The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-06-26
y GRAND
ENTERTAINMENT,
~ For the Benefit of the
LADIES SOCIETY
In Aid of the -
Suffering and Destitute Poor Of the South,
Will take place
In Washington, D. O., August l, 81.

VIII take place
In Washington, d. O., August l, 81.
FENHE Ladies' Society in aid of the Sui
Il fcring and Destitute Poor of the South"
would respectfully and earnestly call the
attention 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 the Generals Commanding, Govern
ors, ministers and eminent citizens, fur
nishing the most heart-rending details of
the actual want, famine and starvation in
their immediate neighborhood. The fol-
lowing few extracts from the very many
letters received by the Secretary and Ma
nagers OF the Society are respectfully re-
fcrred to:
H'DQUARTERs, 4ru MILITARY DIST,
(AlIssIssIPPI AND ARkANSAs,)
NICKsBURG, Miss, Nav IS, 1867.
am glad to sec thnt the attention of the
gentle and humane ladies of the North is
being turned towards the sad and desolate
condition OF this once happy land.
You. Madam. surrounded with the plenty
and comforts of a wealthy city, can scarcely
appreciate the fact that, i'll many parts of
the South, whole communities are, by q
failure in crops and tho absence of money
or its equivalent, left III want of the neces-
sarics of life; and that poor women, with
large families of helpless children, SO ac-
customed to depend on the labor of others,
that now. with no husband, brother or
servant to help, and no money, they do not
know what to do or where to go for food;
but are left in the solitudes of these South
ern forests, in 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 neighbors, nearly as
poor as they are, can bring them.
Officers Uf 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
starvcllnSs 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 arc rare in Southern cities,
for there, even the most dclicately bred can
generally find some work which thew can
do to keep the wolf from the door; but tho
farms or plantations in tho South are pc
culiarly secluded, with miles of forest or
swamp between them, poor roads. and the
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 are often, by the time
necessity makes them want to leave, too
sick to travel on foot, and there is no other
way to go.
Your proposed entertainment, Madam,
should it produce only funds enough to re-
lieve a small fraction Of the dcstitution of
this country, will be good beginning, and
may be followed i'll other cities North by
similar appeals to people who have happily
never felt the desolation and the horrors
which follow i'll the tracks of great armies
of invasion. God speed your society in tho
good work, is the wish of, Madam, yours
truly, +. o. C. ORD,
Brevet Major G eneral.
lIEADQUAnrEns, FIRST MILITARY DIVISION,
RICHMOND, VA, May IL, 1867.
| Mrs.. HG1}o,ce Mdther-MY DEAR MADAM:
l shall be too glad if anything 1 can say
will aid the society in it's noble work. 4
large proportion of the people of the South
have suffered and many are still suffering
| almost to the limit of endurance from the
| devastation of war and subsequent failure
of crops. They are making every possible
exertion to revive their various branches
of industry and become self-supporting
The liberal assistance which the Northern
people are we'll able to give, will relieve a
great amount OF distress, and will no doubt
he sufficient to place the poor of the South
beyond further suffering for food. The
| recent manifestations of an almost univer-
sal desire throughout the South for really
fratcrnal reunion with the North, may well
serve TO stimulate the generous sympathies
of the Northern people, while nothing could
do more to foster and encourage the growth
of n healthy sentiment in the South than
the generous aid which it is the mission oil
Your society to invoke. l sincerely hope
the noble efforts of the society may resui,
i'll the most abundant success / am, dear
Madam, very respectfully, Your obedient
| servant, j. NJ. SCHOFIELD,
Major General.
HEADQUARTERS, SECOND MILITARY DIVISION,
| CuANI.EsrNN S c. AIay II 1877