Boston Post from Boston, Massachusetts • Page 55

BOSTON SUNDAY POST. FEBRUARY 7. 1904 Ministering Angels of Battlefields and Hospitals Misa riNr.FA, MIR 8 CAttOLTNB A. BUnGHAIlDT. little place only held ebowt toen, nnd 10 as Mr.

Fowle did what he for one man, another to ik his place. As soon she hud distributed the stores MIiw Rumsey detennlntHl to go In nnd help the wounded. a she stopperi inside she grlnnei down, ri'he floor wa.i llternlly covered with blornl. Thi-n camo the natural diFfirustlnK shock of such a thlnff, hut soon the reaction sent her In tisnln to bind up those fearful woumla nit that loriK tlay. two men died of the number thnt were oareti for, which tends to prove that a pretty can somo- time.s wield songs or or splints to cdual advantage.

UNKNOWN "AUKTIE MISS RUSSELL. UNKNOWN. COI.UMBIA COLLEGE HOSPITAL NURSES, WASHINGTON, 1862. It la believed that Mias Burghardt la the only survivor of this group. Strangely enough, the four who are unknown to the Post are supposed to Massachusetts of clorgymou.

Will a.ny comrade wlio was in Columbia College Hospital, who recognlaes any of the fpur, notify the Sunday editor of the Post? Interest In Grsnd Army affairs and In the lives of the heroic women who nurted the Union sick and wounded on many battlefields and In dozens of hoipltals-during the Civil war will be revived shortly when the Grand Army of the Republic and the G. A. R. nurtet a precious tholf reunions in Boston this year. was Bayard Taylor who penned that truism that among bravest hearts are that beautiful poem which describes how.

Just before the battle, sang Of 'Annie but thougljt a different Among women It may be as truly said that the tenderest hearts are the bravest, and certainly the wonderful story of the army nurse bears out the truth of the transposition. part lo the world's war has been varied. In classic times a Helen Inspfr.ed^ it. It wasf Bcnadicea whose family chariot and train so encumbered the army that she insured Its defeat. In feudal days it was a woman's Idle gage which sent her knight to his doom.

But the patriotic woman of today has this In common with the noblest matriarch who bids her son come back his shield or on In a righteous cause. It Is a hard-hearted man who can stand unmoved before that mute testimony to the horror of cenotaph In the National Cemetery at Arlington! What of the wonvan who stands before It and wonders where In the ghastly commingling of bones lie those once held so close to her heart. tender soliloquy, these bones cast no hag a double force and meaning to a woman's soul. Perchance she asks the sphinx to solve this problem, since It has asked so many: Why woman, allowed neither to right nor legislate, bears always her double burden of sorrow dnd sacriftce? It w.as lo prevent If possible even a vaster array of tiny headstones that the heart of woman stirred within her, and she left the comfort of her home to do valiant battle with disease and disaster. And who shall say that a woman did not die a thousand deaths who watched those hrave fellows die one by one, standing Bllsnt.

watchful, efficient, at her ooat of duty, when perhaps her own boy ay on some other and unattended. Aye, "They also serve who only stand and As ft matter of fact, every one of these grand women literally had to right her way to the front. There was often opposition, mlsundersfllndlng. from her family at home. She went with varied gifts, with var ad motives, but always with true heart and willing hands.

And they were early on the field. "When your children have gone there, what can you do but cried good mother. They were so early that the officials Were not ready ftor them, and these women Inadvertently looked In upon some scenes of corruption and Inefficiency which were never meant for their eyes. But they roused their sisters to the necessity of saving their brave boys from these things, and of tearing the veils of red tape from some of these apparently open, but really closed, doors. Mother "I do this by the authority of the Lord, God Almighty! Have you anything that ranks was repeated by many an equally brave and busy woman In the ranks.

Walt Whitman In his Specimen Days says truly that "the real war will never get Into the Dorothea Dlx. with her almost rabid rejection of good looks In a nurse, simply made the discarding of curls, Jewelry, fine dress, and even the then thought Indispensable hoopskirt, the touchstone of admission to that grand sisterhood, nnd onco there, Lady Godlva- like, each stood upon no. individual niceties, when suffering humanity needed their sacrifice. tribute to the young woman nurse is characteristic and strangely different from most comments on her efficiency, and yet has sound sense and fine feeling. He says: "The of good, mlddls-ftgSd or elderly women, the magnetic touch of hand, the expressive feature of the mother, the silent soothing of her presence, her her knowledge and privileges arrived at only through having had children, arc precious and flqal tions.

It is a natural faculty that Is required; It Is not merely having a genteel young woman at a table In a ward. One of the finest nurses I ever met was a rcd-faced. Illiterate old Irish woman. I have seen her take the poor wasted, naked boys so tenderly up In her Like many of our noblest nurses, un- pcnsloned today because they were too busy doing the neglected work to be enrolled. Walt Whitman was unofficial who.

welcomed everywhere, came and went at will. Now that mental therapeutics are included in and many other things of the spirit are gaining ground everywhere, his comment is growing more Interesting to the world at large. "Tn my visits to the hospitals I found It was In the simple matter of personal presence, and emanating ordinary cheer and magnetism, that 1 succeeded and helped more than by medical nursing, or delicacies, or gifts of money, or anything else. My habit was when practicable. In starting out on one of those dally or nightly tours of from a couple to four or five hours, to fortify myself with previous rest, the b.ath, clean clothes, a good meal, and as cheerful an appearance 38 possible." Touchwith like spirit and like consecration In Washington at the same timo was a little tendor-hearted.

smlllng-faced Rumsey by Just MRS. MARGARET HAMILTON. Secretary Army Niirseii' Assoclatloa. MISS ELIDA (Mrs. John R.

Towle.) opposite Judiciary square. She had been gifted with a voice and a brave determination to sing only the right kind of patrlo'tlc songs. The undercurrent of secession feeling was strong in Washington then, especially when the men came scurrying back from Bull Hun defeated. And With such a defeat! Wait Whitman stayed In Washington mentally anathomatlslng the "shoulder at and writing for our great gnJn In a picture as vivid as any In "French the strfct scenes in Washington. For the men were pouring over the Long Bridge Oh the morning of the 22d drenched now, but caked with dust and fewe.at on the two previous "On to changed to "Back on ton It was Just after the second battle of Bull Run, August, '62.

that this young lady who had been singing in the hospitals ncKjT her house or wherever the weary, wounded men were assembled, went out Into the primary hospitals to labor among the wounded and dVlng of that diaaartroua btMtlefleld. Mr. John Fowle, to whotn she a clerical gentleman who was a minister in all but title, loaded an, ambulance with some 450 loaves of bread, moats, spirits of all kinds, lint, shirts and similar stores, reaching Centrevlllo early Sunday morning. They had no government so It was really a haxardoua undertaking, and only the Importuning of the earnest young girl gained them that privilege. Thus while MLss Dlx and her faithful nurses were detained three hway, little Miss Rumsey, whom she could not accept ns a nurse because she was too young and not as homely as a hedge-fence, was Inside the lines carrying succor to men who hpd been without food for 34 For they came upon a little negro ehacic near the battlefield, and determined to use It as a hospital, for already the wounded men had begun to arrive.

There was another little girl too young for a nurse, who could not, at first, enlist under Miss Dlx's banner, for similar reasons. She was Miss Fannie Titus, now Mrs. Fannie T. Hazen, the honored president for many years of the Army Nurses' Association. There was never any Dix had decided views upon the was all.

Mrs. Livermore, in her story the declares that the Florence Nightingale of America must have had considerable beauty herself When she! WHS young, "much as she deprecated It In her From another authority comes the fact that whatever scandals and inadequacies came Into Miss department camo through the least attractive members of her staff, which also goes to show "that beauty is own excuse' for Miss Titus was a Vermont girl and her eldest brother enlisted in the Fourth Vermont Infantry and was killed. Two years later younger brothers, 17 and years of age, enlisted, and then she went to both sanitary nnd Christian commissions, but the answer was, are too young." Bhc went to Dr. Hayward in Hayward place, Boston, who sent nurses to Miss Dlx. "It will be no use to send you.

Miss Dlx will send you right he Bald. So she went to Washington Independently with letters from her pastor and two fine physicians. She first vdsited the Arthqry square hospital, then was sent to Dr. on the Island, thence to the wards of the Deinar. When, In the course of her duties, she finally saw Miss Dix, she was given a very kinrily reception.

One of her first questions was as to how much baggage she was carrying. "A large and small She commended the good sense displayed ni this, and said: "Child. I shall not say no, although It Is entirely against my rules to take anyone so young, I hcllevH your heart Is In the work and that I can trust you. I shall send my ambulance to take you to the Columbian Hospital, there to remain until I se.nd you to Annapplls. In the meantime you will be under the Instruction of Mlsc Burghardt (she was writing nhe lalkiHl).

I have so instructed Doctor Mips Burghardt Is the last of the ladles standing on the right of the large group of the older nurses, and the only one MRS. JQIIN tt. TOWLE. MRS. FANNIE T.

HAZKN. With the nielwleon iwert the ser- Presitlhut Mnesnchiisetts Army Narws vices all throngh the war. Asmotntttlon. THIS PICTURE TAKEN AT THE FAIR EXHIBIT OF ARMl RPILICS. living today.

Mrs. Hazen served first in the linen room. Then a furlough was granted Mias Burghardt, who was In sore need of It, leaving the younger woman to tare for her ward. She was given Ward 2 on Miss return, for Mrs Russell, the second of the seated figures, hftvl resigned, so Mrs. Hazen stayed on unill the hospital was closed.

Space will not permit any full sketch of these nur.ses’ labors here, but even one Incident sometimes gives the character of their service, for the wounded from the Wilderness, the battle of Spottsylvania and Cold. Harbor all came here. Truth Is than fiction. From this latter battle her youngest brother was brought to her ward, and sisters are the same the world over. "I was so to see him alive that I did not feel sorry that he had been she said.

Mrs. Margaret Hamilton, the ex-president of the National Army Nur.ses’ Association nnd secretary Of the Massachusetts organization, who stands in the right of the group of three, Mrs. John R. Fowle and Mrs. Hazen being the others, has seen unusual service.

In that she was a novice among the Catholic sisters and Joined In their noble ministrations at the smallpox hospital. At the mother house at Emmettsburg. she gained her first experience. Many of her relatives had enlisted, and she went In May to the Slatterlee Military Hospital In West Philadelphia. Dr.

J. J. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, was In charge, with Dr. James Williams. The boys from the Chlcknhomlny swamps vsero her first care, and the work was so arduous and unremitting here that many of the nur.sea Bucftumhed.

Then came the great battles Last but not least comes the central figure in the large group. Mother Berryi the helid of the Columbia College Hospital staff, who with Mother Ransom, Mother Bkkerdyke and those other mothers in Israel the boys In blue bestowed the title In all affection. A government could give them no greater honor. It la Auntie Pomtoy whose comely face beams out et the left of the seated figures Jn the large group. She was left a widow at 40 years of age, ami had many other bereavements.

She had only one son, and he soon enlisted. It was In September of '61 that ehe started out alone from Chelsea. Mass. Mias Dlx took her into the Georgetown Hospital. Just then an exhausted nurse was carried out, and Mrs.

Pomroy left In the vacant ward of 50 typhoid cases. On that Ihrat day occurred one of those dramatic whicn translate others, which'-wiust be unwritten. A boy had been in a dying condition for several hcurs, and ns she bent to give him the last stimulant, he threw his arms around her crying, my dear Death they say sealed that clasp and It required tv'o attendafits to release her, and this strange experience marked her first night In actual hospital service. In a few days she was transferred the Columbia College Hospital, with whose nur.ses she is photographed. It was she who was at White House when, soon after Willie death, Mr.s.

Lincoln was 111 and the youngest child was expected to die. Her life was very interesting and her deep religious faith helped and sustained that desolate of '63 nnd '63, and finally the men frorv household in that trying the battle of Gettysburg. She retired fiom this hospital on account of her health, She married a sAldler of the Nineteenth Maine Volunteers and is the happy mother of eight children. She has she who obtained the permission that a Sunday afternoon servios should be established by Mr. John and Miss Rumsey of the Soldiers' FreA IJbrary, a vory interesting romantic rem- been for some years a devoted mcnw Inlscence of the war by the that of tho Wakefield Baptist I to another story.

YOUNG WOMEN OF JAMAICA PLAIN, ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED, STUDY HOUSEWORK LEARNING TO COOK It Is one of the foremost articles In the of the new woman to rail at the conditions under which the mothers and grandmothers of the present generation lived, "Women were formerly thought to be fitted for no more exalted mission In complain the advanced representative of her sex, "than to wash, sew and clean. It was expected that her activities would ha wholly confined within tho boundaries of her own household, nnd that she would have no more vaulting ambition thaa a desire to keep the family pantry well with food, and the holes In tho BOILED HALIBUT WITH EGG SAUCE, family stockings all well And the diatribe against as they once were usually ends up with an expression of deep pity for the unfortunate creatures whose lives in the opinion of the emancipated woman wero so But If the women of other days did not enjoy the social and business freedom that Is to the sex at the present time, 11 Is quite certain that in soma ways they possessed advantages that aro becoming commoTJ as the days go by. The mothers and grandmotiJers of the present day girl wore not expert golf and was seldom that they possessed the first elements of knowledge of business life. What they lacked In these respect.s, however, they more than made up for in the extent and variety of their accomplishments as home-makers. The old-fashlonod girl at a very tender age began to help her mother In the performance of necessary work about the home.

At flnst it was the simpler tasks that were taken up, and when the rudiments of these had been mastered, more complicated lessons were assigned. And so It happened that when most young women of the former days reached the years when It was proper for them to think seriously of beaux and prospective huabands, they were extensively and thoroughly educated In aJI that pertains to the science of successful home building and homo malntalnance. The girl of the present d.ay, however, while she has gained much as the result of the so-called emancipation of her sex, has In most Instances lost a great deal In the way of opportunities to acquire a practical knowledge of household science under the most favorable conditions. The store, the shop, the factory and office, together with the demands of society, con.sume so much of the time of the pre.sent-day young woman that she has but scant leisure In which to prepare herself for the duties of home making. She, therefore, in many cases, as- sunies the responsibilities of wifehood without being in the slightest degree prepared to perform the wifely duties of carrying on tho work of her own household.

And the if the conclusions of certain sociologists are to be believed, Is to he found in the constantly growing number of matrimonial ventures that reach their final conclusion la the divorce court. Out In Jamaica Plain is a little group of bright-eyed, Intelligent maiden.s, who would appear to be con.slderably wiser than many other persons of their day and generation. These young women have all succeeded in reaching that condition in life that is known as These young ladles have all of them been denied to a greater or less extent the opportunity to learn In their own homes how to properly cook, wash dishes, and perform the various other kinds of work that must be properly performed If a happy home Is to be maintained. Some of the gifls work In a big shop, others are employed in offices and while yet are engaged In Imparting knowledge to the young In the public schools of tho vicinity. These young brldea-elect some time ago determined that they would not risk having their matrimonial ventures meet shipwreck upon the old rocks that have scarred so many fair veasols that have Bnlled bravely out from the harbor of the hymeneal altar.

They therefore made up their minds that they would thoroughly learn how to properly perform all tho The young women are also later In the year to he taught how to properly use a broom and dustpan In conducting their campaigns against dust and dirt. When they have become thoroughly grounded in the principles of housec'ean- ing they will be given a chance to prepare themselves to give a cheerful affirmative answer to the annoying domestic qcrestlon, "Who shall build the fire this And when the lessons are all over each one of the engaged girls will be ready to assume charge of her own home with the proud consciousness that is In every way competent and capable to make and care for a neat, well- taken-care-of household. And If she cannot provide for her husband pies that are equal to those that were made by. her mother-in-law she will at least be able to set before him an abundance of well- cooked, nourishing food, prepared by her own hands. It Is safe to say that there will be no divorce suits to bring misery Into the lives of these practical, sensible Jamaica Plain young women.

JAMAICA PLAIN CLASS OF GIRL STUDENTS IN HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. duties that fall to a careful and conscientious lot. Now overy Monday evening these young women meet in a large vacant on Centre street, near Walden street. Here, under the direction of MLss Nina M. George, as a part of the work of the educational centre that been established in connection with the Ijiwell School, tho work of, studying household scle oarrled on.

Tho store been fitted up In a suitable way to acccvmmodatc the class, and all of the necessary apparatus for the proper porformance of the work is at hand. The first lessons taken by "the engaged as It Is quite commonly called, had to do with the simnlost and most elementary forms of cooking. As the Beacon advanced, however, the dishes thnt were taken up for demonstration became more complex In their composition and required more and to have them for serving when oompleted. At Thanksgiving time the "engaged rirls" were on opportunity to cover all tho culinary secrets that are associated with the preparation of a palate-tltkllng dinner. Roast chicken was selected the leading dish uix)n tho menu.

This was prepared in a w.ay that called forth the most flattering words of praise from those who were privileged to partake of a small portion of tho daintily browned fowl. With the chickeoi the young women learned how to properly prepare the various accompanying vegetables, such aa mashed potato, squash, turnip, etc. At Christmas time tho attention of the Etudent.s was turred to the subject of confectionery. Under Misil direction many delicious Christmas candles wero manufactured' and fhelr composition and method of preparation learned. At the present time tho class, among other things.

Is learning how to assemble tho' for and cook various daintily atlrnctlve desEorte. on na the season advanecs the will learn how to properly cook v.arlou* kinds of meats and fish. Then the dtifieult but vslushlc art of good broadmaklpf will claim tbs fair students' attention. Ice cream making will follow next on the list of studies, and after the future housewives have become proficient producers of the frozen dainty they will be given a c'nance to become skilled salad makers. Together with the lessons upon subjects pertaining to the proper preparation of food for the table will be the study of various subjects that have to do with tho care and maintenance of a bright, clean, well ordered home.

Dishwashing Is a branch of household science that la taught at every gathering of the cla.sa. It might seem to the thoughtlers that the work of cleaning dlahes must be such that any person could perform It properly without being taught. A visit to the "engaged teaches otherwise. There is a right way and a wrong way even of using dlshpan and dishcloth, and the Jamialca Plain young women, at every Monday ovonlpg's meeting, are compelled to wash, and wash in the right way, all of the plates and other utensils they soil tn oonnoctlon with lessons. A HALF SOLVED MYSTERY Detroit has a suburban grocer who l.s something of a joker, and, having bought a crock of butter of Uncle Reuben a few days ago, slipped a ftve-pound stone In the empty crock and exhibited it to the farmer and said: "Uncle Reuben, I've known you for the last five years, and sworn that you were an honest man.

sorry to see "Well, that half solves the replied the old man as he picked up the stone, hefted it and looked it over in a puzzled way. "What queried the grocer, "Three or four days ago a strange dog came along by our place, and my son Bill heaved this rock at him. The dog nnd the disappeared like a flash, and though Bill hunted nrouqd for half an hour he find either. I can't say where the dog got to, but the rock must have come down on this crock of butter and sunk to the bottom, out of Detroit Free Pre.ss. THE REVENGE Having brought him almost to tha point of proposal, the flirt deemed It time to discourage him.

"I she said, "that I have been thoughtless and h.ave let our little affair assume too much "Oh, not at all," he replied, for he was quick of wit and knew what was coming. "I quite understand. I fear It Is you who have misinterpreted my attentions. I am a lawyer, you "What of "I have hoped to show you that I have the discretion and ability to handle your divorce buclnewfc the time Chicago Post,.