Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1900-04-12
CHAPTER VI.

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life and color and enthusiasm that
crowded every window. Street traffic
was blocked. Cable cars changed vain
ly and the police strove valiantly. 1t
was day given up to but one duty and
one purpose, that of giving Codspeed
to the soldiery ordered for service in
the distant Philippines, and, though
they hailed from almost every section
of the union, except the Pacific slope,
as though they were her own children,
with all the hope and faith and pride
and patriotism, with all the blessings
and comforts with which she had load
ed the foremost ships that sailed, yet
happily without the tears that flowed
when her own gallant regiment was
first to lead the way, San Francisco
turned out en- masse to cheer the men
from far beyond the Sierras and the
Rockies, and to see them proudly
through the Golden Gate. Early in the
day the guns of a famous light battery
had been trundled, decked like some
rose-coyered chariot at the summer fes-
tival OF flowers, through the winding
lanes of eager forms and faces, the can
noneers almost dragged from the ranks
| by the clasping hands of men and
women who seemed powerless to let
go. With their little brown carbines
tossed jauntily over the broad blue
shoulders, half regiment of regular
cavalry dismounted, had gone trudg-
| ing down to the docks, cheered to the
gateway of the pier by thousands of
citizens who seemed to envy the very
recruits who, only half-uniformed and
| drilled, brought up the rear of the col
umn. Once within the massive wooden
| portals, the guards and sentries holding
back the importunate crowd, the sol
| diers flung aside their heavy packs. and
were marshalled before an array of
tempting tables and there Toasted, com
| forted and rejoiced under the ministra-
tons of that marvellous successor of the
| sanitary commission of the great civil
war of the siXties-the order of the Red
| Cross. There at those tables in the dust
and din of the bustling piers in the
SCOT and heat of the railway station. in
the jam and turmoil at the ferry
houses, in the fog and chill of the sea
ward camps, in the feverhaunted wards
of crowded field hospitals, from dawn
| till dark, from dark till dawn. toiled
/ week after week devoted women in
every grade of life, the wife of the
millionaire, the daughter Of the day
laborer, the gentle born, the delioatelv
reared, the social pets and darings. the
humble seamstress, no one top high to
stoop to aid the departing soldier none
too poor or low to deny him cheer and
| sympathy. The war was still Young
then. Spain had not lowered her rddled
standard and sued for peace. Two
| great fleets had been swept from the
seas, the guns Of Santiago were 81
fenced, and the stronghold of the ORR
emit was sulking in the shadow Of the
flag, but there was still soldier work to
be done, and SO long as the nation sent
its fighting men through her broad
and beautiful gates San Francisco and
the Red Cross stood by with eager,
lavish hands to heap upon the warrior
| sons of a score of other states, even as
upon their own, every cheer and com
fort that wealth could purchase, or hui
man sympathy devise. 1t was the one
feature of, the war days Of '9S that will
never be forgotten.
At one of the flower-decked tables
near the great stage" that led to the
main deck of the transport, group
of blithe young matrons and pretty
girls had been busily serving fruit, cof-
fee and bouillon and substantals TO
the troopers, man after man, for over
two hours. There was lively chat and
merry war of words going on at the
moment between half a dozen young
officers who had had their eyes on that
particular table ever since the coming of
the command, and were now making
the most Of their opportunities be
fore the trumpets should sound the
assembly and the word be passed to
move aboard. All the heavy baggage
and ammunition had, at last, been swung
into the hold; the guns of the battery
had been lowered and securely
checked; the forecastle head was
| thronged with the red trimmed uni
forms of the artillerymen, who had al
ready been embarked and were now
jealousy clamoring that the troopers
should be "shut OFF, from the further
ministrations of the Red Cross, and
broadly intimating that it wasn't a fair
deal that their rivals should be allowed
| LOl ,f
| farewellS.
Lingering farewells there certainly
were. Many young soldier and many
a lass paired off, in little hooks and
corners among the stacks of bales and
boxes, but at the table nearest the
staging all seemed gay good humor
A merry little woman with straw-col-
ored hair and pert, tip-tilted nose and
much vivacity, and complexion, had APP
parently taken the lead in the warfare
of chatf and fun. Evidently she was
no stranger TO most Of the officers. Al
most as evidently, to a very close OBJ
server who stood a few PAGES away
she was no intimate of the group OF
women who with good right regarded
that table as their especial and per
sonal charge. Her Red Cross badge was
very new; her garb and gloves were
just as fresh and spotless. She had
not been ladling out milk and cream
or buttering sandwiches, or pinning
souvenirs on dusty blue blouses ever
since early morning. Other faces
there showed through all their smiles
and sweetness the traces Of long days
of unaccustomed work and short nights
of troubled sleep. Marvellous were Mrs.
Frank Garrison's recuperatiye powers,
thought they who saw her brought
home in the Primes stylish carriage,
weak and helpless and shaken after her
adventure of the previous day. She
had not been at the Preside a week
and yet she peryaded it. She had never
thought of such thing as. the Red
Cross until she found it the center Of
the social armament after her arrival
az San Francisco and here she WAS