The daily gazette., 1878-09-24
OUR NOBLE WOMEN.

In speaking of the plague which has
swept over certain portions of the South,
the Baltimore Ne,os refers to the services
of the women:
1t has been remarked that though the
terrible scourage which is affecting the
South has scattered families, frighter ed
men from their homes, wives and child
ren, made towards of titled soldiers and
sneaks of average citizens, the daughters
of fthe South have displayed the heroism
of their sex in such q manner as to add
immortal lustre to the name of woman.
Men have run away panlc-stricken, but
the wives, mothers and daughters have
faced the columns of death and conquer
red or died with their white arms cover
ing and blessing, like the wings of pro-
tecting angels, the charges that heaven
committed to their care.
When the dark history of this terrible
plague shall be truthfully written there
will be halo of glory, bright corona
about it, that will make even the sobbing
heart of sympathy pause to admire and
thank God for an example which con-
firms anew our faith IN the beauties and
virtues of womanhood. No wife has fled
from her stricken husband, no mother
has deserted her dying child. For her
loved ones she has stood up in the very
den of death and fought the terrible mon
ster in its most hideous shape. With
sleepless eyes and swelling heart she has
watched by her loved ones and contested
every drop of blood with the venomous
destroyer. In want, in horrors, in desola-
ton, these brave women, worthy to be
the mothers of heroes, have toiled and
striven to comfort and their soft hands
have ministered in suffering and smooth
ed in death, while strong men quailed
and the world stood appalled,.
Through sickening scenes that wrench
ed the stoutest hearts, these angels have
worked, and wept, and helped. No
thoght of self has touched them, but they
have nursed and soothed while the loath-
some death crawled through their veins
and coiled about their very lives. With
death all around them, and the air steam-
ing with horrors, they have not tiinched,
and have surrendered their charges only
| to die beside them.
All honor to the glorious women of th Q
South, to the brave, dauntless, devoted
mothers, and wives of all sections, whose
heroism and constancy have lightened
the horrors of war, pestilence and famine.
not only to-day but in all the terrible eX-
periences of the past. Honor to Ameri-
can women, who have stood the bravest
| in the battle with death, and the first in
sympathy and charity to the distressed.
Bereavement, want, all the sickening
scenes of the pleague have not made them
falter In their duty, and the gorgon stare
of greedy death has not made them quail
| By the bedside of the sick they toll; un-
aided they compose the distorted dead;
alone they carry their treasured corpses
to decent graves. Honor to the sex
whose virtues shine from the pit of pesti-
lence, and whose glory arises above tue
| fever fumes In the South she dies for
her beloved; in the North her sympathy
leads the hand of charity. Proud should
we be OF American women and more
! abiect reverence shocld we pay to their
virtues The gloom OF vast calamity is
lightened by the realization of our treas
ures and the future should offer higher
homage to the sex. Beautiful are the
wives and mothers of America, worthy
the worship of the grandest manhood,
deserving the tenderest Difference of he
roeS.