Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Iji autograph n Written July 25, The letter of President Dav answer to an inquiry made by one > Roanoke College in regard to natio ^vcight year", it is now placed before and judicial!y. It is worthy of the fix*?<T " <2* - ~ ai tc4&n ^ J SW /? StyVc? ?- -k- A. *- /# l? A"< v* V I- *~ .O ?, / | ** ^ ?W. ?. A " /'> A? ^!lO I? ?-<lft> t+.auC A"1 P-^ y a-C" U*. 4**??" ***>vt..?U.t, >-cX". -Xt i /- /v e-A ->-? *?< ~ ~ ^ TATT THE NAME ^AG*Y\_ >Y WINIFR JIl jx'-l With us in the South. Memorial Day is an even more pathetic anni versary than in the North. Owing tc difference of latitude and climate, too It is observed, in most of the States earlier in the spring. In Georgia H is observed on April 2Cth, instead o: May 30th. In the North the holiday arose fron the patriotic exertions of Genera Logan; but m the South the observance of the day was originally dm o the personal efforts of a Mrs. Will rams. of Columbus, Georgia, and be . gan earlier. With us. however, little effort oi persuasion was required to initiate the holiday. In many of our smal towns and village- the custom e bearing Powers f > the gravis of oui dead soldiers began spontaneously. I remember that in the first year: ^rfter the war we were accustomed or -" ^Irat day to drive to the cemetery ii our old family carryall, loaded vvitl wreaths of cedar and glossy magnoli; . n leaves, made on long, pliant willc.v branches: piled, too. with sprays o dogwood an i bushels of wild purph pansles and dog-tooth vioiets fron the valley of the Oostanaula, am crab-apple and peach-blossoms fron the fields. The old carryall was an arbor o fragrance, all its old ribs and won wheels hidden in pink and whlt< blossoms. Yet however heavily we wen loaded to the cemetery, we never hac flowers enough for all the graves there were so many of them. Always there would be found one more grave in some far corner, still bare of flora tributes; and my father, himself ; lame veteran of Lee's army, woul< call to us to fetch another armful If we said there were no more, he al ways bade us divide those on th< other graves and make up wha seemed an equal "honor" for the neg lected one. There was one grave, however? not in the cemetery, but down unde the magnolias by the fence, in the ex treme corner of our grounds a Springbank?which for many year no one of us ever dreamed of decor ating with flowers. I - I II ' JAnd You Have D ine This?These Flowei ?l'or My Son!" In truth, we children never wen I near the spot. Only in low, awe f tones Ol" Yillispurs uiu wc S|;ca l of it?"the Yankee's grave!" For i I all those sad old days, after Shei man's devastating march throug Georgia, the name Yankee was to u something far more terrible than tha of Indian; it was the synonym fo desolation and grief. In my childish thoughts, too, th word was even more dreadful. G the day before the battle at Wood lands, four miles from Sprlnghank, troop of Northern cavalry had halte at our place to water their horse: and several troopers came Into th m OF PRESIDENT JEF 1881, Touching "Secession as a Rigl is which follows touches upon the vital iss vho was called at that time to answer que nal questions under the Constitution. Ik the public as worthy < :" publication hecau great man w!ms?? merits are being more a ' ^ // / - V/ . //'J/. I c-p- ? A j~-<. </***/? t'-* _tA / ' ^ ? * < v?v- -??>?? v f* -T I i i i^ iC jtt . kv-*--A i??-?9 fx /.<? ? ly, y c* A r ?r <r> ^ / ^-T > ;X~f a*-? X. 35" - ,w~. J&~^s *y? -?- i-< *2i ??....?* a. CZZZZ^5^ {.PUS r^lS2gg1 * LESS GRAVE ; ED LAURENS J [ house. My mother put us children in , c - the parlor and hastily locked the 1 ) door; but the windows stood open b , wide, and with childish curiosity I , i had toddled forward and stood under v t | the high sash, watching the horses, d f; One of the cavalrymen crossed the l I piazza, and before I could run away, j F i | he caught me up and kissed me! To s ! a new memorial to thk pres. s lDKXTOF THECOM EDEKACV. j a ' | J [ jenerson uavis is nere ijonra.veu m ,! an emotional role, with one hand rest- a 5 ing on the open book of history. The a statue is by Edward Valentine, and ? 1 was dedicated recently in Richmond, j j this day I seem to hear his words,: l ! "You little dear! You are the very j ^1 image of my little sister Rosy!" i v o j For years afterward, whenever my j t. brothers or younger sister Josephine j . j wished especially to humiliate or ! j plague me, they would point the fin-j _ | ger of scorn and cry, "A Yankee > r kissed you! A Yankee kissed you!" j It may possibly have been the same i t voting trooper, although that is un- j s likely, whom, after the skirmish and , .. battle across the fields, our old house i servant. Uncle Joe, found near the i fence down by the magnolias, shot through the lungs, mortally wounded i and unconscious. As I was but three ct the time, I | retain of course, but a confused recol- j lection of the fight, the shouting and i yelling outside, the burning barns, i the awful sounds of the firing and the i well-nigh frantic fears of my mother ! for our safety. Kelley's brigade of Mississippians! was formed across the road and J across our plantation: the enemy was i repulsed, and fell back to Woodlands,; i leaving a number of their dead and r wounded. But these were all taken away that night except this cavalry- ; t man, who was overlooked, and whom | our old colored man found down ' i there by the fence the following even- ] ing. He died during the night, and , f Uncle Joe brought to my mother a ; s silver watch with the initials "J. W." i ? in the back of the hunting-case, and ! s 3 a small seal ring engraved with a a coronet and two crossed spears, t All the men of our household, as i d well as our neighbors, were with the s k Southern army. There was no one to n call upon; we were even in straits for a .. food. Nor was there a horse or a h mule or a cart left us. Down there t s by the fence, under the magnolias, i Uncle Joe buried the bouy. And that, r in brief, was the story of the Yankee's i t grave. j i e During all those first years follow- ' i n ing the war?so embittered and ter- j t 1- rible were all its memories?that ! t a mound down by the magnolias was a 1 d spot shunned by us all. ! s, But time mercifully and divinely t e softene even embittered memories : FERSON DAVIS. 11 i I fit and Remedy." lie of ISO and was written in stions hv the senior students in Id as a "private" letter for twentvso of the issue it meets so fairly ind more appreciated. *"* ^ ?' "C i ^ f ?1. ^ ., - ^ *V MO^^v ,-?;r Xs ?r-t' "~? A*"1- *^-./w~~cr; /<? *?~??t Q. ?? ^ fe t??J<, t-.^- '<_ -J-^C?Z /..?.^ ~-> L / -GT. - -w. ^ ^ *< j uch as oars. I think it was on the lay before Memorial Day, 1S75, that is we prepared our floral tributes or the cemetery, my mother stole luietly away from the group on the tiazza, and taking a handful of blosoms, bent her steps to that solitary ittle mound tinder the magnolias. In wonder our eyes followed her, .nd when she returned, Josephine exlaimed: "Why, mother, wnere nave ?uu een?" "Let us hope, children, that somewhere in the North, kindly hearts are oing the same for our own namepss graves there?for your Uncle Mnckney and Cousin Will Gresham," he replied, gently. We were too much surprised to anwer. Afterward, no Memorial Day was llowed to pass that some one of us id not rake off that little mound and reshon it with a few flowers. So the years passed till 1SS3. That :e should ever know anything furher concerning this little grave unci the magnolias seemed improbable, t was niprely one of so many thouands of nameless graves, South and .'orth. That spring of llfSfl, as it chanced, fiy sister and I were at home from avannah. My widowed Aunt Lena, oo, from Atlanta, was visiting us. It was the evening of April 28, two ays after our Memorial Day, when .11 save the bouquets in jars and lasses had withered on the graves. The afternoon had been very warm. Ve were sitting out in the piazza, to njoy the approaching coolness of vening and hear the mocking-birds 2d whippoorwills. Presently there came to our ears he rattle of an approaching vehicle; nd slowly the decrepit old carriage t the railroad-station, which served xriving travelers, came toiling to our :ate. "Who can our visitor possibly be?" i*as the thought in all our minds, for iving friends were now few. A lady in mourning stepped down, nth an air of uncertainty, and came MISS WINNIE DAVIS. ip the walk. With hospitable intent, uy mother descended the steps to ueet her. *Tr this the home of Mrs. Leich?" he stranger asked. "I am Mrs. Leigh," my mother redied. "Will you come in?" "I am Mrs. Warrenton from? rom New England," the stranger aid. "I fear I may not be welcome, dy motive for coming to you is a itrange, sad one." She paused, with l little catch in her voice. "You are very welcome," my nother replied, gravely. Josephine ;et out a comfortable chair. The stranger seated herself, and tfter a pause, spoke again: "I do indeed hope that the quesion I am obliged to ask will stir no mpleasant memories of a past which ve who have suffered desire of all hings to forget. My brother and ny son both fell in the terrible war." 5he glanced pathetically at my moth>r*s face. "They were, of course, on he Northern side." she added. "My jrother was killed at Antietam; but ny son was with Sherman's army, md was finally reported missing? ind that is all 1 have ever been able I to learn." Mrs. Warrenton paused again, to check fast-coming tears. "I know positively that he was alive at Dalton," she continued. "After that I can learn nothing. Rut , a mother's heart craves more; and still in the hope of learning something as to his fate, I have journeyed South on this sad quest. At the house of a family near Kingston they told me of the unidentified grove of a , Federal soldier on your estate. "I have been to so many unidenti-1 flort nr,.ov->s " the T?nv nmther added I ' "that hope has nearly failed me. Hut | tell me, have you. had you. any clue. | or were there any circumstances that would?aid me to know?" My mother, greatly touched, could hardly summon heart to tell her; but Aunt Lena interposed. "Have you | reason to think that your son carried a plain silver watch, marked inside : the case with the initials J. \V.?" she , asked. "Yes, yes!" cried our visitor, eager- j ly. "The school watch I gave him on j his sixteenth birthday! Those were j his initials?Jerome Warrenton." In our growing excitement we were now all on our feet, gathering about I her. "And did he wear on his little finger a signet ring, with a coronet and crossed spears?" my aunt asked, quickly. "Oh. it was he! It was he!" Mrs. Warrenton cried aloud. "That is the crest of my own family," she explained. "O my poor boy! My poor boy! And have you the watch and the ring? And his grave?is it far to go?" Too much affected to reply, my mother rose silently and brought forth those sad mementoes of the terrible past; and then we turned ; away instinctively from a grief too sacred for the eyes of strangers. & little later, just as the sun was < setting, my sister and I led the way to the little mound under the magnolias, my mother holding our visitor's hand. Nor had the bouquets of pansies, ] placed there two days before, as yet wholly withered. It was when, through her tears, her eves fell on < these flowers that the last traces of Mrs. Warrenton's reserve vanished. "And you have done this?these flowers?for my son! For my poor dead boy!" she cried impulsively, and threw her arms about my mother's neck. 1 In truth, a common sorrow makes i sisters of us all; and it was thus, at 1 last, that "the Yankee's grave" was 1 identified. < Mrs. Warrenton remained with us I for nearly a fortnight, and at the end j ( of her visit changed her first intention- : ...n' - w" ' V * ' ' * * \ . < I A, r A VIEW OF ARLINGTO: of having her son's remains removed ; 1 and re-interred in the North. i 1 "If I were to do that, dear friends," ! ] she said to us, "I should feel that I'1 was breaking this dear new bond of j J j friendship which, born of a common '1 | sorrow, has grown up between us. | < Here, where heaven moved your! i hearts to lay flowers on his grave?1 i here let him rest; and I, if you will j < permit me, shall come to his grave." j i And every spring, since that first; sad pilgrimage to us. Mrs. Warren-j1 ton journeys southward to pass a few j weeks at Springbank, and be near the : t grave of her son on .Memorial Day.? < Youth's Companion. The 1'Inre For It. * An old Scotswoman was advised j j by her minister to take snuff to keep i | herself awake during the sermon. ' 01? -Whr dinna ro i ^ out; ttlla?citu Kik t " ??; j ^ j pu* the snuff in the sermon, mon?" ^ j GENERAL STEPHEN D. LEE. lc TO A DRUMMER BOV. by b. vr. gbizzard. Lorrsvrr.r.E, kt. The robins nest in fair Cave Ilill And gentle zephyrs blow IVhere sleep botn braves of blue and gray? Soldiers of long ago; 1'iie slabs are white, the sunshine's bright, The turf is light and greenSolder sires nor braver soldier The world has never seen. Hard by Louisville's gay. bustling streets, Where grim Death bears his own. Where dwell the dead in their long sleep, The Reaper has his throne; And there upon a cloudless day I mused beside a tomb Fo dwell in thought on life and death In that lone place of gloom. i M .. V ' -? * m '*is ^rfi3^W Many deep-wrought inscriptions there On serried grave stones gleamed; LJut ol tnem an none neiu my eye Xor to my fancy seemed So fraught with love's tender tribute, So tense with woe to come, As that which simply told but this: "Boy, we miss tnee at home." Long vears have flown since he went forth To live a soldier's life; The stone that marks his resting place Tells he fell in the strife. Gone now the friends who vigils kept Where his young feet did roam, Dut biding tlirougn all tte years this? "Boy, we miss thee at norne.' ?Confederate Veteran. Lee and Arlington. After all, It is at Arlington, on tha Potomac, that the present-day visitor is most vividly reminded of General Lee and the life he loved so well. This aeautiful estate?now a national cemetery, where 16,000 Union and Confederate soldiers are buried?is located opposite the city of Washington, ind it was here, as has been ex. cAx W'ty *,? . - ' *?' ' ... . ' /: S* ON THE POTOMAC. plained, that General Lee spent all he happiest years of his life. No person can visit this splendid domain, vith its magnificent trees, its panorama of the river winding like a silver ribbon in the distance, and its juaint mansion rendered distinctive n appearance by massive Doric collmns and not gain a oew conception if the matchless peace and charm and estful content of the life on the old jaronial estates of the South in the lalcyon days before the war. The stately Arlington mansion, vbich was modeled after the Temple pf Thesus at Athens, was erected In LS04. It is of brick, covered with stucco, and with its two wings has a frontage of moro than 140 feet. The ;rand portico is sixty feet in width mri tu'ontv.firo fpef in fipntVl. Fpa ures of the manor house are the remlants of the old decorations, includng the hunting scene fresco, which svas painted by General Lee's falhern-law, Mr. Custis, who, with his wife, s buried in a quiet nook in the woods m the Potomac, their graves being narked by plain marble shafts. This listoric home is in an excellent state )f preservation and visitors are shown ill the apartments of especial intersi, including the room in which Genual Lee was married. There is no ecord that General Lee ever returned o Arlington after the war, although he veteran servants at the mansion lave long been v.ont to declare most steadfastly that "Colonel Rob" was seen about dusk one evening slowly iding through the grounds in comjany with General Grant, and preiiiniahlv hiddinir a last farewell to his )ld homo.?Waldon Fawcett. Farming Without Capital. It is absurd to expect that the mall farmer, alone among small nen, should achieve success without apital. With capital all is possible; vithout it only the exceptional man s likely to be heard of.?Estates Ga:ette. Germany is freely imitating Amerean patterns in the manufacture of arm implements and machinery, hough American harvesters still prelominate. PALMETTO HAPPENINGS ] News Notes of General Interest From All Farts of tlic State. Youthful Drunkard Shoots Train. As Southern train No. 41 was cornin*; at a lively clip, Thursday afternoon, between Grover, N. C., and Blacksburg, a shot was fired into the train, shattering the glass in the window of the rear coach, and narrowly missed the llagman, who was in the rear end of the coach at the time. Mike lilantou was arrested and locked up at Blacksburg. and when charged with the crime, admitted that he was present, but said the the shooting was done by William Little, with whom lie (Blanton) lives in North Carolina, saying that he and Little were both drinking and that Little was drunk, and that when the train came along he fired his shot gun without saying a word. Supreme Court After Lawyers. Already swamped with work, the supreme court, in an opinion in a ease in which the documents were especially voluminous, proftests against the growing tendency of lawyers to file lengthy briefs on appeal and intimates that drastic measures will be taken to secure relief for the court unless the lawyers bring their cases within the rules designed to protect the court against excessive labor. The court says long briefs consume time and labor which should be applied to the merits of questions presented. ? Will Borrow $100,000. The sura of $100,000, which is to be used in buying additional lands and in the erection of certain buildings to relieve the congested conditions at the State Hospital for the Iusane, as provided for by a joint resolution passed at the last session of the general assembly, will be borrowed from the sinking fund commission. - . ~ - - un to uiemson may ?. All agencies working for agriculture in South Carolina will meet at Clemson College on May SL when the work in this State will be discussed in detail. Dr. S. A. Knapp, head of the United States office of farm demonstration work of the department of agriculture, will deliver an address to the students and visitors 011 May 9 ^ % Work Begun on New Railway. The clearing of the right of way for the South Carolina Western railway from McBee to Hartsville, a distance of 14 miles, has begun. It is expected that the road to this point will be completed in the late fall of * this year. Light soil and easy grading w ill cause few delays. * The survey up to this time has been made no further than Ilartsville. Foreign Manufacturer on a Visit. Paul Teter, one of the largest textile manufacturers in the south of I France, is in the State, accompanied I by his secretary. Mr. Teter is visit- 1 ing Southern textile centres and is I roach impressed with the plants he | iiao ? loiivu. , Gibbes Elected Mayor of Columbia. By a majority of 114, W. H. Gibbes V at present county auditor, was elected mayor of Columbia, under the . . commission furm of government, over P. S. Earle. The entire vote cast was l.GoO, of which Gibbes received 832, and Earle 7G8. New Sumter Mayor Active. 1 The Sumter committee of appraisers of real estate have raised taxable values from $175,000 to $200,000. Returns are now equalized. Readjustment of licenses increases revenue $1,000. All pay now on an \ . equal basis. Don't Need 'Em Till Cooler. In addition to the recent announcement of J. I). Gilrcath and associates that they will establish a $50,000 underwear factory in Greenville it bn/m-n Hint i ho ortrn n i '/?i 11 nn lit* Muckasee Manufacturing company was completed Thursday with $50,000 capital to also manufacture un derwear. Mr. Gilreath and his associates will organize next week. Examining Board of Lawyers. H William D. Melton, of Columbia, 8fl Frang B. Grier, of Greenwood and W. R. Miller, of Charleston, were ap- JB pointed by the supreme court to constitute the state board of law ex- j| aminers authorized by the Sinkler jBfl act of the last general assembly. All have accepted. The first examination will be held May G. Will Develop Lands. H| The development of low country 9H lands and the swamp and uplands , '^Hj simultaneouslv with the introduction of Northwestern settlers into South Carolina, is the result of recent purchases of lands in this State. Fannie Carson Case Remembered. flfl The wife of Hen Allen, the man found dead in bed at his home at Poe B I mill. Greenville county, about eight HU days ago. confessed to the coroner and the sheriff that the killing was done by J. C. Lindley, who is now B held in jail. Slie led I he officers to believe that Lindley planned to kill her husband, and skip out with her after the funeral. Lindley was a boarder in the house. -v ^^B