Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-02-01

ing OF the more fortunate country
people of this part of the State.
LsTgo numbers of ladies from these
refugees, including the aristocracy,
with their daughters and negro girl
slaves, sought out there expert do.
,u.stiics in the country, and applied
to these noble women of the Con-
federacy for instru ctions in special
courses, in the art Of csrding. spin
ming, dyeing and weaving.
These women of that day occupied
positions of rank second to none of
the professors at the head of our
finest textile schools of to-day, but
never assumed half the style or put
on airs to compare with those
observable in our modern textile
professors.
My grandmother spun and wove a
suit of Confederate grey for Senator
r.. A. Maxwell, from Pendleton. He
was very proud of this suit, and my
grandmother received more orders
than she could fill for other suits of
Confederate grey.
The men who have wrenched this
branch of woman's a.6 from their
hands now complain of the girls for
driving the boys away from the yard
stick behind the counters.
Our grandmothers, the noble
women of the Confederacy, lived a
truly strenuous life for four years.
The world has not produced peer
to many of them; for they not only
had to provide the necessary food
and clothing for children at home,
but very many made clothing for
husband, son or father in the army;
while in addition to this, the Govern
ment levied tax in kind, one-tenth,
on all grown foodstuffs for both men
and beast, that was raised on the
farm. They were in daily, yes,
hourly, dread, yet anxious for news
from the war, though this news
might be sad and their only relief
from this was woodwork that tires
the body, that made it possible for
them to sleep and give respite to
the mental faculties that were borne
down by these terrible and never
ceasing responsibilities and anxieties.
The school houses and churches
in the country, and depots in town.
were the gathering places where
everybody resorted for news fror.
their loved ones in the army. Hardly
a day passed that some one did not
get letter. Very often very
coarse fabric of yellow brown paper,
folded and having the franchise,
"Soldier's letter." written i'll the
corner, that took the place of
stamp and envelope; but within its
folds was news that interested every
individual in the neighborhood; for
the "boys at the front" always told
about their neighbors' boys, and let
ters we're read aloud to the crowd as
we now read newspapers.
On one occasion it was read out,
"Tell Mrs. Allen that her son, Henry,
is sick and had to be sent to a hos
pital." When the old lady heard
this she walled out aloud in a whim-
per, "That's the way poor widows
child is treated, he is sent off to a
'horsepittle' where they keep horses.
If he had been rich mans son he
would have been sent to some nice
house, and some of the Virginia gals
woulder been there to wait on him."
Many rural people in those times
did not know what hospital was.
Home made medicines, drug stores
and apothecary shops were soon re-
duced to almost nothing in the way
of manufactured drugs. Spirits of
turpentine and corn wbiskey were
the base of many compounds for
remedies and when properly mixed
with little sugar, made fair per-
fumery called cologne. The inner
barks from the cherry and dogwood,