The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-10-09
Southern Women.

from his native North and took charge of the
Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer, as its editor and pro-
prietor. Scarcely had he got fairly settled IN
his new position when Southern lady sent
him basket of fruits and flowers, and the fol-
lowing is what he said through his paper IN
acknowledgement of the favor:
We received the flowers and fruit sent by
our fair correspondent, and at once sent them
off to gladden. the heart of little girl, whose
fate is very closely linked with ours. 1t will
make her happier to know her husbands efforts
are appreciated, and in her JOY will bend and
kiss that smaller girl on her knee, and feel she
has friends to compensate her for the dear ones
left in her far-ofF Northern home. 1t was a
hard thing to leave the spot where the ances-
tors of two hundred years are buried above the
Schuylkill, but woman's faith and good
wife's love led her ID cast her fate willingly
with ours in this Southern land, which, ere
this, has been to her "terra incognlta,, or
worse, q land of fabulous terrors and iery hate
for those north of the Potomac.
One of the popular delusions North is, the
hauteur and undisguised dislike which South
ern ladies are supposed to entertain for people
from the Northern States. 'The gentlemen
will receive you and your wife kindly, tor
Southern men are proverbially courteous and
gallant, but you will be completely ignored by
Southern ladies, and your wife will be COM
PEELED to social isolation" We did not be-
lieve this, as We did not believe the many other
lies that have kept so many away. from this
fair land, and resolving to come, she to whom
we sent the fruit and flowers, bravely came to
share whatever fate was in store for US. Bat
the threatened Upas valley, on nearer ap-
proach, has turned out to be q land OF fruit
and flowers, and the Southern sisters have
taken her by the hand and drawn her to their
hearts, and all that is good in our, natures IS
made better by this more than generous recep,,
ton. But the falsehood has gone abroad
about the bitterness of Southern ladies, and 1t
might be we'll to look at the cause. When the
war broke out there could be no kindly feel
ings in the hearts of women on either side, for
they saw their brothers, husbands, sons and
lovers going out to soldiers graves for cause
each deemed right; and woman's heart OF faith
was more soreIy tested in these black days
than were the men who went down before the
blaze of artillery or fell in the jungle, or gave
up life for God and Fatherland in the hospital
or cruel prison. Leaving out the questions In
volvcd in the cause of battle, men never fought
and suffered with grander heroism than did
those poorly-fed, ill-clad, never-paid. troops of
the Confederacy and if the enduring OF
fatigue without alarm, throwing life and prop
erty into the scale with the sword be the test OF
patriotism, then, indeed, do they deserve the
name The suffering at the fearful front of fire
that stretched from the Atlantic to the Western
plains, and extended down to the warm Gulf
was fearful, but it was only the shadow of suf-
fering compared to that which was endured in
the once happy homes of the land. Many
a brave boy fell with the blood flowing earth
ward from his heart, but the bullet that struck
him stopped not when the tide Of life had run
out. 1t went on and on, till it reached home
and settled in q mothers heart, or struck down
a loved one whose young life was crushed by
the blow that sent the soldier to his grave.
The charge, the terrible struggle, the night
wounded on the battlefield, the forced march,
the short rations, the prison, and the escape
were the things that tested the physique and
pluck of men, But the real suffering of the war
was in the anxious hearts of women who felt
the blow when it came, and in dread anticipa-
ton of its ever coming suffered in silence
through the long days and nights of gloomy
years. And that suffering was so widespread
that sympathy became mute, for she could not
soothe the woes of all. Many fair haired
boy went proudly out, with a mothers blessing,
though he did not see the tear that followed;
but he never returned-he was garnered in one
of those harvests of death that dot the land
and make our hills historic. Many husband
kissed his wife and little ones, and went down
for God and country to the valley of death.
Many maiden whose young heart was filled
with its idol dear to her as heaven ITSELF kissed
him and hoped for the happier day of peace,
ana the longed-for time, but it came not; the
bridegroom had gone at the summons of the
mystic angel to await his bride in the Land be-
yond the river of Death. Yes, theirs was sut-
fering, and theirs are the wounds that can not
heal-for the heart of woman ever b!eeds
when death tears the loved one from it. We
can not wonder, then, that in the South NO.
men should have felt more keenly the loss of
that cause for which dear ones died while the
Southern soldiers, more familiar with their foe,
had grown to respect the energy and courage
shown in opposition. When the war closed it
see in the blue-coatcd soldiers about them
slayers of their dear ones and the conquerors
of their land Every feeling revolted against
showing regard they could not feel, and when
political plunderers followed, it was to be ex-
pected that Southern women would step aside
and avoid the contagion that every honest man,
North and South, would loathe; and it was
these men who have belied the South and mis-
renresented her beautiful truc-hearted daugh-
ters.
We hear little now of the heroism of these
women, though their sisters of the North
emulated them in their works of mercy and
sympathy with suffering. Here in the South,
women worked for themselves. In every vii
lage and hamlet and valley and plain they
made clothing, scrapcd lint, prepared dainties
for the sick, and wrote words of cheer for the
we'll, to show the soldier boys the women were
thinking and praying for them; More like
ministering angels, they went to the hospitals,
and soldiers turned on their cot of pain to bless
them as they passed. They took down the
words Of dying husbands ere his spirit took
it's flight and sent them to his widowed one far
away they cheered the fainting boy into life;
and the touch of their soft hands had heal
ing balm for the burning brow on which they
were placed Kind words for the respondent
gentle acts for those racked with pain, and
tears tear pure and sympathetic as the angels for
those who lay on q soldiers bier. All this has