Show V OWEST ARY NURSE INSTATES UNJiTEL IN-STATES TELL IIER STORY Terrible Times During the Mexican WarStruggling with Yellow Jack the Wandering Jew and Smallpox atOne at-One and the Same TimeMow the Women of the i Union Fought to Bring Back the Wounded from the Valley of the Shadow V Santa Monica Cal March 12I have I the honor to be the oldest nurse in the United Slates I count It among the greatest glories that woman can win to have spent years In alleviating the woes oC suffering patriots In smoothIng I smooth-Ing ihc pillows of ihose who died for I their country and moistening lie lips of men who lie feverishly groaning out the life that ebbs away from the effect of bullet or shell wound My first army nursing experience antedates the Civil strife going back 10 K M6 when I followed fol-lowed the fortunes of our armies during the Mexican war I think there Is scarcely a form of Physical suffering thai I did not witness wit-ness during tIme years of lint war Torture Tor-ture and deatli In tIme form of bullet wounds were a comparatively small part of the evils that we encountered The 1 brave boys were attacked by cholera and went down by cloena while the doctors were unable to stay the ravages of the disease and with lie other nursLs I could only keep my head and nerve und minister to the wants or UK strk while expeiUng every moment lo be Hacked myself and need a nurse too I Then came yellow fever and hint tor rlble germ rode grimly around the camps culling off lion one there two or three there a whole company until the hospitals were unable to I hold the applicants and the nurses worked clay and night were exhausted nnd unable to do more As though the catalogue of evils that followed in the red train of war were not sufilclent with cholera and yellow fever there came smallpox to finish the work that the others had so effectually begun There we had them all three at once the Wandering Jew working in eccentrIc trucks through the cities and camps leaving a trail of dead and dying nelilnd him Yellow Jack grinning a death grin ont on-t < nt poles and hospital porch while his victims hourly increased In number and m then the devastating germ of smallpox darling through the crowded quarters killing and marking f During lint terrible time we burled 3000 The strain under which we labored la-bored wns tcrrlllc The hospitals wen utterly Inadequate not one of them being a prormrly equipped establishment establish-ment The nurses were all volunteers and had little experience Like the men however we vere all prompted by i the purest patriotism and what we did not know we strove to learn and when we had not the proper appliances we got along as well as we could without with-out them and wo all worked with the greatest sd sacri flee and energy and I doubt If any corps of highlytrained nurses could have done betetr than wo didLate Late in the fall of 19 I started for Philadelphia and on the Journey the value of a nurses training Mas shown When lie boat stopped at Memphis gallant Major Gault oame uboaid Ho had not been long on his Journey before cholera symptoms developed I had seen too much of these symptoms not to recognize them on sight and I knew at once what remedies to give the sufferer suf-ferer In fact I I never traveled without brandy camphor laudanum etc and these I promptly administered 1 wan Instrumental In saving the Majors life for there was no medical attendance attend-ance on hand and he would Inevitably have died had I not had the remedies on hand As It was he was able to proceed pro-ceed to Washington where he was promoted V pro-moted to the rank of Colonel for merl lorlous I conduct Two years later lie died nt Cincinnati from cholera When the Civil war broke oat J was sent for and served all through that struggle In acllve Hervlco at the United States army hospital at Chester Pa In charge qC United Stales Surgeon Thomas Elusion Elus-ion Bache Here for our years the wounded of tie Union were brought to us women and we labored to brinjj thorn bnek lo lite K AO saved them we rejoiced tiri though one df our oWn t had TjetMireFcuedfrom the valloyof tho shadow If wo lost a case we mourned I as though a dear relative had been I taken from us We regarded those boys as bur own They had volunteered volun-teered lo save the Union We had volunteered vol-unteered to save them and nothing that wo could do lo lessen their sufferings suffer-ings was left undone by the hospital I corps My associates In those dark days will recall the battle we had day and night amid the most heartrending scenes There were no medals awaJstlny us and no pension or honors lo look forward lo but we all did our duty as though our own lives depended upon it and the thanks of the wounded and jufforlng boys was suttlclcnt reward I for V us v I am 82 years old I read without th6 aid of glasses and am still deeply Interested In-terested In all the affairs of the Nation I am a member of many of Ihe patriotic pa-triotic leagues I live alone and do all 1 my own work as I have always done I have good health and am happy in the knowledge that my life has been m well spent in the service of my ooun try ELIZABETH DODGE |