The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-19

1 Tn two ways. l omer to leave the entir matter to such men as Major W. W Screws. Col. John W. A. Sanford ant Judge John B. Gaston. Mrs. M. D. Bibt tells me must accept what know is un l true. or keep up the fight. am no afraid of the verdict of unbiased opinion | I recognize the disadvantage of my DO sition, with Mrs. M. D. Bibb. President of the Association, and yourself it's Sec \ retary, insisting that you will not have 1 your account reviewed by anyone, but | am sure there are enough of those ladies I and their daughters in the Association al | New Orleans who made Memorial Asso- | ciation history, who will not feel that I Truth can hurt by proving 1t.
 I recognize the sarcasm in your former letter in the suggestion that Mrs. Cory S | history should have been called "Phe- Ian Memorial" I have the testimony of Mrs. Cory that she searched diligently, and wrote only what she found was the | truth. I have the testimony of Colonel Hodgson that 1t contains the truth. That 1t should have the appearance or a "Phelan Memorial" Is not unreasonable. Represented in the affairs of State by its father; on the line of battle by four sons; in the hospitals and sewing socie- ties by its mother and two daughters: and everywhere aid and succor could be ehNCh, ny Cfci HhthOCI Ol tHc V, 1t could not have been written and said less of them, unless as in the case of the monument on Capitol Hill, they were pur- posely omitted because to admit them was construed to take lustre from some other
 say purposely omitted, because when read your tribute to Mrs. Moore Mrs. Bellinger, Mrs. Heron, Mrs Baldwin and Mrs. Bibb, with all of whom my mother worked side by side in the hospi- tals and was equally prominent in all their councils-and, mark you say hos pitals-for there were more than one his pital in Montgomery, I cannot but feel that this omission was caused by my sister having made the innocent, and may be unfortunate speech. in which she claimed that our mother was one of the originators of the Memorial Association
 AS to your efforts a. correctness, am sure you will admit that you declined even to examine the evidence which my sisters offered you on this subject.
 Again assuring you that I regret this whole matter sincerely, but that I feel impelled to pursue 1t until it is settled In truth, am,
 Very respectfully,
 S. H. Phelan.
 Then. on April 11th. came that beauti- ful and memorable appeal to the ladies of Montgomery from Chairman Phelan of the Executive Committee of the His torical and Monumental Society, The call was as follows:
 APPEAL.
 To the Ladies of Mont tgonery. The harp that once thro' Tarra IS Halls
 The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tarra's walls
 AS though that soul were fed. It was your pious duty in the day of battle to nurse the sick. feed the hum gry. prepare bandages for the wounded, cheer the living to victory. weep over the dead, applaud the brave and rebuke the laggard. This duty you performed con- startiy and nobly. You were actuated by the impulhe of a heart which beat only for the cause in which your emo- tional natures were enlisted. That heart was appealed to from the battlefield, the camp and the hospital, and it answered every appeal with the devotion which in former days induced the matrons and maidens of a beleaguered city to cut off their tresses for bow-strings.
 The people of Alabama have not for gotten the ministering angels who bore half the brunt of battle, whose smiles garlanded the brows of victory. and whose words of encouragement healed the wounds of defeat, The people of Alabama will never forget the debt of gratitude they owe you, and when their children grow to years of accountability they will say to them. Honor the Creed of your Mother
 The battle is over, but the dead are un- buried. They are lying where they fell in the valleys of Virginia and Tennessee. TT cir bones are bleaching beneath the sun and the storm beside those of the beasts of burden. The ploughshare is striking them from the soil which their blood sanctifed. It is true that a single hand here and there is extended to gath CT their ashes into consecrated ground where the pious pilgrim may read in a single line the melancholy history of their glory But single hand is unequal to the task To you, daughters of Ala bama. comes once more an appeal to help us bury our dead! The Executive Com mittee presided over by Judge Phelan, asks you to devote the first evenings of the coming month of May to a fair or festival by which money can be made for this pious purpose. They ask you to set an example to be followed throughout the State. That which will be a labor of love for you will prove the brightest jewel which glitters from your crown of immortality. With your aid, daughters of Montgomery, the mecca of Alabama will be the cemeteries of her soldiers. To collect their remains within. church-yards which look out upon the fields of battle and to decorate them with the simple em- blems of purity and holiness, will adorn the abyss of ruin with a splendor as enduring as that of the eternal rainbow which spans the precipice of Niagara Then in coming years when the world witnesses our pious devotion to the mem ory of those who laid down their lives for us, it will be said that the lost star of the Pleiades was the most glorious of the contellation. ."-Daily Mall, April 1lth, 1s66-.
 Letter of Augustus.
 Editors Mail: Sunday I paid a visit to our city cemetery and blushed to see the graves of some of my brave comrades So much neglected. I have lately seen two or three articles In your paper call ing upon the ladies to raise money to de- fray the expenses of the removal of the remains of Confederate soldiers from battlefelds in Virginia and elsewhere While heartily approve of this. I would respectfully ask that some attention be paid to the graves of Confederate soldiers in cur own city cemetery. If more care Is not taken of them in a few nontbs it