Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1900-05-17

|
motherhood of the South shall emu
| the Confederate Soldier, SO long
! need we have no fear that our pres
tige will be great and glorious and
safe. For behind the Confederate
! Soldier in the field was the Confed
crate Womanhood at home, and
these were of mould as heroic as
their brave sons and husbands and
| sweethearts at the front.
The maid who binds her warriors sash,
With smile that wei her pain dissembles,
The while beneath her dropping lash
| One starry tear-drop hangs and trembles,
Though heaven alone records the tear,
And Fame shall never know her story.
| Her heart has shed drop as dear,
AS e'er bedewed the field of glory.
| The wife who girds her husbands sword
Mid little ones who weep and wonder
| And bravely speaks the cheering word,
What though her heart be rent asunder,
| Doomed nightly in her dreams to hear
| The bolts of death around him rattle,
| Has shed as sacred blood as eer
| Was poured upon the field of battle.
| The mother who conceals her grief
While to her breast her she presses,
| Then bIeatnes few brave words and BRIEF
| Kissing the patriot brow She blesses,
| With no one but her secret God
| To know the pain that weighs upon her,
| Sheds holy blood as e'er the sod
Received on Freedom's field of honor.
So patriot blood does not come
alone from hearts that bleed on the
firing line. Surely ''if there be boon
an offering that heaven holds dear,
| it is the last hpatlon that liberty
| draws from heart that breaks and
| bleeds in her cause" Indeed the
soul that sorest suffers from martial
strict hears the thunder OF the guns
not at all save only in dreams, cl.
| when the tears of brave fears fall
fastest.
Upon the field of battle, amidst
the flush of victory, perhaps, and the
shouts of triumph, ended human suf-
fering for many brave Confederate
Soldier; but the deadening grief of
devoted women upon many hill
side, in many low green valley, was
thereby deepened, and the interven-
ing years have not given surcease of
sorrow. The soldier rests. his war
fare over. but woman weeps on and
is not conforted; for pride in Yalor
GUS deeds of her dead never yet
healed the mothers bruised spirit of
devotion.
The Spartan women gave the ebon
hair of their heads to make strings
for the battle-bows of their warriors,
and spoke fearless farewells when
the brave marched away, but thous
ands of hearts broke when Leonidas
fell, and woman's tears might have
Il ~, of
Thermopyla.
When the noble Southern mother
stroked the head of her precious boy
and pressed his throbbing heart to
her own aching br, asst she offered
| him a sacrifice to God and her coun-
try; but the sacrifice brought not
surcease of anxiety. nor soothed the
mothers pain, nor stilled the yearn-
ing voice of the mothers love. Idle
to tell her of her boys undaunted
bravery on the field of battle; idle to
remind her Of his imperishable deeds
of valor, of his heroic death, and OF
his Country undying gratitude; idle
to point her to his commandant's s
report-to the name of her boy on
the Roll of Honor. Proud she would
be with the pride of the mother Of
such son, but stricken still with
grief-the grief of the mother of the
dearest dead.
And the Southern wife, who brave
ly packed her husbands knap-sack
amid little ones who wept and won
dered, and kissed him last good
bye, assuming burdens too heavy
for her to bear-how heavy and how
she bore them God alone knows
what shall say OF her? It is not in
the power of language to pay hel
tribute! Her record lives in the
hearts of all brave men, and the
heart of a brave man never forgets
But the record of grief for the
Private Confederate Soldier slai1
, does not stop here. What of the
matchless Southern Maiden, clingins
to the gate of her sequestered South
ern home and consecrating it will
! her tears as she lovingly looks on tn
8 vanishing figure of her soldier lover
2 erect, reliant, brave,-the pain O.
t parting struggling with his hope ane
: his pride and his heroism for hi
E country's cause.-The little gate ane
the sweet face of the little sweet
3 heart strangely blending with scene
8 Of battle-the charge, the rout, tn
Victory!l Under the soldiers JACKIE
9 the heart beats less heavily than tn
Z heart of the maiden above the close,
t gate closed to shut out JOY and hi,
g defiance to hope!
By and by. comes a story of car