The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-10-11
SOUTHERN WOMEN.
Things They Did During the Civil War.
Chicago Inter-Ocean.

c0rkScroW eurlS D0ODleQ up anu uOW
as she emphasized every sentence with
motion Of the head or hand. She had
to do this to make herself impressive,
for her voice was So silvery soft that
she wouldn't have been heard other.
wise. And no wonder, for she was
surrounded by group Of young wo'
men sewing away at a lot of denim
emergency bags which soldiers will
probably never need.
Glow do you like sewing for Yam
kee soldiers?' pretty girl with mis-
chievous eyes asked her.
I never would have believed that
I'd have been guilty Of doing such a
thing, answered the old lady with a
laugh. "But here I am stitching away
FOR your squadron A men, or whatever
you call 'em, and me such through
and through 'Southerner, too. | do
wonder what nay people in South Car
olina would say. Some Of the old
ones would think that I'd lost my
mind, I reckon; that I'd gone stark
mad; but I want to be doing some
thingsnow that we are in for another
war"
:sYou didn't do anything for the
soldiers in the last 1ar, I suppose, :
said tall, light-haired girl. 81 be-
lieye you Southera women are and al
ways have been physically opposed to
anything like work.
"Well, you believe what's absolute
" untrue, answered the old lady, her
black eyes swapping, and her curls
bobbling furiously, 'and the quicker
you young people get such notions out
Of your heads the better. If I can
convince you that you are altogether
wrong I shall feel myself repaid for
taking this long trip up here. South
ern women not do anything for the
Confederate soldiers, indeed, during
the war!''
ssTell us all about it, urged a
Southern girl, and abouttwenty voices
backed up her request.
ssWell, you girls and women are get
ting up your Red Cross relief societies
and we had aid associations in the
South during the Civil War with a
similar object. There was an aid So
ciety in every neighborhood, and we
Southern women had TO exercise so
much ingenuity that We actually did
not realize what privations we were
enduring in those days Of busy
thought. The hardest task that an
aid society had was when the members
undertook to make uniformsfor acom-
pany. Think Of it, dear girls! These
uniforms were made Of heavy jeans,
woven at home by our slaves. A tail
or cut them out, but the mothers,
wives, sweethearts and sisters made
them, and every stitch was handwork,
too. for at that time sewing machines
were almost unknown. We knit socks
and shirts on steel and wooden needles
and finally things come to such pass
that we had to rip the ticking from
our mattresses and convert it into
shirts for our soldiers. On every
plantation there was ere or more
shoemakers for the slaves, and these
made up quantities Of shoes out Of old
ibootlegs.' -
s'How did you get these things to
the soldiers?" asked some one. "Did
you send them through your sanitary
-commission?'
eve didn't have such thing" an
swered the old lady sadly. SIT was a
great day with an aid society when
enough things were ready to warrant
sending a big box to the soldiers by
some returning soldier or by some sol
dier's BODY servant, at home to rest a
little spell. ali the women and old
men, too old for service, would come
from miles and miles around to the
house where the box was being packed
bringing anything they had to send
their folks in the war. One would
bring waistcoat, one pair Of trou-
sers, another shirt, and all brought
something the way of clothing OF
shoes.
81 shall never forget scene that
took place at my fathers house once
when my brother valet, Bob, was 60
ing back. Every body in thesurround
ing country began to bring things fo'
Bob to take back, and what to pu'
them in began to puzzle US. Sudden
ly we remembered tremendous trunk
which my uncle, DR.. Mott, hae
brought from Paris, filed with surgi
cal instruments and valuable skeleton