The Palatka news and advertiser., 1916-01-28

cal Southern lady renamed unspoll.
ed. Her training from childhood had
been, as she fully understood, to fit
her for the duties of wife, mother
and mistress. Her life, as she was
aware, was to be spent for others.
She well knew that after early youth
with its unrestrained joys had pass
ed she was to take the place her
mother and grandmothers had filled in
Eministering to the sick and needy
both black and white-and in shelter
ing the homeless and dispensing
boundless hospitalities to friend and
stranger, to dependents and peers
alike. The Southern woman's high
est goal of achievement was to de-
vote her mature years to the comfort
of her family and friends and the
culture of her children. 1t was a
destiny that demanded intelligence,
Judgment, industry, poice, courtesy,
forbearance and social accomplish
ments. Hence, should fortune call
her to conspicuous place in the great
world, she was ready. Equally as
she shone at home, she was prepared
to shed abroad light that was not OF
land or sea. The peculiar charm that
emanated from her presence was a
mystery to the uninitiated. Her gen
tleness. not far removed from imperi-
Gus dignity; her sudden flashes of wit
from out a scabbard of CONVENTIONAL
ity; her clinging dependence upon men,
"a dependence that mimicked COM
mand; her Difference to macsullne su,
iperior wisdom that modestly velled
the riches of her own well-stored
mind, were causes of wonder to those
who were not in the secret.
The limpid current of the Southern
bellies life, ripping gracefully above
the glistening pebbles of firm charac-
ter beneath, fascinated the curiosity
of the uniformed. To reconcile the
seeming contradictions of freedom
and restraint, of strength and weak
ness, united in the same lovely per-
sonage, to understand how the luxurl-
ouslv reared creature could, when
tested, rise to top heights of heroism,
nothing more is needed than to re-
call the source from which she
sprang. An explanation is readily
found in the patient endurance OF
her pioneer foremothers and the bold
prowess of her cavalier forefathers.
The fine nature of the Southern belle
had been moulded from the tempered
metal of sires who starved at Valley
Forge, died at Germantown, scaled
Kings Mountain, wrought the mill
tary miracle of San Jacinto, stormed
Chapultepec and laid low British in
science at New Orleans.
The rich tone of her character was
the same that in the Elliott ladies of
Carolina charmed, while d.
Tarleton and his troopers; that in the
person of Marcia Burns, of the Poto-
mac country, attracted to her simple
home the great statesmen of her day,
who appreciated alike the feminine
graces and intellectual gifts of the
orphaned Marcia and the sturdy pa
triotism that induced her to give un-
grudgingly of her patrimonial acres
to provide the site for the capital city
at Washington.
Far from the haunts of men, but
toned to a note of sacrifice as full
and deep as hers, the brave lives of
Charlotte Reeves Robertson and 9TH
er cowinners of the West with their
pioneer husbands, were devoted to the
task of subduing the vast wilderness
of the interior. And in the South
ern cities a succession of fair and
fascinating women held latent in their
natures the qualities that make for
greatness.