The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-11-22

| home, encouraged by lifelong venera- 1 tion, Miss Lizzie dared what no man or woman ever dared before in that hotbed of secession and proslavery sentiment; l she spoke right out in meetin'" and
 made her influence tell, with often
 blood-letting effect.
 The negroes have black faces, but white hearts" she was often heard to
 say, and as if to carry conviction to a point by practical example, she gave
 one of the cIeverest female slaves her freedom, sending her north to be edu-
 cated. When the war broke out, per- ceiVing the advantage of having a faithful ally about her. this former
 slave was recalled to Richmond and in stalled again in the old hill mansion till some time later, when the Davises who
 occupied the White House of the con-
 federacy at Richmond and were on in-
 timate terms with the Van Lews, de-
 sired a trusted servant. What more
 natural thing than for Miss Van Lew
 to offer them her educated negress, and
 what more natural than that, in grati-
 tude for her freedom and many other
 benefits, she should make the very best
 use of her opportunities and her educa-
 ton in gaining accurate and anthem
 tic information with regard to the se-
 cret workings of the confederacy-in- formation which, by some means, let no man at this late date cavil how, was
 promptly communicated to the White House of the Union at Washington.
 In the library of the Van Lew man. sion there is a quaint old fireplace. On
 either side is an iron support, sur
 mounted by a couchant lion. One' of these is fixed, the other so constructed
 that 1t may be lifted like the cover of a secret chest. Deep in the recesses of that pillar were deposited the cipher messages, often in sympathetic ink which were brought from Washington or from Grants headquarters by for lorn old negroes, who bore them in the wadding of their shoes or between patches of their mistrabe rags, and there these never suspected messengers found other communications which they bore in return, though Miss Van Lew might never so much as give them a glance, and though the house at all times was filled with officers of the con- federacy, watching the fair spys every move.
 Through Miss Van Lew General Grant and tn 'hole north were con- stantly apprise~ of the movements of the southern army. Through her in formation many a plan of attack was abandoned and another substituted. The maneuvers of the troops, the se- crets of the Richmond white house, the changes in the official staff and the plans for concerted acton-all was communicated through this little re- pOsitory under the couchant lion while spies were ripping up carpets and for cing bureau drawers with the hope of discovering evidence enough to compel the fair Unionist to leave the country but all to no avail.
 Straight into the camp of the non- plussed General Winder, provost mar shal of the district, the fearless spy would ride audaciously and say: Sir, your ordering your underling officers to search my home for evidence to con- vict me in league with the enemy is be- meath the conduct of an officer and
 
 would turn livd, bite his mustache and | say nothing, but with mighty thinkings l in his heart all the same.
 Horses were nearly as valuable as men in and about Richmond at that | time, and there was little scruple with | regard to seizing them, wherever found. l Many a lady was stopped in her car- riage, the horses cut from the traces, and the victim of the war left stranded | 1n four wheels Miss Van Lew had six h orses, much coveted by | the officers of the confederacy, and, | fearing that they would be appropria- ted she gave out the information that | they had been disposed of, when in re- ality she brought them from the stable and stalled them in her cellar.
 One day the officers came with the information that she had concealed the horses in the cellar, to which the smil- ng Miss Van Lew demurred, while she fed them on the daintiest of cakes and he rarest southern vintages in the great dining-room. Afterward she oade a servant show the gentlemen into he cellar by a roundabout outer way, giving them the wrong set of keyes
 While they were haggling at the out IT door, Miss Van Lew was leading the horses, one by one up the broad cellar stairs and over the heavly-carpeted loor to the dining-room, and while the 'earchers were at last engaged in ex- )loring the cellar, Miss Van Lew was leeping her pets quiet by feeding them ,ake
 But it was when Libby prison began O fill with Union prisoners that Miss Ian Lew showed herself the stanchest She was in constant com with the leading Union of- icers within the prison. All the world emembers the thrilling plan which was ecided upon to gain freedom from that ,lace of living torment-tunneling sev- nty feet under the vacant lot beyond he lines, and with no other implement 1 han an old knife and a chisel, the working hours being from ten o'clock t night till four in the morning, the irt withdrawn to be clevery concealed i In this daring and remarkable enter , rise the plotters were advised and en- outraged from without by Miss Van leW by secret messages. On that { drilling night of February, 1864, Colo el Thomas E. Rose of the Seventy-sev- f nth Pennsylvania volunteers who was , aptured at Chickamauga the autumn ! revious, and who planned the escape :