The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1880-09-02
STORY OF A SKELETON SKIRT.


I was in the civil service at Richmond.
Enough that | was there, and on honest
business. That business done, l pre-
pared to return home. And thereby
hangs this tale, and. as it proved, the
fate of the Confederacy.
For, of course. wanted b take pres
ents home to my family. Very little
question was there what these presents
should be-for I had no boys or broth
ers. The women of the Confederacy
had one waat which overtopped all 9th
ers. They could make coffee ont OF
beans pins they had from Columbus;
straw hats they braided quite well with
their own fair hands; snuff we could
get better than you could in "the old
concern" We had no hoop-skirts-
skeletons. we used to call them. No in
genuity had made them. No bounties
had forced them. The Bat, the Gray
hound, the Deer, the Flora, the j. @.
Cobb, the Varuna, and the Fore-and-Aft
all took in cargoes of them for us in En-
gland. But the Bat, and the Deer, and
the Flora were seized by the blockaders,
the j. @. Cobb sunk at sea, the Fore
and-Aft and the Greyhound were set
fire to by their own crews, and the Va
runa was never heard of Then the
State of Arkansas offered sixteen town.
ships of swamp land to the first manu-
facturer who would exhibit five gross to
home manufactured article. But none
ever competed. This first attempts, in
deed, were put on end to when Schotield
crossed the Blue Lick and destroyed the
dam on the Yellow branch. The consc-
auence was that the peoples crinoline
collapsed faster than the Confederacy
did, of which that brute of Grierson
said there was never anything of it buf
the outside.
OF course, then, L put IN the bottom
of my new large trunk in New York, not
a "duplcx elliptic, for none were then
made, but u "Bclmonte of thirty
springs, for my wife. | bought for her
more-common wear good "Bclle-
Fontaine." For Sarah and Susie each
I got two Dumb-belles. For Aunt
Eunice and Aunt Clara, maiden sisters
of nv wife who lived with us after Win
chester fell the fourth time, | got the
"Scotch Harebell," two of each. For
my own mother got one " Belle Of the
Prairies and one Invisible Combina-
tion Gossamer. did not forget good
old Mamma Chloe and Mamma Jane.
For them I got substantial cages, with
out names. With these tied in the
shape of figure eights in the bottom Of
my trunk, as / said, put in an assorted
cargoof dry goods above, and favored bya
pass, and Mai. Mulford's courtesy on
the fag-of-truce boat, | arrived safely
at Richmond before the autumn closed.
l was received at home with rapture.
But when, the next morning, | opened
my stores, this became rapture doubly
enraptured. Words cannot tell the ST.
lent delight with whichold and young,
black and white, surveyed those fairy
like structures. yet unbroken and un-
mended.
Perennial summer relgned that all-
tumn day in that reunited family. 1t
reigned the next day, and the next. 1t
would have reigned till now if the Bel
mOntes and the other things would last
as long as the advertisements declare
and what is more the Confederacy would
have reigned till now, President Davis
and General Lee, but for that great
misery, which all families understand,
which eliminated in our great misfort,
une.
was up in the cedar closet one day
looking for an old parade cap OF mine
which, 1 thought, though it was my
third best, might look better than my
second best, which l had worn evel
since my best was lost at Seven Pines
l say was standing on the lower shel
OF the cedar closet, when, as | stepped
along in the darkness my right foo
caught in bit of wire, my left did no
give way in time, and fell, with small
wooden hat box in my hand, full on tn
floor. The corner of the hat box strucl
me just below the second frontal sinus
and | tainted away.
When 1 came to myself 1 was in tn
blue chamber l had vinegar on BROW
paper on my forehead the room wa
dark, and I found mother sitting by me
glad enough indeed to hear my voic'
"hu W hlOW IlltJ huCW hOA' w.
some time before l fully understood
what had happened. Then she brough,
me a cup of tea, and I, quite refreshed
said | must go to my office.
"Oliice, my child !" said she. "You
leg is broken above the ankle; you WI
not move these six weeks. Where d.
You suppose you are?"
Till then had no notion that 1t wa
i've minutes since / went into the closet
When she told me the time-5 in tn
afternoon-I groaned in the loves
depths. For in my breast pocket i
that innocent coat, which could no'
see lying on the window seat, were tn
duplicate dispatches to Mr.. Mason, fo
which, late the night before, I had &C
the Secretary's signature. They wer
to go at 10 that morning to Wilmington
oy the Navy Departments special met
senger. had taken them to ,insuI
care and certainty. / had worked o
them till midnight, and they had nc
peen signed till near l o'clock Hea,
ems and earth, and there it was O'Clock
The man must be half wav to Wilminf