Girls Who Went to the War. Two Romantic and Interesting Incidents of the Past.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 195, 19 March 1887, Page 8

Girls Who Went to the War. Two Romantic and Interesting Incidents of the Past.

I knew a girl who at the beginning of the war was so filled with patriotism, and so weighed down by a sense of duty, so carried away by an adventurous impulse, that she followed the squad of boys who had enlisted in her neighbourhood ; and, dressing as a boy, enlisted in the company that was forming in the country town. Her friends, discovering the long hair she had cut from her head and the clothing she had thrown off in her father's barn, gave immediate pursuits As they were driving into the city they saw walking along tho &iiewalk smoking a cigar a young follow who had the same sort of a face as the girl they ' were in purauit of. They' Stopped and accosted the young fellow, and wQre treated to auoh a ehower of epithets and such an exhibition of bravado that they admitted their mistake and apologised for it. An Hour later one of the party saw the game young fellow deathly eick from amoking.the cigar.. ;He ( called him by the girl's' name, ana found that after all the ybung fellow] who had dxlne such hard swearing was the girl they' -were looking for. Shfc was 'taken home, and' afterwards entered the service as hdspital nurse. In the last year of the war I found her again in men's clothing, crying as only a brokenhearted woman can cry, over a light-haired

man, shot dead in the charge at Reeaca.. She oared nothing then for exposure, andt went home in a widow's dress. Another girl, I remember, had apleasanter experience. I was the examining surgeon at ono of tbe recruiting cumps early in the> war, and on one occasion, as I passed dowo. the line, a company formed in open order for muster and inspection. I noticed, as the? hands were held out, oue set that to my practical eye balonged to a woman. I said nothing at tbe time, but aftor consultation: with the Colonel, had the recruit with the feminine handa brought to headquarters. The bright-looking soldier admitted in two minutes that she was? a woman, and in two days she was at home. A year after that I was? at a ball in Washington. As I stood a little a?ido from tbe main party, wishing that I was in front of the army, &. youDg lady came to .\ nrds me, bowed with; exaggerated stiffness, atid m sho straightened up went through Ihe motions of obeying the order : "Eyes right." She offered, me her haurl and thanked me for something that ehe supposed that I had dcne> and walked away. She wa3 pretty enough, to be the belle of the occasion, and I sawthat ehe cook considerable delight in my* confusion of mind, all of which I understood later When I It arned that she was my recruit with the ladylike hands'. Sh6 afterward told me that she owed me a debt of gratitude for stepping in at the right timeto break d>wn he romantic notionp. — " Chicago Led^ei "