Woman

Located in the Railroad Car

Hello. I’m sorry I’m not a bit friendlier today, but I am a little blue. 

I had a great disappointment this week.  I went to Washington to become a nurse, but was turned away by Miss Dorothea Dix.  She says I’m too young and not plain enough.  

My brother is a volunteer and I just wanted to do my part in the war but apparently the only way to be a nurse these days is to be gray haired and spectacled.  

I have heard some of the male nurses at the army medical bureau call Miss Dix “Dragon Dix” when she’s not around.  I agree, she is an old dragon.  She says she doesn’t want young maiden nurses possessing grace and good looks because it will disrupt the soldiers.  She looked me right in the eye and said I wasn’t needed and to go home, so I am.  

But if this war goes on much longer, they will be happy to get nurses, even young, less-than-plain ones!