The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-07-24
NATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT,
For the Benefit of the
LADIES' SOCIETY
~ ~ In Aid of the u d. ~ ' ~;
Suffering and Destitute Poor Of the South,
In Washington, D. c.. August l, ST.
In Aid of tho

NIHE "Ladies' Society in aid of the Suf-
IL fcring and Destitute Poor of the South"
wonld respectfully and earnestly call tho
attontion of the generous Northern public
to the great distress and fearful suffering
now prevailing in the Southern States
Letters are daily received from the South,
from tho Generals Commanding, Govern
ors, ministers and eminent citizens, fur
nlshlnG the most heart-rcnding details of
the actual want, famine and starvation in
their immediate neighborhood. The fol-
lowing few extracts from the very many
letters received by tho Secretary and Ma
nagcrs of the Society are respectfully re-
fcrred to:
HDoUAnTERs, 4TH MILITARY DIST,
(AIIssIssIppI AND ARKANsAs,)
V1CKsBURG, Miss, May 13, 1867.
am glad to sec that the attention of the
gentle and humane ladies of the North is
being turned towards the sad and desoate
condition of this once happy land.
You, Madam, surrounded with the plenty
ana comforts of u wealthy city, can scarcely
appreciate the fact that, III many parts of
the South, whole communities are. by a
failure i'll crops and the absence of money
or its equiva lent, left Ill want of the neccs-
sarics or life; and that poor women, with
large families of helpless children, so ac-
customcd to depend on the labor of others,
that now, with no husband, brother or
servant to help, and no money, they do not
= VI,
but are left in the solitudcs of these South
ern forests, i'll rags and gaunt with hunger,
subsisting ON what the mother or larger
children can shoot or pick up in the woods,
or on what the few ncighbors, nearly as
poor as they are, can bring them.
officers OF my acquaintance have met
with such mothers, long after dark, out in
the woods, with an old gun just fired, and
the coon or possum just killed; have gone
home with them and met the group Of little
etarvelings waiting patiently mothers re-
turn with some of the only sort OF food
they had tasted for weeks; and women and
children have been found within sixty miles
of the capital of Southern State, during
the past year, who had starved to death in
their lonesome cabins. These cases of
great distress are rare in Southern cities
for there, even the most delicately bred can
generally find some work Which they can
do to keep the wolf from the door; but the
farms or plantations in the South are pc
culiariy secluded, with miles of forest or
swamp between them, poor roads. and tho
stock and animals nearly all taken by the
war, the famine, the floods, or the thieves
who in such times infest a country, and the
distressed families arc often, by the time
necessity makes them want to leave, too
sick to travel on foot, and there is no other
way to go.
Ionr proposed entertainment, Madam,
should it produce only funds enough to re-
lievo il small fraction OF the destitution of
this country, will be Sood beginning, and
may be followed in other cities North by
similar appeals to people who have happily
never felt the desolation and the horrors
which follow in the tracks of great armies
OF invasion. God speed your society in the
good work, is the wish of, Madam. yours
truly, Z. .. &. ORD,
Brcvet Major cucral