The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-02-02

| in most men. She never gives up. The
sad results of the war that wrecked the
| fortunes of Southern men FASTENED thou
sands of them to untimely graves, but
their widows still dot the land from Vir
gihia 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 go 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 IL she can't have it she
surrenders cheeffully and accommodates
herself to the situation. During the war
they actually smiled at their own pitiful
and distressed condition. They boiled
down the dirt from the smoke house that
had long been saturated with the drip
pings of the hanging meat and made
pretty good salt out of it and divided with
their neighbors. They parched rye and
COOLERS for coffee and sweetened it with
sorghum and Dragged how good it was.
They cut up their old garments and made
clothes for their children. Indeed it Is
always an amusing entertainment to
1tctn 80 4hoH1 al 4 4t1..a IL
recite their makeshifts 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 be-
| tween them as they told of the most
amusing 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 cob
bier, and he made three pairs of shoes
that would hold shucks, and they fitted the
children pretty we'll, 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
We're made of Unframed leather. Another
told how two of her children never saw
raisin until they were and years
old. and were afraid to eat them, and
said they were bugs. Another told how
she and her boys built a fence around
the garden by boring holes in the plank
and the posts with an old brace and bit
that her husband left when he went off.
And they made pegs and drove them in
for there wasn't nail in the county. But
good old Mother Akin, whom everybody
loves and likes to listen to, told how
three of her neighbors got out of meal
and had somehow got hold of three
bushels of corn, and they rugged up a
little rickety wagon and a blind army
mule and all three started to the nearest
mill. which was seven miles away. They
started early and got to the creek. and
the creek was up, but they drove in, and
sure enough the wagon came uncoupled
right in the middle of it and let them
all down where it was knee deep and
let the corn down, too, and the mule went
on with the fore wheels and stopped
when he got over. But they never gave
up the ship nor the corn. 1t took them
about an hour to get the corn and the
wagon together again, and with dripping
garments they hurried on to the mill.
photograph of the scene would sell as
the champion picture of the women of
the war. The good miller gave them
dry meal for the wet corn, and by sun
down they were all at home again and
laughed over it and everybody laughed
who heard of it. Almost every family
within Shcrman's belt have fireside
stories to tell that would fill a book
They are a curious medley of the sad.
the pathetic and the amusing, and excite
more fun thanl sorrow. How blessed are
they who still live and how sweet are.
the memories OF those who are dead for
it is the mothers of the Confederacv
who have perpetuated the love of truth
and the love of Southern patriotism in
the hearts of the children and inspired
those principles that have in recent
years developed that grand organization
known as the Daughters of the Confed-
eracy. Our Northern brethren may
boast of the Grand Army of the Republic,
but out mothers smile and say: Il
don't see where the grand comes in for
all who came this way were low Dutch
and hungry Irish who feared not God
nor regarded women" Well, it is all
over now, and we are at peace, that
blessed peace that hath her victories
more renowned than war. And thrice
blessed is the woman whom the dark
ages kept subdued for centuries, but has
come TO the front and how stands side by
side with man and is always first in every
good word and work. For two thousand
years she was called by name but twice
in the Bible Mother Eve, and next came
Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and for
another two thousand years was men
TONED by name only few times but at
last she was honored as the mother of
our Savior and was last at the cross
and earliest at the grave
Within the last half century she has
made more progress in establishing her
natural aud God given rights than in all
preceding time. She is the acknowledged
head of all religious. missionary and
charitable institutions. She is the school
teacher OF the world and in these United
States constitutes nine tenths of all the
public school teachers in the land. In
several States she has the right of suf-
frage and is eligible to office on tho
school boards. Time was when she was