The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-01-19


several States that were in the Southern
Confederacy, do mot warm up to the
proposition that they be cared for in the
Homes supported by the Federal Gov
ernment
They prefer to stay near their families
and friends. They are too old to make
new friends, and
TOO OLD TO, they have no taste
MAKE for change. The
NEW FRIENDS. Virginia Congress-
man who started
the idea didn't know the real senti-
ment of the old Confederate SOL
dier, who feels like the Virginian has
committed a blunder. They think it
looks like they were asking to be taken
in, when most of them would not go if
the doors We're opened wide. / was talk
ing with one of the old guard yesterday
"a soldier who is old and poor, and is
dependent-but as proud as Lucifer. Il
am sorry" he said, that Mr.. Rixey had
anything to do with that business. We
are not beggars, we are we'll cared for
as we'll as our folks at Homeland we
want nothing better. For a Southern
man to make the proposition, it looks
like we were paupers asking to be given
bread and shelter. We ask nothing. If
the Homes should be open to the ex-
Confederates, Mr.. Rixey should have
waited for a Federal soldier who totes
Confederate lead to make the PROPOSE
tion. We wore ourselves out whipping
the Yankees. We have no hard feelings.
We respect brave men everywhere, but
we don't thank anybody to make it ap-
pear that we are begging for a place,
much less place at the table of the
men to whom we surrendered.
/ met Mr.. Alex. Stronach, chairman Of
the Executive Committee of the Home
in Raleigh, and asked him
what he thought about the Rixey
plan to open the Soldiers Homes, where
now only Federal soldiers are cared for,
to Confederate veterans. He said
Il was one of the rank and file during
the war and have been shoulder to
shoulder wi h
ALIEN. STRONACH them ever since.
GIVES think / know their
HIS VIEWS. feelings. They do
not want to be
cared for in the United States Homes,
and if you will talk to them you will
find that they are almost a unit against
the proposition. They are not bitter but
they prefer to live and die among their
own people.
The Otey proposition that the money
obtained from abandoned and confiscat-
ed Southern prop
THE OTEY erty, lying in the
PROPOSITION the United States
FAVORED. Treasury, be di
vided among the
Southern States maintaining Homes for
their soldiers is one that has merit in it.
That belongs to the South. 1t is theirs
already, and there is no way in which
it could be appropriated that would give
more general satisfaction. The Confed-
crate soldiers do not wish to sit at a
table and feel that they are being given
something. They would feel that they
were at strangers table ps a pauper.
If this idle money was divided among
the States, they would feel that the
comforts it brought was from their very
own as they now feel about the State
appropriations
Speaking about the statement of Con-
gresham De Almond that while the
leaders of the Confederacy believed in
the doctrine of secession, the rank and
fila had no fine spun theories-they
would be willing and glad to enter the
Federal Home, Mr. Stronach said: He
is mistaken about that. The rank and
file were as strongly indoctrinated with
Southern Rights as were the leaders and
they as firmly believe in them to this
day.
Il had rather live out in the old field
and eat oak leaves than live along with
the Yankees, said
RATHER LIVE IN Mr.. Rhodes, a poor
OLD FIELD AND ex-Confe a e
EAT LEAVES. soldier, living near
Fuquay Springs,
who belonged to the Twenty Fourth Re
giment, He had been told that the Fed
eral Government was going to open the
Homes for United States Soldiers also
to the Confederate soldiers, and that was
his answer. Mr.. Rhodes does not own
an acre of land in the world and is an
INDECENT soldier. He is very poor and
makes his living selling roots and herbs
which he digs out of the ground himself
and brings them in town to SELL He
lives fifteen miles from Raleigh and gen.
orally walks to town one day and then
walks back the next day. He rode on
the train THIS time, nelsnDOr having
paid his fare for him to come to Raleigh
to pay his taxes.
1t seems that the North Carolina ex-
Confederate soldiers are not alone in the
feeling that they do not want to 80 to
Northern Homes. The Memphis Com
mercial-Appeal has the following to say
about the plan:
NO doubt it is with the best inten-
tions in the world that certain Demo-
cratic members of
EX-CONFEDER- Congress favor
ATES DO NOT opening the doors
WANT IT. of the soldiers
homes 70 ex-Con-
fcderatcs who are in distress, but it is
less than probable that the idea will
ever become popular.
Even should the barrier be removed.
it is certain that very few dependent
cX-confederates would accept the
charity of the general government
Most of the States have made some
sort of provision for the men who fol-