Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-09-19
Mistellameuns &eaaing.
For the YOrkyille Enquirer.
"REMINISCENCES OF WESTERN YORK.

UT W ESlEnN 1Uhh.
OF the causes that led to the late war, it
is not our purpose to speak. These are
matters for the historian to deal with.
The student Of history has already made
that his study; but there are many things
connected with it that will always lie in
oblivious graves unless resurrected by the
actors themselves, who are now fast pass
ing away; or, at least, have passed the
meridian of life.
OF the many noble women who bore
conspicuous part in that eventful struggle,
the historian has failed to give an impair
tial account. He has practically ignored
the faithful services they rendered the SOL
dier-boys who had volunteered to fight
their country's battles. In many instances
they gave the last blanket they had to pro-
tect him from the piercing cold of winter,
and finally to serve as his winding sheet
should he fill soldiers grave.
While the smoke of battle hovered over
Charleston harbor, bearing unmistakable
evidence that the grand drama had COM
menced, in which the valor of American
soldiery was on exhibition, our patriotic
women, with Gathering cards, buzzing
wheels, flying shutties, and throbbing
looms, were giving emphasis to the scene:
The silks, satins and costly apparel of
homespun clothing, elaborately and artis
tically made, took their places. Rich and
poor We'd with each other in their eXhibi
tion of ingenuity and domestic economy.
Highly educated and refined ladies, as we'll
as those attending fashionable schools, re-
turned to their homes and made domestic
ity speciality. The sewing machine was
scarcely heard of in those days, and the
young lady who couldn't make and fit her
own dresses was an object of pity, to say
nothing of contempt, among her sex.
Botanical theories were superseded by
practical knowledge of the medicinal
and colOring properties of plants. The
amount of dyestuffS invented by female
ingenuity would surprise New England
pharmaceutist.
Binding shucks or strips of paper
around hanks of yarn during the dyeing
process, to give the yarn mingled ap-
pearance, was an original idea. Old ladies
who could scarcely get about, brought all
the experience of a lifetime into requisi-
tion to advance the cause their country had
espoused. With no company save the
sleepless clock that measures the long
weary night, she sat knitting socks or
making some garment of comfort for her
soldier boy or some one in whom she felt
a mothers interest. In her mind she was
composing letter she expected to write
or have written the next day. The young
er members of the family, whose nervous
temperamentperm them to sleep after
hard days work, were in their beds
dreaming of their sweethearts, or perhaps
during a restless hour, were asking them
selves the question: "Is all quiet along
the Potomac to-night?" "Do the soldiers
lie peacefully dreaming?"
A new day brings no relief from the mo-
notony of the past Scarcely have the
streaks of daylight shot above the eastern
horizon, before the aged husband and faith
er who, from weight of years and inhrmi-
ty of body had long ago given his business
affairs oyer into younger and abler hands
for management, is moving about the
premises with an elastic step that would
indicate that the clock of time had turned
backward, for him at least, a quarter of
century. Or, perhaps during the night,
telegram has been received that in yester-
days battle his son or friend has been
killed orWounded. Undaunted, and with
suppressed tear, he moves with steady
step and determination to be in time for
the first train to take him to the scene.
Every member of the family has some
message for him to take to some devoted
one, and before he starts, a dozen or more
letters from the different neighbors to their
friends, are packed into his pockets,
while some faithful old servant puts in
"howdy" for some one in whom he or she,
or perhaps both, feels an especial interest.
By the time he has reached the train he
has almost all kinds of baggage, from a
common letter to a large and well-filled
trunk or box of edibles or clothing.
T. L. s.