Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-07-19
!. FROELICH.
From the New York Waterman.
HOW SOME OF THE MONEY WENT.

From the New York Waterman.
HOW SOME OF THE MONEY WENT.
Dedicated the Ladies' of the Baltimore Fair,
BY THE AUTHOR OF THE ''LAsT NINETY DAYS OF
THE WAR;
I think never saw brighter May sun, nor o
blner sky, nor greenep leayes-4 think the birds
never sang more sweetly, the sweet-brier was new
| er more fragrant, than that especial morning
when I started out with 800 in my purse from
the Baltimore Fair to distribute among those
whom the widowed and left penniless. One
hundred dollars-how much good it was going to
do-and how blest YVES 7 to be the agent of SO di-
vine charity Come with me, ye who love the
short and simple annals CT the poor, and see how
the money went.
This is central North Carolina and part of it
where the soil is white and gravelly and the hills
are short and steep, and where spring may be
found in every hollow, and where you are always
wondering how such great oaks can flourish on
| such thin soil, or how such stalwart men were
raised at ALL Justice Shallow describes it felicit-
ously in one line,
"Barren, barren, beggars all Marry good air."
We leave the main road after five minutes walk
ing from the edge of the village, and turn down a
deep, stony ravine round one of whose mills runs
low rock wall, which, however, does not appear
to have decreased the number OF ROCKS within the
inclosure Some very thin and yellow blades of
corn are struggling for life among them. The only
things that flourish hereabouts are the mullen and
hesweet-b rier. We wind down the rough path lump
over cross gully at the bottom and ascend the op-
positehill. On the bare unsheltered side is perch
ed a log cabin perhaps the most roughly builtand
queetly situated OF all the many rou gA log cabins
l have met in my life Being on the side of q
sharp hi it is necessary to ascend flight of steps
much like ladder in order to enter. In this cabin
lives the widow Of one of our brave Confederate
soldiers who found after the first great battle
of the Wilderness found lying dead with twelve
balls in his body. One of thousands one
of thousands This is his widow and these arc
his four children. How they have lived since He
knows who calls Himself the especial Friend of
such. One corner of the room is filed up with a
rude loom, which rude it is has turned out some
as pretty cloth, and as we'll woven, as &Gy ID tie
country ; and there is an old brown spinning
wheel and two pair Of cards. a very old pair
and the other Of Gov. Eance's providing in the
days of the blockade Heaven bless him for the
thought The bed looks very clean and decent,
housekeepers of every degree seem to consider
one OF the necessary features of bed, no matter
how humble. There is large red chest behind
the door, table, shelf with slender store Of
crockery, spider, and an iron pot, and half
dozen CHAIRS. The floors rough planks are scru-
pulousiy clean, and the mistress of this house
stands waiting to receive you with as much good
breeding as any duchess She is brave woman.
who with her troop of little ones has looked star
yatlo4 II the face, and kept him at bay behind
per RreastWork OF loom and spinning wheel. She
has never yet asked for charity, and it would 90
very hard with her before she would send one of
heF children out on such an errand. Not one of |
these children but can work, and this little girl
OF eight years can spin as pretty thread as her
/ have known this woman ever since she was a |
Guild !; she comes of an honest decent stock in |
dustrious and selfrespecting She IL not OF INV |
cnurch. She is Methodist. and loves her church