The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1902-02-14


tiers of the Confederacy. Their mis-
long will be as declared in article 2 of
their constitution: Educational,
memorial, social and benevolent--tc
collect and preserve the material for
a truthful history of the war between
the states-to honor the memory of
those who served and those who fell
in cur service and to record the part
taken by southern women during the
war and it's aftermath, their patient
endurance of hardship, their patriotic
devotion during the struggle and to
fulfill the duties of sacred charity to
the survivors," All of these are noble
objects, but the greatest of all is the
establishing of the truth and preserv-
ing it, The poet saith that Truth
crushed to earth will rise again." and
it has risen and will continue to rise.
Even that popular magazine, Frank
Munsey's Monthly, in its last number.
has forever blotted out the malignant
and fanatical story of Barbara Freit-
chic, and only the last week the ladies
of Lexington, Ky, put under the ban
the drama of "Uncle Toms Cabin
1t was the Daughters of the Confed-
eracy who did it and to their wide
spread and influential organization
the south must look for the main
tenance of the truth. Just think OF
it. Within the past nine years %
states have been chartered as grand
divisions, including California, New
York, the District of Columbia, Okla
homa and the Indian territory. In all
these there have been chartered an
aggregate of over 300 chapters with
membership of 10000 good, loyal
southern women. The largest feder-
alton of women in the world. OF this
membership Texas has the largest
number, 2,435, Georgia comes next
with 1850 members. But my friends,
this great army of daughters had
mothers who, whether alive or now
dead, instlled this love of truth and
unstained confederate honor in the
hearts of their children. They are
the ones who sacrificed and suffered
and still were strong. For more than
Is years | have observed q trait in
woman's nature that is lacking in most
men. She never gives up. The sad
results of the war that wrecked the
fortunes of southern men FASTENED
thousands of them to untimely graves.
but their widows still dot the land
from Virginia to Texas. The mothers
of these daughters endured more
hardships and privations than their
husbands and sons who were in the
army, but they never complained.
Goldsmith wrote;
"Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long"
But some cynical old bachelor para
phrased it:
MAN wants but little here below
For so the poets say,
But woman wants it all, you know,
And wants it right away"
Well, she does want all she can get,
and wants it as soon as she can get it,
if not sooner, but if she can't have it
she surrenders cheerfully and accom-
modates herself to the situation.
During the war they actually smiled
at their own pitiful and distressed con-
dition. They boiled down the dirt
from the smoke house that had long
been saturated with the drippings of
the hanging meat and made pretty
good salt out of and divided with their
nighbors. They parched rye and CUB
bers for coffee and sweetened it with
sorghum and Dragged how good it
r hni fe
and made clothes for their children.
indeed it is always an amusing enter
tainment to listen to these good old
mothers as they recite their make
shifts. and their trials after Sherman
had passed through on his march to
the sea. Not long ago four or five of
these matrons by chance met at our
house and it was nip and tuck between
them as they told of the most anus
ing experiences. One told how her two
boys and little girl had worn out
their shoes until they would not hold
shucks much less feet, and she found
an old calf skin that had long been
hanging in the barn and she soaked it
in lime and red oak bark and got about
half the hair off and took it to an old
shoe cobbler; and he made three pairs
of shoes that would hold shucks, and
they fit the children pretty well, but
the red hair stuck out in little patches
all over them, and she laughed and
laughed until the children did not
want to wear them, because she
laughed so much. That was the origin
of tan shoes, though these were made
of untanned leather. Another told
how two OF her children never saw a
raisin until they were five and seven
Il Il "a ii 10