The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-02-06

mission has been and stIIl is and we
trust long will be as declared in Artl-
Gle of their constitution: "Educa-
tional, memorial, social and benevo-
lent-to collect and preserve the ma
terial for a truthful history of the
war between the states-to honor the
memory of those who fell in our ser
vice 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 sur
vivors." All Of these are noble OBJ
jects but the greatest of all is the
establishing of the truth and prsseFN
ing Il: 'the poet saith that "FfAtA
crushed TO earth will rise again." and
IL has fiseh and Will continue to rise
Even that popular magazine, Frank
Munsey's Monthly, in its last num-
Der, has forever blotted out the malig'
nant and fanatical story OF Barbara
Freitchie, and only the last week the
ladies of Lexington, KY, put under
the ban the drama Of Uncle Tom S
Cabin" 1t was the Daughters of the
Confederacy who did it and to their
widespread and influential organiza-
ton the south must look for the
maintenance of the truth. Just think
of it. Within the past nine years
twenty-five states have been chartered
as grand divisions, including Califor.
MIA, New York, the District Colum bia,
Oklahoma and the Indian Territory.
In all these there have been chartered
an aggregate of over three hundred
chapters with membership Of $4,000
good, loyal southern women. The
largest federation of women in the
world. OF this membership, Texas
has the largest number, 2,435. Geor
gia comes next with 1850 members.
But my friends, this great army Of
daughters and mothers who, whether
alive or now dead, instilled 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 fifteen years l have OBJ
served a 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 Vir-
ginia to Texas. The mothers of
these daughters endured more hard
ships nd privations than their hus-
bands and sons who were in the
army, Abdt 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
1t, if not sooner, but if she can't have
it she surrenders cheerfully and &C.
herself to the situation.
During the war they actually smiled
at their own pitiful and distressed
condition. They boiled down the dirt
from the smokehouse that had long
been saturated with the drippings OF
the hanging meat and made pretty
good salt out of it and divided with
their neighbors. They parched rye
and gubbers 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
entertainment to listen to
these good old mothers as they rec
cite their m5keshifts 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 amusing experiences. One
told how her two boys and a 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
cobler and he made three pair of
shoes that would hold shucks, and they
it 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
10 wear them, because she laughed so
much. That was the origin of tan
shoes, though these were made of I'm.
Anntbar fO1J bOuy