Forty-Three Old Soldiers at Orting — and the Olympia Women Furnishing Their Rooms
The state soldiers' home that legislators once laughed at now shelters 43 Civil War veterans, and cities across Washington are racing to outfit their quarters — Olympia's Relief Corps is fitting up an 'Olympia room.'
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
There are now forty-three guests of the state at the Soldiers' Home at Orting, all of them veterans of the war of the rebellion — men who marched with Grant, Sherman and Sheridan. The wisdom of establishing this home is becoming more apparent every day. It will be remembered that the idea was laughed at by many members of the first legislature, one of whom remarked with a sneer that there "wouldn't be an old soldier in Washington in ten years to take advantage of such a home."
The institution at Orting is pleasantly situated and is in charge of Commandant S. F. Street, of Seattle. Thousands of veterans and their wives in this state have taken an interest in ministering to the comforts of the old soldiers and are fitting up their rooms at the home with luxuries and comforts which the state does not supply, thus smoothing the pathway of their declining years. The ladies of Geo. H. Thomas Relief Corps of this city are about furnishing an "Olympia room" at Orting which will reflect credit upon the state capital and the survivors of the War in this section of the state. Tacoma, Seattle and other cities have done likewise, so that there will soon be a generous rivalry in administering sweet comforts of life to those who a quarter of a century ago were in
The serried squadrons That charged and fell Before devouring fire — And hissing shot and blazing shell Sent like some blasting bolt from hell.
The tottering old veterans at Orting may feel assured that thousands of warm hearts are beating throughout the state in unison with theirs and that their last march toward the end will be the pleasantest march of their eventful lives. The old soldiers at Orting have an army at their backs of progressive, loyal people in the state of Washington.
“"There wouldn't be an old soldier in Washington in ten years to take advantage of such a home." — a legislator, sneering, as quoted by the Tribune”
The Washington Soldiers Home at Orting is still operating today, more than 130 years after this piece defended the institution against legislators who thought it a waste. Then as now, the state supplied the beds but the comforts came from private generosity — and cities measured their civic pride by how well they furnished a room. The same argument over what government owes the people who served it plays out in every veterans' housing debate in Washington.
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