vements, and ere long the
Christian Commission added intellectual and religious aliment to its
supplies for the wants of the physical man.

Of the thousands of applicants for the position of Hospital Nurses, the
greater part were rejected promptly by the stern, but experienced lady,
to whom the Government had confided the delicate and responsible duty of
making the selection. The ground of rejection was usually the
youthfulness of the applicants; a sufficient reason, doubtless, in most
cases, since the enthusiasm, mingled in some instances, perhaps, with
romance, which had prompted the offer, would often falter before the
extremely unpoetic realities of a nurse's duties, and the youth and
often frail health of the applicants would soon cause them to give way
under labors which required a mature strength, a firm will, and skill in
all household duties. Yet "to err is human," and it need not surprise
us, as it probably did not Miss Dix, to learn, that in a few instances,
those whom she had refused to commission on account of their
youthfulness, proved in other fields, their possession of the very
highest qualifications for the care of the sick and wounded. Miss Gilson
was one of the most remarkable of these instances; and it reflects no
discredit on Miss Dix's powers of discrimination, that she should not
have discovered, in that girlish face, the indications of those high
abilities, of which their possessor was as yet probably unconscious. The
rejection of so many of these volunteer nurses necessitated the
appointment of many from another class,--young women of culture and
education, but generally from the humbler walks of life, in whose hearts
the fire of patriotism was not less ardent and glowing than in those of
their wealthier sisters. Many of these, though they would have preferred
to perform their labors without fee or reward, were compelled, from the
necessities of those at home, to accept the wholly inadequate pittance
(twelve dollars a month and their food) which was offered them by the
Government, but they served in their several stations with a fidelity,
intelligence, and patient devotion which no money could purchase. The
testimony received from all quarters to the faithfulness and great moral
worth of these nurses, is greatly to their honor. Not one of them, so
far as we can learn, ever disgraced her calling, or gave cause for
reproach. We fear that so general an encomium could not truthfully be
bestowed on