Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1902-08-28
CONFEDERATE VETERANS.
AN APPEAL IN THEIR BE-
HALF.
A County Home For Such O.
These Peerless Heroes AS
Cannot Receive Shelter
In the State
Home.
EditorARGUS.

Home.
Editor ARGUS.
The undersigned at the last meet
ing of Thomas Ruffin Camp, Con-
federate Veterans, of Wayne county,
were appointed a committee to de-
wise means for the erection of a Sold
iers' Home for INDECENT ex-Confed-
crate Soldiers of Wayne county.
There are now living in the county
about 500 ex-Confederate soldiers.
! Of this number there are so or 60,
who, on account of wounds and dis
eases, are totally unable to provide
for themselves. The State of North
Carolina, at the last session of the
Legislature, appropriated two hun
dred thousand dollars for the en-
Iargon4e1t Of the Home at Raleigh
and pensions for disabled soldiers and
widows. The Home is now crowd
ed to its full capacity. Wayne county
we understand, has only 2 inmates,
which, it is claimed, is its proportion
ate number. The Home is now fill
ed and it is impossible to secure adj
mission for others. Of this we are
not complaining. Perhaps it is as
much as the State can do, or at least,
as it is doing, and pro vision must be
made for those who are among us,
and who are suffering for the com
mon necessaries of life. We are in a
position to know something of the
distress and suffering which some Of
the poor old fellows ire undergoing,
and realize the necessity of making
provision for them. It is our pur-
pose to erect a Home for them near
the city of G~oldsborO, and e that
they are taken care of the few re-
naming years of their life. In MAX
ing this appeal to those of the ex-
Confederate soldiers who are able to
contribute, and the public generally,
we confidently believe that you will
cheerfully and gladly respond to the
! call. We do not believe any n
who is able to contribute will fail to
do so after reading the following ex-
tract from an address delivered by
Jno. P. Arthur, Esq, of the Ashe-
vile Bar:
"These men were young soldiers
then, out they are old soldiers now.
They belong to a nee large, but
now rapidly diminishing class of
men whom we have come to regard
almost with the eyes of Indifference
Confederate veteran. With
modest mein and accomplishing
speech they come and go, gray vet
Grams, with bent forms and frosty
locks, and the ashes of age supplant-
ing the roses of youth, that but a lit
tie while ago blushed on beardless
cheeks. The eyes that blazed with
the battle-light of Seven Pines and
Missionary Ridge look out upon
these smiling plains and everlasting
hills, but they are dim and almost
sightless now. The daring hearts of
many of them that charged up the
heights of Gettysburg are contend
ing with adeadlier foe than shrapnel,
bayonet or minnie ball. Cold and
hunger and disease are drawing their
deadly parallels ever nearer They
can hear the sapper and miner dig
ging beneath redan and counterscarp
as distinctly as they heard them in
the trenches in front of Petersburg
in the dread winter of sixty-fve; but
no counter-mine that they can con
struct, 40 desperate sally that they
can make can much longer keep the
unseen enemy from his prey. They
diligently pursue the paths of peace,
and watch the world go past them
as in a dream. They are being rapid
Ily left behind. Their children have
grownu up and left them, and it may
even be that the patient partners o
their lives r sleeping out yondel
in unmarked graves, and the ashe
on their hearths are cold and gray
The State does not even promis'
them a grave, save in the Potter
field, and the ftful slumber of OLE
jage is haunted by the nightmare o
Iproverty, and cold and loneliness
They do not murmur; but ah, the.
lcannot forget. Would they could
for they are often made to feel tina
they are forgotten and cast aside
Nothing was too good for the gallan
boys who marched up the storie
ISwannanoa, forty-one years G t
!. whist1ing fife and throbbing drum