Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-11-08
SOUTHERN FEMALE COLLEGE
Petersburg Indcr-Appeal.) }

~ 1oh VIC SiSoIeob sOCidt anu dI-
tistic feature of The meeting of the
Grand Camp Of Confederate Vet
Grams in Petersburg last month
was the beautiful piano recital
by Mr.. S. Becker von Grabill, given
by the Southern Female College in
the Academy. A more brilliant
audience has seldom, if ever, gathered
in Petersburg. Nearly one hundred
and fifty of the students of the COL
lege occupied seats on the stage, and
their bright and interested faces,
with their white dresses and badges
of Conferate colors, formed a charm
ing picture.
Tine president of the college intro
duced Mr.. Won Grabill in q short
speech, appropriate to the occasion.
Mr.. Davis said:
Ladies and Gentlemen:-It is an
honor that 1 appreciate highly to
welcome this audience of the Con-
federate Veterans and Sons and
Daughters OF Confederate Veterans
in the name of Confederate Col
lege.
/ say a Confederate College ad-
visedly, for the Institution under
whose auspices we are gathered here
tonight holds its charter from the
same Confederate government from
which these knightly soldiers and
officers of the Grand Camp that /
see before me derive their honored
titles.
You all remember that famous
boast Of Cowper's, when he says:
"My boast is not that i deduce my birth
From loins enthroned and monarchs OF
the earth.
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,
The son of parents passed into the skies"
With no less justice may the
Southern Female College boast itself
as the daughter of "parent passed
into the Skies" as the offspring of
that "Lost Cause" that is now
sphered up in the eternal heaven of
glory, and of those heroic souls
whom we almost picture to ourselves
as living still in the eternal ringing
battle-joy of some Morse Valhalla,
so much was the stern delight of
battle native to their souls.
The historian Green, in writing of
that King Alfred whose millenary
has just been celebrated in England,
tells us that he was not a warrior
alone, but that while with the mailed
hand of force he kept the Danes we'll
to their own side of Waiting Street
and defended his borders, he yet
found time for multifarious industry,
for teaching falconers their duty, for
jotting down scraps of genealogy in
his common. place book, for estab-
fishing the School of the Palace.
And in like manner l love to picture
to myself this great Virginia of ours,
glorious in her activity, keeping her
borders with her good right arm, that
glorious Army of Northern Virginia,
which, "vital in all its parts, perished
only with annihilation,' but vet
finding time to care for the details
of life and government, and to found
this and other institutions for the
good of her people. AS We sing it
in our college song:
Not forgetful of her daughters,
While her sons bore arms,
Virginia formed our Alma Mater
Firm mid wars alarms.
AS white water-lilies open
While the tempests jar,
Like flower of peace she blosssomed
On the waves of war.
And it is ia looking back on those
days of war that / find full and fair
precedent for this concert to the
Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans.
1t is a matter of record with US that
in those stormy days the young ladies
of this college gave a concert for the
benefit of the soldiers, and we even
know what was done with the pro-
ceeds Of the entertainment. There
is a certain delightful protest against
utiiitarianism and the dry-as-dust
advocates in the fact that the stu
dents used their money for the sol.
diers, not to provide shoes and socks
and other necessary articles, but to
purchase and forward to them-two
barrels of sorghum!
In like manner, tonight we are
providing for these same beloved sol.
diers, some of the sweets of life-not
sorghum, as before, but a "concord
of sweet sounds from the hand of q
master.
Mr.. von Grabill, whom ! have the
honor to introduce to you as the
artist of the evening, has played