The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-09

mzwm HE fairer portion of creation
 may find some interest in these
 E lines. The enthusiastic fidelity and the spartan courage of Flora Mac donald does not suffer by comparison with the heroic traits of the noblest women of the grand colonial days-peeress, as she Is, of them all; combining the sim ple-hearted Pocahontas' sublime devotion to principle the glorious women of '76 of Mecklenburg and Rowan, the mas culine courage of Mrs. Slocumb, Mrs. Powell and Mrs Steele, the brilliant re- partees of Mrs. Willie Jones-a wit to be admired, and before which the martial spirit of a Tarleton was forced to quail
 These rare characters which graced and ornated the grandest successful strug- gle for freedom the world ever saw are fast being covered with the moss and lichen of neglect-lapsing into perishing tradition; and soon, unless reclaimed by some patriotic son or daughter of the revolution from eternal oblivion, they will rest only among the fiower-crowned an- nals of song.
 IliiS lllliC OCOlllSH Ild1Qcn, WHO T1De0- ed into the noblest among the women of the clansmen of that day, was born In one of the Hebrides in 1720 After the battle of Culloden-1746-the pretender, Charles Edward Stuart became fugitive, for a price was offered for his blood, and he was hunted from crag to cavern and from hill to dale by the kings troops; t.,,4
 donald conducted him, disguised as her maid, to the Isle of Skye, and rescued him from the axe which had caused so much of the blue blood of Scotland to flow.
 In about 1750 she was married to the chief of the Clan Macdonald, of Kings burgh She was rich in possession of the noblest property of the human charac- ter-the touch of pity and the feeling of humanity. Flora Macdonald and her highland husband emigrated to the Uni ted States in 1775, when the forecastes of the revolution was seething in every nook and corner of this new world In those days of '76 were crowded stupend- ous events of years, as in our four years struggle with the Yankees were crowd ed ages of glory for the name of south erner Generals and statesmen were form eu WllnOul previous instruction and dis cipline, orators and poets sprung forth like magic, whilst inventive and experi- mental wisdom were successfully employ- ed in advancing in all directions the boundaries of human knowledge. Those seven years and our four years form the most luminous links in the chain of time and it is richly due to the soldiery and citlzenship-men and women-that his- tory eternize their achievements In ann pie pages. And, though, we lost in the four years grapple with domestic and for eign hosts, tyrants will remember us, and learn moderation. Truth rarely floats on the surface of history; it Is only by look Ing long into the stream that we see the jewel lurking in the bed; and it Is only in the fair original records of our early fame-full of glorious examples and chivalric daring-bured amid the mass of official documents in the offices of "The board Of trade and plantations in Lon don, that Stfth, Burlx and others have found them and MT. Wheeler and one or | two other delivers in antiquarian rubbish nave copied them, to save our country | rom utter ignorance of the most glorious | deeds of our ancestors, for those are ab- | solutely the only reliable records ever Kept of that early day of this great re- | public In the characters of the women mentioned above, and many others, are | discovered every virtue that can dignify our nature and every trait that ennobles l wonanhood