Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-22
AN OLD NEWSPAPER.
Light Shed Upon War Times by
Copy of the Dispatch of '63.
W0MEN'S WORK FOR THE SOLDIERS
City Lets offered at 5000 That Are Now
Worth That Much Foot.
HINTS AT OLD HABITS AND CUSTOMS
WOMEN'S WORK FOR THE SOLDIERS
HINTS AT OLD HABITS AND CUSTOMS
WRITTEN ron THE DIsrArcH.I

-
will oftentimes bring to mind whole chap
ters of history that would otherwise be for
gotten. A single copy of THE DISPATCH
in 1868 calls freshly to memory the whole
story of "the war" The notices of the sol-
ciers' aid societies bring back the days
when every girl and woman was Knitting
socks for the soldier or making shirts for
him, or collecting money to spend for his
comfort IN the field. Women seemed to live
onlv in thinking of those at the 'front.' With
mourning in view any day nobody thought
much of fashions, and yet looking back over
the old records the advertisements are about
as usual.
People died and got married and dressed
and dinnered and carried on about the same
as to-day, if we may judge by The DIS
PATCH, that furnishes the picture of the
times. Names differ, STYLES have changed,
new fashions have come up, but life goes
on about as of old. In the copy just
before us "hair jewelry" is ad-
vertised specially, but no one cares for hair
jewelry now; "panel papers" are largely
advertised. but panel papers went out long
ago.
WHAT LOTS SOLD FOR.
Lots were advertised in the Eighth ward
from $500 to $500 a piece-s house and
garden we'll stocked with grapes, strswber-
ries and other fruit, is advertised to rent at
$50 year, at the corner of Sheffield and Bid
we'll street, but no such rent would pay for
that corner now. Joseph Horne advertises
skirt braids, twilled tapes and shoe laces,
and full line of notions, at less than East
ern prices, at his store 77 and 79 Market
street. Who remembers him there? At
boR kir,a Tourapcavilla rouUh and
East Liberty was likely out in the country.
Ambrotypes were in style then, and brakes
Plantation Bitters and hooped skirts.
Among the amusements we find IAN Old
Folks concert" with Emily Page advertised
30 sing when This Cruel War is Over"
Who was Emily Page? Was she thesipger
who figured in the fainting scene at Tete-
doux's concerts sketch of which was
''Stan" Reinhart's first bid for fame? Look
ing back now her unpopularity was some
thing amazing, and hardly to be accounted
for. By all of the women singers of the chorus
she was held in derision for some reason or
other, and not a spark OF sympathy was
shown, as it was thought she was sham
ming. Reinhart's sketch, showing Mr..
Tetedou1, Mr.. Mellor and others as deeply
concerned, was inimitable. In these days
it would have gotten into the papers, but
then it was only passed around" among
those interested.
The reading of the old paper recalls
much that is interesting and has long been
lost sight Of Mr.. Weyman and VIM. Lyon
are recorded as taking over one hundred
boxes of good things to the soldiers at MUIR
freesboro, the git OF the ladies of the Pitts
burg Subsistence Committee. Nowadays
the ladies would carry their own gifts, then
the men had to do everything in the public
line. The girls did the work behind the
scenes, but the world would have been
shocked if they had prayed, or spoken, or
shown themselves capable of "bossing"
anything under the gaze of mankind.
MIGHT HAVE SAVED THE HALF.
On one page of the old paper published
in 1868 we read with interest a letter from
Edward Jay Allen to Mrs. Thurston in re-
sponse to a generous contribution 10 the
bows sent by the Sixth Ward Society, of
which she was President. In this letter,
after earnest thanks and a relation of how
the supplies were appreciated by the sold
iers the Colonel saws he feels assured the
presence of women in the camp would de-
crease the ratio of deaths one-half. ''These
poor sick soldiers" he says, "bear up un-
der severe privations until endurance is
tasked beyond limit and the prostration is
so great tha: all powers of reaction seem
gone. They need such tender nursing as
only woman can give. 1 ask for furloughs
to send them home to get it, and after eight
or ten days they come perhaps-but the
men are dead"
On the same page there is gloomy letter
from the Sixty-frst Regiment, which relates
that things are IN a very bad way, and that
Captains Bryson and Crawford and Lieu
tenants Haldeman, Jones and Rippey have
resigned and gone home, and that Lieuten-
ants Brown and mclaughlin have gone
bona rrifborf laovA unaearfiooe
the letter, "are numerous and alarming.
Every day there are many who desert; about
75 lett our regiment since last pay day."
We wonder if these are the boys who are
everlastingly clamoring for back pay and
pensions, and threatening every Congress
man with political death who does not vote
for q pension that will include deserters.
BRIDGET MURPHY's TROUBLES.
Another item on the same page is to the
effect that Bridget Murphy was found mot
guilty of selling liquor without license"
AS appears she was a married woman and
Judge Stowe charged that the law presumed
she was acting under compulslon of her bus
band, and must be acquitted, unless the
contrary was shown. The jury found Mrs.
Murphy mot guilty" but sentenced her to
pag the costs. What queer justice it is for
those found innocent to paw the costs all the
same. Still they do it nowadays. Juries
and verdicts seem not to have improved with
added years.
In the same paper the arrival of Mrs.
Jane G. Swisshelm, editor of the St. Cloud
Democrat, is announced. She was on her
way to Washington, presumably to give
Mr.. Lincoln a piece of her mind as to the
management of Minnesota, and to argue
against the pardon of the leaders of the
terrible Indian massacre in that State She
was also anxious to secure women compost
tors in Pittsburg to take out to St. Cloud to
run" her paper.
That all were not patriotic and devoted to
the Union and Abraham Lincoln is shown
by quotation from the Harrisburg Patriot.
which says "Llncoln is despOt and Stanton
is villain" Among other items that the
eye takes in with glance are concerts by
Gottschalk and a lecture by Ralph Waldo
Emerson, while Matilda Heron was playing
Camille. All of these have passed IRON the
stage o. life.
We learn that the men of '63 dyed their
hair ard whiskers, and the advertisement
states that the work would be warranted at
reduced prices. how they must have
lookedl An old paper is a mine oi histori-
cal wealth. BESSIE BRAMBLE
MEETFNt..