The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-07-20
NATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT,
For the Benefit of the
LADIES' SOCIETY
Tn III Of fho
Suffering and Destitute Poor Of the South,
Will take place
III Washington, D. O., August l, 81.
In Aid of TIN

YVNHE Ladies' Society in aid of the Suf-
l. fering 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 tho Southern States.
Letters arc 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-
loving few extracts from the very many
letters received by the Secretary and Ma
nagers of tho Society are respectfully re-
fcrrcd TO:
IIDQUARTERs, 4TH MILITARY Dist,
(AlIssIssIppI AND ARKANsAs,)
VIcKsBURG, Miss, May 13, 1867.
/ am glad to SEQ that the attention of the
gentle and humane ladies of the North is
boing turned towards the sad and dcsolatc
cordition of this once happy land.
You, Madam, surrounded with the plenty
and comforts of a wealthy city, can scarcely
appreciate the fact that, in many parts of
tho South whole communities arc, by
or jtsScquivalcnt left IL want of the ncccs-
saries of 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
know what to do or where to so 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 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
hO,le with them and met the prOuD of little
staivellnSs waiting patiently mothers re-
turp with some of the only sort of food
thcT 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 delcatcly bred can
generally find some work which they can
do TO keep the wolf from the door; but the
farrls or plantations in the 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 III such times iufcst 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 so.
Your proposed entertainment, Madam,
shonld it produce only funds enough to re-
lieve Il small fraction of the dcstitution Of
this country, will be good beginning, and
may be followed in other cities North by
similar appeals to people who have happily
never felt tho dcsolation and the horrors
which follow in the tracks of great armies
of ipvasion. God speed your society in the
good work, is the wish of, Madam, YOURS
truly, &. o: c. ORD,
Brevct Major General.