The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-12
OUR GIRLS WHEN MR..
YANK CAME TO TOWN

by popular fancy. and laughed the buga-
boo out of court, IN one round" The
Presidents sister-in-law had only said:
How is the Pawnee coming; on
wheels? These people forget that there
Is no water for her above Drewry's
Bluff; and her guns do not carry half
the distance"
Shame brought revulsion that reason
had not; and the panic allayed itself l
may ada that no one paused to analyze
either the brilliant woman's photography
or her gunnery. That was not needed.
On many Sunday a few months later.
those same women assembled in their
churches and worshipped calmly and I'M
noting, while the dull boom of great
guns made dread discordance with the
hymnal Thence, bravely as gently, they
moved almost as one, to Rockets, CHM
oorze heights or other hospital; to re-
ceive the incoming loved ones-of their
own kth, or with unknown faces, alike
and then
ITO. for those dear ones what wom-
an alone In her pity can dol"
During the entire war-and through the
entire south-it was the hospital that
illustrated the highest and best traits
of the tried and stricken people
Doubtless, there was good work done
L.
Happily for the sanity of the nation.
American womanhood springs from one
common stock. 1t is ever true to its
own, as a whole-and, for aught l shall
deny-indivdually. But behind that Chi
nese wall of wood and steel blockade,
then nursing was not an episode. 1t was
grave duty, grim labor, heartbreaking
endurance-all self-imposed, and lasting
Tor years; yet never shirked and relin-
pushed only for cause.
But the dainty little hands that tied
the red bandage, or held the artery"
unfinching; the nimble feet that wear
led not by fever cot, or operating table
the active months of war, grew nimbler
still on bride. or in the dance when 1.-THE
boys" came home. This was some times
on flying frrlough." or when an aide
or courier with dispatches was told to
wait. Then The One Girl was mounted
on any thing that could carry her; and
the pair would ride far to the front In
full view of the enemy, and often in point
blank range. Or 1t was when frozen ruts
made roads impossible for invader and
defender; and the furlough was perhaps
easier, and longer. Then came those now
historic dances, the starvation parties,
where rank told nothing, and where the
only refreshment came in that intoxi-
can't womans voice and eyes
Then came the Dies Iras, when the
Southern Rachel sat in the ashes of her
desolation, and her homespun was sack
cloth. And even then. she rose supreme
By her desolate hearth, with her larder
empty and only her aching heart full
she still forced a smile for the home
coming boy" through the depressed
tears for the one left-somewhere in the
fight
In Richmond. Atlanta, Charleston and
elsewhere, was she bitter and unforgiv-
lngY If she drew her faded skirt-ever
black one. In that case-from contact of
the passing blue was II treason or
human nature? Thinkers, who wore the
blue have time and oft declared the lat
ter Was she "unreconstructed?" Her
wounds were great and wondrous sore
She was true then-to her faith. That
she Is so today. to the reunited land, let
the mothers of Spanish war heroes tell
She needs no monument 1t is reared in
the hearts OF true men, north and south.
T. C. DeLEON