Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/371

338 Mrs. Hoge were unwearied from the inception of the idea until the close of its successful realization. The admirable conduct of these fairs and the large amounts raised by them are matters of history.

During the continuance of her labors Mrs. Hoge was frequently the recipient of costly and elegant gifts as testimonials of the respect and gratitude with which her work was viewed. The managers of the Philadelphia fair, believing Mrs. Hoge to have had an important connection with that fair, presented to her a beautiful gift in token of their appreciation of her services. During the second sanitary fair in Chicago a few friends presented her with a beautiful silver cup bearing a suitable inscription in Latin, and during the same fair she received as a gift a Roman bell of green bronze of rare workmanship and value as a work of art.

Mrs. Hoge made three expeditions to the army of the Southwest and personally visited and ministered to more than one hundred thousand men in hospitals. Few among the many official workers whom the war called from the ease and retirement of home can submit to the public a record of labors as efficient, varied and long-continued as hers.

Of all the women who devoted themselves to the soldiers in the Civil War, perhaps none had a more varied experience than Elida B. Rumsey, a girl so young that Miss Dix would not receive her as a nurse. Undaunted by seeming difficulties she persisted in doing the next best thing, and in becoming an independent nurse she fulfilled her great desire to do something for the Union soldiers. Yet it was not to these alone that her kindly administrations extended, for wherever she saw a soldier in need her ready sympathies were enlisted, little caring if the heart beats stirred a coat of blue or gray.

Miss Rumsey was born in New York City, June 6, 1842, and at the outbreak of the war she was living with her parents in Washington, D. C. She had become engaged to John A. Fowle of Jamaica Plains, Mass., who was employed in the Navy Department at Washington, but devoted all his spare time to philanthropic enterprises. His work and Miss Rumsey's were supplementary from the first. In November, 1861, she began to visit the hospitals and sing to the soldiers who found relief and courage in the tones of her strong sympathetic voice. The "Soldiers Rest" was a name very inappropriately given to a place near the B. & O. R. R. depot, where prisoners were exchanged, or sometimes stayed over night when they had nowhere else to go. Miss Rumsey had a strong desire to see what kind of men had been in Libby Prison, and when the first lot had been exchanged she went down to see them off as they were going home on a furlough. Someone recognized the young lady and called for a song. To gain time and give her a moment's preparation, Mr. Fowle stepped to her side and said. "Boys, how would you like a song?" "Oh, very well, I guess," came the reply in spiritless tones. She sang the "Red, White and Blue." Soon they crowded around her with more interest than they had shown since leaving the prison. At the close of the song they called for another and piled their knapsacks in front of her on the ground.