NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
November/December 1861
From The Missouri Democrat, Thursday, November 14, 1861.
Suggestion to the Ladies.
KIRKWOOD, ST. LOUIS CO., MO.,
November 11, 1861.
Editors Missouri Democrat:
Thinking it advisable to make a few suggestions to those who are so generously aiding the Sanitary Committee, I have concluded to address you, and through you the ladies in all parts of the country. I see in some of the Eastern papers that bedgowns of Canton flannel, &c., are asked for; also wrappers of the same. The nurses in the hospitals in St. Louis tell me that not one man in twenty will wear these garments even when he is well enough to do so, and that the badly wounded cannot. They request us to make the drawers and shirts of ordinary sizes and forms, with no strings; the shirts, with openings in the front, five fingers long, with one button at the collar and two on the bosom; the drawers with waistbands, having two buttons thereupon, and no strings at the bottom, only left open about a finger on the leg; the waistbands to have two eyelets behind, with tape in them.
I am also told that woolen undershirts are also much needed, and should be make for the sick and wounded without sleeves, open on each side of the neck at the collar, and tied with tape, so as to protect the lungs, &c., from cold.
I have been induced to make these statements by the necessity which we, as a Union Society, have labored under, namely: of altering over a large quantity of drawers and shirts of Brobdignagian proportions, and ornamented with as much tape as would fit up a thread and needle store. The truth is, the badly wounded, even, wear little but bandages and splints, and cannot be moved to don such ample garments, and those who are well enough will not liking such as they have been accustomed to.
If you will publish these suggestions, you will be the means of saving much time and material, and much oblige.
MRS. R. E. SMITH,
President of the Auxiliary Union Aid Society of this place.
