a mercenary disposition of its stores and trickery among
its officers. Where these stories have found considerable credence, they
have been tracked to their source and triumphantly refuted; but it would
indeed be hardly less than miraculous, if an institution ramifying so
widely, with agents so numerous, and resources so extensive, should have
no knaves among its servants, and no waste in its circulation. The
wonder is, that more leakage has not been proved than has ever been
suspected. All that is necessary to remove floating doubts, to convince
all heads of the wisdom which projected this Commission, and to warm all
hearts up to its continued and sufficient support, is a knowledge of
what it has done, is doing, and purposes to do. This information the
Commission has, at different times, and by piecemeal, furnished:
necessarily by piecemeal, since, as this book justly remarks, the
immense mass of details which a circumstantial account of its operations
in field and hospital must involve would prove nearly as laborious in
the reading as in the performance. In this little volume we have,
photographed, a single phase of its operations. It consists simply of
extracts from letters and reports. There is no attempt at completeness
or dramatic arrangement; yet the most elaborate grouping would probably
fail to present one-half as accurately a picture of the work and its
ways as these unpretending fragments. It delights us to see the--we can
hardly say cheerful, as that savors too much of the "self-sacrifice"
which benevolence sometimes tarnishes by talking about--but, rather, the
gay, lively, merry manner in which the most balky matters are taken hold
of. Men and women seem to have gone into the service with good-will and
hearty love and buoyant spirits. It refreshes and strengthens us like a
tonic to read of their taking the wounded, festering, filthy, miserable
men, washing and dressing them, pouring in lemonade and beef-tea, and
putting them abed and asleep. There is not a word about "devotion" or
"ministering angels," (we could wish there were not quite so much about
"ladies,") but honest, refined, energetic, able women, with quick brains
and quick hands, now bathing a poor crazy head with ice-water, to be
rewarded with one grateful smile from the parting soul,--now standing in
the way of a procession of the slightly wounded, to pour a little brandy
down their throats, or put an orange into their hands, just to keep them
up