The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1907-03-02
U.D.C. CONVEN-
TION REPORT
AN ENTHUSIASTIC SESSION
HELD AT GULFPoRT
Details of Most Interesting Meet
ing by Mrs. Lucy G. Yerger, Dele
gate From Private Taylor Rucks
Chapter, Greenville.

Nowhere in all the country could
the convention of the United Daugh-
ters of the Confederaey have been
more charmingly, delightfully."-, enter
tanned than it was at Gulfport No
where could the requirements of that
body of women SO prettily spoken OF
as the noble custodians of the mem
ories Of IS6I-65," been more ade-
quately Met than they were at Gulf
port-that wonderful little city by the
sea, which is fast developing into
importance as gateway to the Gulf
and which ltaking all of its condi-
tons into consideration will one day
become the greatest harbor of the
South. The first of the requirements
met was the fact that Gulfport IS in
the State of Mississippi, the one of
all the others best loved by him who
was the accepted embodiment of that
Lost, tho just cause" in whose dear
memory we Daughters of the Confed-
eracy have pledged our hearts, our
hands. our brain. A Mississippi town
it is, in the home State of Jefferson
Davis, and then, too, it is so close to
beautiful Beau Voir, this fine old
place so famous as the home of our
spend his last days among the people
he loved the best. 1t is now a sol
diers home for Confederate veterans,
how fitting it is that this home of the
South's President should be turned
into refuge for the battle-scarred
veterans of his own loved State. In
IN h
ters of the Confederacy, to visit this
fine old place. near five hundred
Southern women, went there one
lovely afternoon and saw these vet
erans, wards of the State, and noticed
with loving satisfaction how we'll
cared for they were, and as happy as
old age, under the conditions, could
be, many were privates IN the ranks
during the four years hard service
and they noticed with great appre-
ciation the badge / wore which bore
the name of our chapter, Private
TAYLOR Rucksr The house at Beau
Voir is surrounded by large grounds,
we'll shaded, before it pass and repass
little boats and schooners, white
winged messengers of commerce, Ia
den with the products of the coast,
lumber and turpentine, oysters, tlsh
and miscellaneous freight. Imagine
this scene (says one who wrote OF
this country with the waves tapping
the sandy beach and the breeze whis-
pering through the stately oaks and
scented pines, and, floating through
the study window the notes of the
mocking bird, thrush, red bird and
wren, the air laden with aroma OF
honeysuckle, rose and jessamine, on
" the whistle of an L. and N. train
now and then as it passes about four
hundred yards in the rear of the
house or the occasional passing OF a
team on the she'll road in front, to
break the stiffness of this retreat
where Jefferson Davis went to live
and where he wrote the ''story grand
of our cause and of our land and the
ideal place it was for such a purpose.
Outside the grand oaks, ancient, ma
iestic. Druidical, with their drooplng
bouphs and festoons Of grey Spanish
moss. reminding one of that fine pas
sage in Robert Louis Steveson's in
land voyage where he says: Trees
are the most cital society. Giving
lust that touch of sadness so in keep
ing with the spirits of the good and
great man. the lord of the manor,
the scenes presented to has mind as
he bid it go back over those four
years of bloody carnage was at times
too much for his strength There he
would lay down his. pen and wander
out and with set face make his way
to its waters edge, and with all his
strength, would battle against his
grief but still the wrong done his
South rankled in his breast. 1t is
twilight. the sun has again sunk be-
meath the water OF the gull, as he
looked across. sea and sky seemed
to have met the rustling of the leaves,
the tapping of the waters and the dis
tant roar of the surface alone broke
the stiffness of the evening. Then,
as if in response to his gentler mood,
a weird, sweet music seemed TO swell
from beneath the waves. faint and
low. like the tones of an Aeol1an
harry as the signing of the wlno
among the pines, the mysterious
music came and went, dying away
in a long. low wall
You can see him, can you not, this
tall chieftain of the men who wore
the gray, as he stood on the beach
at the waters edge and listened to
this long, low wall. He knew itgwas
the souls cry of our dear South,
singing the death dirge under the
waves at his feet. Then at another
time when the music came again, he
seemed to hear above it all the voice
of his God. / love thee, / love thee:
Pass under the Rod, and then his
heart would he comforted, and again
when the night was still and his