Prominent and onerous were the duties of the Registration Committee. Its members met daily, to select from numberless applicants, women fitted to receive special training in our city hospitals for the position of nurses. So much of moral as well as mental excellence was indispensable, that the committee found its labors incessant. Then followed the supervision while in hospital, and while awaiting a summons, then the outfit and forwarding, often suddenly and in bands, and lastly, the acceptance by the War Department and Medical Bureau.
The chairman of the committee, Miss E. Blackwell, accompanied by its secretary, Mrs. Griffin, went to Washington in this service. Miss Blackwell's admirable report "on the selection and preparation of nurses for the army," will always be a source of pride to the Woman's Central.
In the meantime, the Finance and Executive Committees were struggling for a strong foothold. The chairman of the former, Mrs. Hamilton Fish, raised over five thousand dollars by personal effort. The latter committee had the liveliest contests, for the Government declared itself through the Army Regulation, equal to any demands, and the people were disposed to cry amen. Rumors of "a ninety days' war," and "already more lint than would be needed for years," stirred the committee to open at once a correspondence with sewing-societies, churches, and communities in New York and elsewhere. Simultaneously, the Sanitary Commission issued an explanatory circular, urgent and minute, "To the loyal women of America."
Then began that slow yet sure stream of supplies which flowed on to the close of the war, so slow, indeed, at first, and so impatiently hoped for, that the members of the committee could not wait, but must rush to the street to see the actual arrival of boxes and bales. Soon, however, that good old office, No. 10, Cooper Union, became rich in everything needed; rich, too, in young women to unpack, mark and repack, in old women to report forthcoming contributions from grocers, merchants and tradesmen, and richer than all, in those wondrous boxes of sacrifices from the country, the last blanket, the inherited quilt, curtains torn from windows, and the coarse yet ancestral linen. In this personal self-denial the city had no part. What wonder that the whole corps of the Woman's Central felt their time and physical fatigue as nothing in comparison to these heart trials. Out of this responsive earnestness grew the carefully prepared reports and circulars, the filing of letters, thousands in number, contained in twenty-five volumes, their punctilious and grateful acknowledgement, and the thorough plan of books, three in number, by which the whole story of the Woman's Central may be learnt, and well would it repay the study.
First, The receiving book recorded the receipt and acknowledgement of box.
Second, In the day book, each page was divided into columns, in which was recorded, the letter painted on the cover of each box to designate it, and the kind and amount of supplies which each contained after repacking, only one description of supplies being placed in any one box. So many cases were received during the four years, that the alphabet was repeated seven hundred and twenty-seven times.
Third, The ledger with its headings of "shirts," "drawers," "socks," etc., so arranged, that on sudden demand, the exact number of any article on hand could be ascertained at a glance.
Thus early began through these minute details, the effectiveness of the Woman's Central. Every woman engaged in it learnt the value of precision.
A sub-committee for New York and Brooklyn was formed, consisting of Mrs. W. M. Fellows, and Mrs. Robert Colby, to solicit from citizens, donations of clothing, and supplies of all kinds. These ladies were active, successful and clerkly withal, giving receipts for every article received.
Those present at Dr. Bellows' Church in May, will never forget the first thrilling call for nurses on board the hospital transports. The duty was imperative, was untried and therefore startling. It was like a sudden plunge into unknown waters, yet many brave women enrolled their names. From the Woman's Central went forth Mrs. Griffin accompanied by Mrs. David Lane. They left at once in the "Wilson Small," and went up the York and Pamunkey rivers, and to White House, thus tasting the first horrors of war. This experience would form a brilliant chapter in the history of the Woman's Central.