e she
presided, everything moved with the precision and quietness of the most
perfect machinery. There was no hurry, no bustle, no display, but
everything was done in time and well done. To thousands of the soldiers
just recovering from sickness or wounds, feeble and sometimes almost
disheartened, she spoke words of cheer, and by her tender and kind
sympathy, encouraged and strengthened them for the battle of life; and
in all her intercourse with them she proved herself their true and
sympathizing friend.
After the close of the war, Miss Bradford returned to private life at
her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
UNION VOLUNTEER REFRESHMENT SALOON OF PHILADELPHIA.
We have already in our sketch of the labors of Mrs. Mary W. Lee, one of
the most efficient workers for the soldiers in every position in which
she was placed, given some account of this institution, one of the most
remarkable philanthropic organizations called into being by the War, as
in the sketch of Miss Anna M. Ross we have made some allusions to the
Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon, its rival in deeds of charity and love
for the soldier. The vast extent, the wonderful spirit of self-sacrifice
and persevering patience and fidelity in which these labors were
performed, demand, however, a more than incidental notice in a record
like this.
No philanthropic work during the war was more thoroughly free from
self-seeking, or prompted by a higher or nobler impulse than that of
these Refreshment Saloons. Beginning in the very first movements of
troops in the patriotic feeling which led a poor man[M] to establish his
coffee boilers on the sidewalk to give a cup of hot coffee to the
soldiers as they waited for the train to take them on to Washington, and
in the generous impulses of women in humble life to furnish such food as
they could provide for the soldier boys, it grew to be a gigantic
enterprise in its results, and the humble commencement ere long
developed into two rival but not hostile organizations, each zealous to
do the most for the defenders of their country. Very early in the
movement some men of larger means and equally earnest sympathies were
attracted to it, and one of them, a thorough patriot, Samuel B. Fales,
Esq., gave himself wholly to it for four and a half years. The interest
of the community was excited also in the labors of these humble men and
women, and the enterprise seldom lacked for funds; the zealous and
earnest Chairman, Mr.
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