Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1903-01-18

VIRGINIA-AT-LARG January IL
love to linger in that simple old home,
with the slipping roof and dormer WIN
dows-tllat home full of historic ghosts,
which has furnished me food for the Sun
day gossips in my corner Of the Dispatch.
But before I leave it for pastures new.
there are humble inmates. now passed
into history, whose shades demand my
pen-the faithful, well-bred. loving
house servant Of antebellum days.
My grandfather always wrote Of them
indeed of all the slaves-as a part Of the
family. 1.-THE family, both white and
black he wrote his father, have been
much pestered with ague and fever.
Again: There have been twenty-five
cases of bilious fever in my family this
season.
In the mainthe deserved the humanity
that thus classed them. There were Cen
eral Simpsons and Nat Turner'S, it is
true, who wrote lurid history on local
pages, but believe, and affirm, that
the most powerful factor in that chivalry
of southern manhood, and that gracious,
ness Of southern womanhood, which is
universal history, was the home in
which they blossomed, tended, trained.
pr4lned, watered, and warmed by an un-
limited staff Of perfect servitors. Nanny,
body-servant, house-girl, butler. or boy,
all had part in evolving the master and
mistress, upon whom we look back with
intense ancestral pride.
But where are they now, that gentle
host OF dusky benefactors? The Nat
Turner's and General Simpsons are
abroad in the land, but the "house-ser-
wants. from nanny to boy. are lowly
laid in neglected "buryin groun's." be,
meath wiId-plun1 thickets and tangled
brarnb1e-bush.
Virginia womanhood-and, incidentally.
rnanhood-has undergone a change like
a reversal Of the metamorphosis Of Gin
derilla under the god-mo others wand. The
fine lady has, at the touch Of necessity,
become the cinder-wench. Yet the dill
gent reporter, herself a woman, VINO has
striven to unravel the .:yexed Question. .
TO solve the PROBLEM Of the Hour" is
no pesslInist. She believes that The wo-
man Of background as she is between
the upper milestone Of heredity and the
neither milestone OF existing conditions,
will, when She shall have been ground to
ashes IN her faithful efforts to murder
cestors-there spring from those martyr
ashes a daughter fully equal to the
emergency. The New Woman, in plate
armor of common sense. armed to the
teeth with science will catch but
glimpse Of the vanishing bug-a-boo Of
her mothers existence. and the servant
question viii no more be asked.
When I last visited the old family
home, Of which love to write. was
touched to the heart by the passing OF
the house servant It took place silently,
hardly noticed, all over the South, in
cabins hidden in ''ole-Aei pines. and
so7fen tho only mourning above the faith
fulsdead was the moaning in the tree-tops
BY the wind.
One morning, sitting on the dining:
room porch. and thinking Of these prob:
lens of transition. saw hobb!tng up the
brick-walk visitor-an old black swo:
ma bent, white. haired, and d1m-eye ed
q, welcome visitor always.
rs ..aliss Libby. she said. sinking WILD Wilt
rheumatic groans. upon the top step, =
at had news sis Lizzie done 'ceasted.
She went erway las'night bout er hour
O. .fdas - 80.
20. not really. 4 am 50 sorry! FOOT
good, old Aunt Lizzie. Z, &,
~ t..1,airt wl1th while to- be sorry-she :
I'M xlcry now, bless de Lord! she .es-
sinsIn' wild de angels on ers go!ding mar
s,np. er dressed up in er shtnin s.. Wits s
robe. en- dar amt er drap ers sorrer'a.iI
her. Dat cancer en- all dem mlseraess1n
l,pr back. en- all dat neber-endlpsR relp1n
atter little Jacob won poster her no 6 rno I
She's one erEGord sels ~ =
81 know she Is ssSs =,
s. -, nm sure OF that, Aunt Snsans4A u L,I
= ,ig1feS was q true Ghri tan Do yon thtah
shn was entirely Ysconciled to death ~.
IS i.Yoa 8 she w,lz she VILE 81 SIS
su,,y will1n, -shes had been here pieu l!S
Ing M. She yruss 5es, hones tonsTy, nanotn.
;;,,ssr..van.t SNdpk to .Apecify ne se s
M. IN {. Lord. 40 will miss Aor. 20 g
No shs'd eosns horss en s 81