Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1911-09-06
IL IL II IL i !. !. j. !. y sSs i.
u TIlEtPOWER, OF i.
j. SOUTHERN WOMEN. j.
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writer, l would write with the point
of a diamond, IN letters Of gold, and
| would place them in pictures of
silver, and l would hang them up in
the halls CT 'ame, where kings and
potentates could read and know
what the Southern women did in the
bloody struggle Of the sixties.
Their deeds Of mercy will be as
so many stars in their crowns of re-
joicing, which will shine forever and
ever. That power has been seen and
felt in this Southland since Colum-
bus first discovered this great coun-
try; that same power followed the
multitude and shaped the destinies
Of the Southern States; that power
guarded the cradle of Washington,
Jefferson, Lee, Jackson and Davis;
that same power charmed Lafayette
and captured the young Napoleon;
that power sent into the field one Of
the grandest armies that was ever
marshaled upon battlefield. 1t
was composed Of the very bud and
flower Of the American nation. That
same power fed and clothed that
army from The first to the last days
of the Confederacy.
The mothers and daughters of the
sixties we're our ministering angels,
as are the women to-day the custo-
dians Of the graves Of our heroes
who died for us. Nowhere in the
history Of any country did the heroic
women play greater part in max
ing history than did the mothers and
daughters Of the sixties They are
the uncrowned queens of our hearts
the inspiration Of every noble and
chlValrous deed. Her chiefest yir-
tues, however, do not exhale their
sweetest fragrance in their bright
hours Of prosperity; it is in the
dark, sad hours of adversely that
they shine with more brilliant lustre
for 1t is her sacred mission to vine
away tears, to soften sorrows and
heartaches, and to bind up with ten
der, loving hands the open wounds
of grief. How truly can this be said
of our Southern women of Confede-
rate times. From the time the
buglers sounded the first alarm of
war until the smoke of the last bat
tie ceared away they were unfailing-
ly true.
WIN the Greek mothers sent their
sons out to war they told them to
come back bearing their shields. or
come back upon them. The Confed-
crate mothers did more than that:
they went upon the fields Of battle,
and with their own loving hands
laid their dead sons upon their
shields. They followed the sick and
wounded to the hospitals, binding
up their bleeding wounds, and cool
ing their fevered brows. MANY q
Confederate soldier, Just before he
passed to his reward, felt upon his
feVerish brow the soothing touch of
gentle hand, and heard from fair
lips words Of divine hope and inspi-
''''' "' ooiI ana sweet as an
angels prayer
These mnistering angels did not
stop when the war closed and peace
was made, but they came together.
q believe in the city Of Richmond)
and said that the chivalry and cour
age OF the Confederate soldier must
live in granite. marble, brass and
silver. All over this Southland these
monuments and shafts will be liy-
ing witness to the loving devotion
or the Confederate soldiers to their
country. And that nag-yes, thai
nag | love rs mother loves her first
porn, that so proudly flOated four
years on land and sea--will live in
the hearts Of Southern people as
long as stone will bear the mark of
the engraver's chisel, and long years
after every old veteran has answer
cd his last roll call; and when years
and years have rolled away. these
grim sentinels in marble, and garn-
1te' and brass, and iron, will call
out from the posts at which you have
stationed them, "All is we'll! All is
wcll!"
Ana every year when springtime
comes across this Southland, and
when tho little birds sing their
sweetest carols, and natures bounti-
ful hand fills the verdant hills with
music, and bloom, and beauty-then
IL IS that these Daughters of the
Cohtcderacy will come and gather
those flowers, and, with tender
hearts and loving hands, lay them