Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-01
:FAzABETH VANLEw

tive form. There may be a change in a.
word or in the edifice. but there will be
no change in the sentiment!
At the time of the civil war there was
no Red Cross-no organized enort TOT
nursing sick and wounded soldiers. Nor
were there many women trained in nurs-
ing as they are now. Within thirty
days after the troops were called Tor
the Secretary OF War appointed MISS
Dorothea Dix of Boston as superintend-
ent of nurses, and her word was law IN
the hospital department. She was given
power to appoint nurses and discharge
them as she saw fit. There could be no
question of Miss Dix's fitness for such
position-her activities previous to that
time had been world wide. She had inn
proved prison conditions all over the
country. as well as abroad, and had
founded thirty-two hospitals besides two
in Japan. She issued circulars describ-
ing the kind of women she required for
her service and she would accept no
others.
Miss Mary A. G. Holland, herself an
army nurse. who has written Our Army
Nurses" quotes this circular Of Miss
Dix. 1t reads:
NO woman under thirty years of age
need apply to serve in a government
hospital. All nurses are required to be
very plain-looking women. Their dresses
must be brown or black with no bows,
no curls or jeweiry and no hoopskirts.'
Such a circular would naturally ex-
clude some women who might want to
help. but they who were too young or too
beautiful or otherwise ineligible to the
government service just helped anyhow
Miss Holland tells the hardship that cir
cular worked upon her. She was most
ffr IN to ha q
sole support Of her mother. She prepar-
ed bandages and did work that could be
done at home, but she wanted to go on
the firing line. At last her mother told
her to go-and then Miss Holland con-
sidered the requirements of Miss DIX.
She says Of herself that she was plain
enough and old enough, and that her
clothes were. of necessity, plain. But
she felt that she could not give up her
hoopskirt Hoopskirts We're fashionable
she had worn one for some time; she
could not imagine herself without one
felt that she could not walk without one.
And a brave woman. for whom the war
held no terrors paused to sigh over re-
linquishing her hoopskirt. Soon, how
ever her self abnegation reached even
that point: so she left her hoops behind
and Joined Miss Dix.
Much of the most valuable service was
rendered by women who We're not enlisted
but were borne along by their own over
towering desire to do what they could.
And, while there,we Confederate wom-
en- and Union women doing relief work,
there was no question which flag a soldier
had fought under when in need of wom-
ans ministrations. That the men on each
side blessed the women of their foes In
times of agony, is shown by their own
words.
service If it had known the Kind Of peo-
pie. 1t was 'dghtinS.'' said a young Con-
federate officer to Mrs Bickerdyke. a
famous army nurse, when she was apply
ing a tourniquet to an arm shattered by
a mimic ball.
pass in! I did not come here to fight
such peoplec'- said a. Union officer in
Nashville to q young Confederate woman
whom the commanding general had re-
fused permission to enter the. hospital
She. carried food and medicine to Blue
and Gray alike.
Mrs Fanny Ricketts,, whose husband
was captain In the LIST Artillery U. 8.
he was. recalled from, the Rio Grande.
where they had been since their mar
rage three years before. In Washington
she said goodbye to her husband and
watched him march away to Join the
army that was gathering for the first bat
tie Of Manassas. After, the battle was
over word was brought to her that her
husband was dead and left on the field.
She couldn't believe that he had been
killed, SO started out to find him. Pro-
curing q carriage and a pass that would
take ner to the extent of the Union lines,
she proceeded with little delay till halted
by the pickess o, the ont esvsra army
mander, stuart, whom she had known
before the war. down 10 on the the Ri. Rio
for her to proceed as far as Fairfax.
There. when the nature Of her errand
was discovered. she was asked to sign
a parole that she would not act as a
spy.
She was indignant. and. would not.
Another officer interceded for her. and,
finally. she was given pass and a
guide to the headquarters of Gen. John
ston, who remembered that her hus-
band had been carried to house on
the reeking battlefield. She was horror
stricken as she passed along.
Under the pitiless July sun decom-
position had set in. and she had to
pick her way across reeking corpses
and over ground on which. after two
days, the blood had not yet dried. Be
side tho door of the house was pile
Of i:uIlan limb I'D arms thrown