Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-05-12
A CONTRAST.
The Widow Davis and the
l. Widow Jones.
An Old Confederate Indulges
Some Reflections on the
Pension Proposition.
Written for the Mississippi Leader ]

Written for the Mississippi Leader.l
In yonder little cabin lives the wild.
ow Jones. She is over seventy years
old. See her there in the garden
How her back aches, and how the
perspiration flows down her cheeks
as she stoops under the warm
sun to gather radishes to send by hei
little grandson to market. Ten cents
is more precious to her now than one
hundred dollars were thirty years
ago.
Then she was the wife of an indie
pendent planter, and lived in large
house with husband, daughter and
one son. Success in life had been at
tanned. Comfortable old age and
prosperity for her children seemed
assured.
When the secession question came
up in 1861 Mr.. Jones opposed it. He
was staunch union man. He was
so much in earnest about it that his
eating neighbors warned him his
health was endangered by his senti-
ments. But though grieving for the
broken union, and distrusting the
consequences, lie went bravely to the
front with his son. The father died
in a Northern prison. The son per-
ished at Gettysburg.
The bereaved Mrs. Jones lived for
some years after the war on her place
with the freedmen. But she had not
been raised to business. She could
not handle the new and strange con-
ditions. Old debts came up, New
debts were unavoidably made, and in
1870 she found herself reduced to a
small plot of ground, and little log
house, and there she has lived ever
since, a miserably pinched and labori-
Gus life.
Her daughter, delicate girl reared
in luxury, married poor man, and
died leaving one child, the boy above
alluded to.
What is the old lady saying to her.
self as she works at her humble task?
"It does seem strange and hard that
l should have suffered so much when
l had no hand in bringing on the war,
and Mr.. Jones did all he could to pre-
vent it. And | will not live many
years, and must leave johnny without
education or property to help him in
the world. Poor fellow, if there had
been no war he would have gone to
college and had plenty of money.
And just to think that just across the
road there live grand-sons of my
former slaves, and that my grand
child must peddle vegetables for a
living in competition with them ~
In yonder fashionable New York
hotel sits the Widow Davis. Her hus-
band was the great Southern leader
who advocated the extreme of States
rights, and staked the negro slave
against the American Union. He
travelled in foreign lands after his re-
lease from prison. He educated his
daughter in Europe. He wrote and
published his book. He was Mrs.
Dorsey's legatee. He recovered the
plantation "Brierfield.n Mrs. Davis
and her daughter travel about and
live at hotels. Miss Davis figures in
society. These things take money.
Poor people stay at home. They do
not enjoy hotel life.
Is Mrs. Davis really poor? If so it
might be proper to help her in moder-
alton. But if it is proposed to tax
the people in order that she may live
in luxury and on her dignity, we pro-
test against it. II is not fair that
Mrs. Davis should monopolize atten-
| tion. Let's pay some attention to
poor, old, innocent Mrs. Jones, in the
name of JUSTICE.