The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-28

take the lead in the movement to re- oeive it?
 suggest to the progressive citizens of this most wonderful city that they should now lead the state-the south--as they most surely do In material development.
 These monuments to the women of the Confederacy should grace every city in the south. Let Birmingham blaze the way by placing in the most conspicuous place within her borders one of these most beautiful tributes to the women whose patriotic devotion made possible the rebuilding of a raised country. and with 1t the birth and growth of this great commonwealth.
 Ten thousands dpllars-a mere basatelle for this city-will do this
 Have you ever considered the pecu- liarities of the character developed in these women and the influence of that character on the development or the south.
 In the, old south woman was the angel of the home. Such an educa- tion would never have fitted her for struggling with the poverty and want brought on her by the results of the war. But the necessities of the war and the responsibilities of home, thrown upon her by the absence of the men, brought her gently down from her throne and she gladly and most admirably grasped the reins of home government. Such bitter and se- we're experience taught her the lessons which enabled her so grandly to meet the deprivations and rise above the trials of the war. They taught her when the overthrow of her fondest hopes came to be the true helpmate of the returned soldier who laid the foundations and fitted her to be the mother of the sons and daughters the present generation-who today are building the superstrueture to the mag nificent prosperity which now over spreads our fair land.
 It Is most truly to the women of the war, not the women of the south. but those of the south who were living at the time of the war, that we and you owe 1t all. It Is to the noble women who so grandly rose to the duties i'm posed by the war. who grew and ripened under it's bitter experience and ara learned lessons; 1t is to these women that the south today owes that most stupendous development, which is making it the best and richest part the garden spot of our country. You, each and every one of you in q greater or less degree. owe them for this, most tremendous debt. There Is no human being in the south who does not owe them a share of this immense obligation. Are you willing for fture generations to believe that the south produced only great leaders. that 1t only wrote on the rolls of immortal fame the bravery of the armies of northern Virginia, of the army of Ten nessee. and not to know and remem- Der what their mothers, their wives their daughters and their sisters were doing. while the men were making a history which will forever ring through the records of time? Did they have any women to match such men? Yes, yes, forever yes. Not to match them. but to surpass them, as the heavens above the earth.
 "The maid who binds her warriors sash
 With smile that we'll her pain dissem- The while beneath her dropping lash
 One starry teardrop hangs and trem-
 bles;
 Though heaven alone records the tear
 And fame shall never know her story, Her heart has shed a drofNas dear
 As e'er bedewed the field of glory The wife who girds her husbands sword
 Mid little ones who weep or wonder, And bravely speaks the cheering word
 What though her heart be rent asunder Doomed nightly in her dreams to hear
 The bolts of death around him rattle, Has shed as sacred blood as e'er
 Was poured upon the field of battle. The mother who coneeals her grief
 While to her breast her son she presses Then breathes d few brave words and
 brief,
 Kissing the patriot brow she blesses, With no one but her secret God
 To know the pain that weighs upon her Sheds holy blood as e'er the sod
 Received on freedoms field of honorl"
 Shall their glorious deeds stand longer unmarked? No. l say, No. Never will you be true to the past, never considerate of the future. never faithful to your selves. until this is done.
 Stop but a moment in your maf strife for money cease for moment the splen-' cid efforts you are making to upbuild the south. your home and their home: pause in your whirl of pleasure, and raise shaft in honor Of the women, without whom you and our south would today be sroveling in the dust still overwhelmed L- the ruin of 1885,
 Let the record Of their grandeur of their bravery, of their supreme devotion, stand in lmperlshable bronze and granite for all time to show that we know the value of the treasures we possessed in the glorious women of the Confederacy. Let 1t so stand. that the people of all time may know that however disaster may have overwhelmed the bright hopes of the southern Confederacy that merci- ful God blessed us and blessed the world with his noblest, purest. godliest crea- ton. a
 THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTHERN
 CONFEDERACY.