Willmar tribune., 1900-03-28
CHAPTER VI.


derful city, seated on more than her
seven hills, and ruling the western
world, was thronged from curb to curb.
Gay with bunting and streamers, the
tall buildings of the rival newspapers
and the long facades of hotels and busi-
ness blocks were gayer still with the
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 Godspeed
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- mass~ 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-covered chariot at the summer fes-
tival of flowers, through the winding
lanes of eager forms and faces, the cam
noneers almost dragged from the ranks
by the clasping hands of men and
women who seemed powerless to let
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 piet 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 feasted, COM
forted and rejoiced under the ministra-
tions 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 fever-haunted 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 delicately
reared, the social pets and darlings, the
humble seamstress, NO one too 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 riddled
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
ent 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 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.
Lingering farewe'ls 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 viyacity, and complexion, had ap-
parently taken the lead in the warfare
of chaff and fun. Evidently she was
no stranger to most of the officers. AL
most as evidently, to very close OBJ
server who stood 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 recuperative 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 pervaded it. She had never
thought of such a thing as the Red
Cross until she found it the center of
the social armament after her arrival
at San Francisco, and here she was,
the last conner, the foremost (''most for
ward" I think some one described it)
in their circle at one of the most prom
inent tables, absorbing much of the
attention, most of the glory, and none
of the fatigue that should have been
equally shared by all.
"Adios!" she gayly cried, as the "as-
sembly' rang out, loud and clear, and
waving their hands and raising their
caps, the officers fastened to join their
commands. "Adios, till we meet in
Manila"
"Do you really think of going to the
~ HE~c' ~ ~,u:e,,,