The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-04-25

/ DICdoth CoSoPOop oeh6NAONc ASsi Soeot
and sickness and hunger, were not
i, thrilling to the boy who sat by the
fire-side and listened, but sickening.
! 1t came too near home, and brought
between the warrior thrilling lines
t boyish mind read a tale which
tod OF loneliness, poverty and hunger.
II told of the armless sleeve, the leg
lcss pant, the vacant chair, the wild
E. C ! mother, and the fatherless chill
Gren.
/ Put | carry today a changed pic
ture. The hair of the Confederate
older partakes of the color of his
uniform of gray. His step needs the
aid of the friendly walking stick his
stopped form tells of the burdens
which have lain heavy on his shout
dcrs: ten thousand cares have regis
tered themselves on his face, and fail
ing vision reminds him that the no.
r'zon of life Ia near. In fact, when
tie roll is now called of those who
wore the gray one is reminded of the
roll-call of Pickett's brigade after
the famous charge at Gettysburg
But as time takes from memory and
from view the once unpleasant
thoughts and conditions see the Con-
federate soldier as he was, and know
HIM to be one of earths great he
roes. Great in his prowess and valor
on the field of battle. But let this
subject woe another Homer for the
worlds greatest epic poem, and es-
cape the defilement of bungling hands
and daubing artists. But we cannot
understand our hero until we know
what he suffered during the days of
carnage, and know what he has done
in the tine of peace. He who could
portray the mental anguish and heart
longing, the soul-throbbng of a soldier
husband and father whose suffering
dependent ones were far away in the
cabin home would round unvar-
nished tale deliver exceeding Othel
| 10 IN tnrllllnB interest.
81 drew near the good old
man "a he sat at the close
of the day on the broad gallery
Of his good country home, and said:
You wore the gray from GIGS, tell
me the one thing above all others
which tried your soul during that long
|
ulous when he said: 4 often march
ed day after day and slept at night on
the cold, damp ground; my only food
for days has been corn roasted in the
ashes: | have marched into the jaws
of death and lay on the battle field
with the dead and dying, but no trial
equaled the ever haunting thought of
cabin down in Mississippi, in which
lived my wife with her seven Deepen
dent children, clothed in rags and
hungry for food Her letters would
come and tell Of the new piece of
cloth which she would soon take from
the loom which would be ample to
make a garment for each of the chill
dren; how the boys had gathered the
corn from the field and summed it I'M
til it could be ground at the mill; how
she had taken some more dirt from
the floor of the smoke-house and made
another pound of salt, and then I dis
covered the severest test of my pa
triotism.' If, when he returned home
on a furlough, and stayed longer than
he should, you called him 'deserter;
for manhood's sake take it back.
But the time came when the
blood-stained, powder-burned gray uni
form must be replaced with the civ
; ilians clothes. His cause had been
: lost All was lost-save his self re-
spect and his unconquered manhood
No people ever faced greater desola
, fathers and brothers in the spring Of
1865. For the sake Of your better sell
!, | refrain from recounting these condi
. lions. May a merciful providenc
| nelp up 10 lOTSet Inelu' Out Vi dl
this chaos the soldier-citizen ha:
brought splendid order; his farms
; once ruined now clothes the world il
; cotton; his commerce then paralyzed
now puts on your table daily thu
,. viands of the world; then transporta
ton and communication, little NOR
than nothing, has grown to- make al
e men neighbors. The Confederate sol
l. der looks like hero now.
Y "The soldier-citizen returned HON,
d to find all schools closed, and hi
d children untaught. The grown-ul
S boys had to aid in regaining the farm
e and sometimes care for al widowe
is mother and helpless brothers and sis
= tiers. With no money. no schools, an
q the care of a home, he faced the II