The midland journal., 1905-05-26
ARHO WAR

7 Alas! there was no mistake. The
words were plain and each syllable
was like bullet: "The flag is fired
upon at Fort Sumter"
The, next morning proved this to
have been false alarm, but the
effect on the peaceful little group of
old and young was the same that It
might have been later when the sad
tidings were true. Among those pre-
sent were North and South Carolini-
ans, citizens of Connecticut and New
York, Virginians and people from
Massachusetts,, and from Louisiana
ana one from Ohio; and with, the ex-
ception of two or three who were in
feeble health, believe there was not
one who did not. in the sad days to
come, take creditable part on the
enc side or the other in differing but
active ways.
In one corner stood Bessie Calvert
from Charleston and Phillip Schuyler
from Albany. The high back of the
old-fashioned sofa had shielded the
hands while sitting which they had
forgotten to unclasp as they unoon-
sciously rose and gazed at each other
with blanched faces. Near them
stood Wallace Graham, Of Beaufort,
N. c., who had involuntarily flung his
arm around Nina Suydam, as if he
would defy any rending of the bethro-
thai ties Which had so lately united
them. The old men stared at each
other, white to the lips with unspokeh
grief, while unnoticed tears stole
down their strong faces; the young
men glared at each other with fierce
amaze, and the women, whether old
or young, sobbed with a grief that
could not be uttered
For few moments this smothered
sobbing was the only sound in the
lately so animated room; bu. soon
there was commotion enough for
revolutionary assembly, during which
every one talks and no one hearkens.
hardly remember how the party
broke up. but I know that it proved
to be the last meeting on earth for
some who had loved each other well,
and the last for many months or years
of others.
The next morning beheld a parting
that was stormy On the one side and
fearful on the other between Wallace
Graham and Nina Suydam in the same
old parlors. Wallace was hot-headed,
furious States Rights partisan, and
Nina was loyal daughter of the
Union, looking upon war only as
last resort. True, it had not yet been
declared, but all felt that it soon
would be. and Wallace Graham left
New York that night to "go with his
State" whatever action she might
take. Before that week was out not
one of the evenings group of friends
who was born south of Washington
City was to be found in New York.
New Workers of thirty-fve years
ago will remember the fine but sadly
unsanitary old City Hospital set fifty
feet or more back from Broadway on
Pearl Street. A day or two after the
news of the first terrible Seven Days
before Richmond" it was rumored
| that this old hospital was to receive
some of the wounded whe had been
deemed able to travel so far from the
| field where they were stricken.
This was work for women, and at
home. So far there had not been many
women engaged in hospital work, al
though in the labor of preparing hospi-
tai supplies they had been incessant
and tireless.
Among the first in New York City
to ask admittance to the hospital as
a nurse was Nina Suydam. She was
too young and pretty said gruff old
! Surgeon Daily, good man and kind.
But in spite Of the old surgeons OBJ
jections Nina obtained pass. "for
one day only. to walk about, cry. and
! get sick of it." said the good-hearted