Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-01-31
The Women of tie South.
A HANDSOME TRIBUTE BY HOE.

AT the celeOraG1On OF Gon. II. Il. Lee S
birthday in New York city by the Con-
federate Veterans of that city, Hon.
Jas L. Gordon, native of Charlottes-
vile, Va, ard brother of Hon. a. G.
Gordon of this city, whose removal to
New York was greatly regretted by
Virginians who wished him to remain
in his native State, and give her the
benefit of his fine talents, Was selected
to respond to the -"Woman" =
and in his response he raid just and
eloquent tribute to the character of the
women of the South, win well illustrate
the truth of the lines of Walter Scott
woman, lovely woman, in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
But when pain and anguish wiring the brow
ministering angel thou"
In responding to the toast. Mr. Cor
don spoke, in part, as follows =
Mr.. Chairman, for four years the
Southern section of this republic show
ed to the world as magnificent a strug-
gle against great odds as any page in
history di-closes. 1t was Il time of
glory for the South, but a time, to of
unllieasure,. sorrow, suf. eriug and pri-
walton.
History has not yet written the
facts as clearly as we could wish, but
on the hearts of the Southern people
the twin forces of memory and love
have sculptured in letters that can
never fade that the heroism of the
women left alone in the deserted homes
of the South through those long days
OF sorrow. with darkness and danger
all around them and with hunger-smit-
ten children weeping at their knees,
was as true heroism as this world has
ever known. Their agony, their love,
their devotion and their unfaltering
faith have never yet been told save in
the language of the prayers that day
and night sprang from their breaking
hearts to God.
solutely shorn of men as the civil war
left the Southern States while it lasted.
Every man who could ben a musket,
whether born to affluence or penury,
was at the front. Only the women and
the children were left beliind-and the
faithful slaves. For four years while
the tides of uncertain warfare ebbed
and flowed around them, desolating
the homes which had once been filled
with happiness, they bore the full bur-
den of domestic responsibility and the
still heavier burden of anxiety for the
dear ones far away beneath the South
ern cross They suffered, they worked,
they hoped, they almost stGrved-at
tended with loving care the sick and
wonderland when the sun of APP
pomattox set upon a Confederacy dead
forever, and the worn and tattered
survivors turned southwark to the
long-forsaken homes, to find them too
often in ruins, there were true hearts
waiting to give them welc me and true
breasts on which to pillow their weary
heads, while in the encircing fold OF
loving arms they realized that God had
left them something to live for still.
Long years of peace have stilled the battle
thunder
Wild grasses culver where the fight was
won;
Masses OF mowers, lightly blown asunder,
Drop down white petals ON the Silent
gum"
Long ago the discussion of the
political questions involved in that
great conflict was closed among pa
triotic men. Whatever might have
been the effect ON our Institutions had
the war terminated otherwise, we be-
lieve today that the American republic
is the best and freest government in
the world. North and South we now
agree to discuss only the valor and the
fortitude that during that stormy time
shed such imperishable glory upon
American arms. And no generous
heart can withhold the need of admi-
ration for the f-abnegatiOn and
sacrifice that illustrated the capacity
for heroism in the female Sex as shown
by the women of the South.
"Tne people down there l know can
never forget it. The olden habits of
life and thought which made the sec
ton south of Mason and Dixon's line
distinct from all the other countries of
the earth have, in great measure, pass
ed away. The system which made the
old baronial homes of that section the
centres of elegance, culture and hos
pitality is now part of the unreturn-
ing past. The calm, philosophic and
chivalrous temperament characteristic
of the ante bellum Southern gentle
man has little place in the glare of a
money getting, power-loving, and am
bilious age. But there is one character
istic which has not passed away, and,
please God, never shall-the sentiment
which to Southern hearts has always
made woman the saintliest thing this
side Of
1.-THE shore where tideless sleep the seas of
time
Soft by the city of the saints of God"