands rank is a step in hers. In the army one line only is open to her for better clothes and higher position the line of her husbands advancement- his rank is everything. The lieutenant's wife may give a thousand teas, but she cannot precede the captains wife, who rose with the captain from the ranks, who used to wash for the colonel's wife and who ornaments herself l ike a Christmas tree. The majors wife, who has six names on the Founders Monu- ment at Hartford and four names signed to the Mayfower compact, walks behind the ieutenant-coloners wife, who offered in vain. five hundred dollars to genealogists to find a grandfather for her
 Jealousy and gossip gave way to anxiety when the army advanced from Siboney. Letters from the mud and bullets shoot the life from meaner pas | sions The less intimate parts of letters were told from mouth to mouth Only the girl with the baby kept her letters for her own heart The old come-and- | go from house to house commenced. ] Women having read their own letters. went up and down the row to give and gather news.
 Nowhere in the country so soon as in the army posts does indignation rise against the men who blundered. The | most timid woman at the fort soon talked more wildly against the ineompe- tents than ever Irishman does against England. Women cried with sup pressed anger when they read their let ters to each other. They slept less than usual. They became kinder to their servants, wives of soldiers. The ser wants brought their own letters to their 
 "Hhe men rarely complained the off cers never but the facts they told made comment supererogatory. The enlisted men grumbed against those who com handed their own regmental officers, but praised their own commanders, and regiment Strangely enough to one who had never been with the army in war, praise from privates on the field was a ma tier of pride to the officers wives at home. Women whose husbands names were blessed in the of the officers row were proud
 Reports, of wounds, sickness and death drtbbled from Siboney to Wash ngton, from Washington to depart mental headquarters. and from head quarters to the fort. Often, the govern nent service was slower than the news papers Telephones at the club and the guard-rOom called the newspaper offices every hour. Upon a rumOr of bad news he women telegraphed to Washington. Ten times to one Washington knew no more than the sentry at the flagstaff was not prompt enough. Washington had thousand things on tS mind.
 Upon news, definite or indefinite, wo- men would start east Some went to he war department to beg the news hey could not get over the telegraph wire, Some went to New York hoping hat this or that transport would have lboard the men Washington had lost rack of. Some went to Tampa some Q Jacksonville, on pure guesswork
 Al. l