Correspondence.
We have on ha a great number of letters, the insertion of which, in full, would exclude all other matter from our columns. We therefore make some extracts, which will prove interesting to the reader. The following, from a correspondent in Northampton county, Eastern Shore of Virginia, furnishes a noble example for ladies throughout the South:Socks for the Army.
An appeal has been made through one of the Richmond papers for an united effort on the part of Southern ladies to furnish hosiery for our army. The good work commenced in this county two months ago. A "Mother in Israel," over whose head seventy winters have shed their frost, and whose heart throbs with the patriotism common to all her sire, first suggested the idea, called for the co-operation of the gentlemen, and offered to give her personal attention to the cause. Immediately a subscription paper was circulated which met with a liberal response in contributions of corn, wheat, beacon, wool, and cash. The wool was distributed among the poor women of the county, many of them suffering for want of employment, who gladly spun it, receiving payment in orders for grain or bacon on the different contributors. With the money cotton yarn was bought, to be twisted with the wool, and then distributed among the ladies, whose busy needles are actively employed in preparing good, comfortable socks for our soldiers. One family in Eastville has already finished sixty pairs, and the whole will be sent this fall to the commander in Richmond or Norfolk for distribution. Bear in mind that this article is of indispensable necessity, and one which it will be almost impossible to procure when the winter is upon us, as we are cut off from the North, from whence our supplies were received, and we have as yet no factories in the South. There is yet time for all our wants, if the ladies generally will take the matter in hand.Suggestions to nurses.
A paragraph in Monday's paper, giving a prescription for the prevention or expulsion of maggots, was rendered totally valueless by a typographical error. The remedy proposed was tar water, instead of which it was printed the water. A Mobile correspondent sends us still another: ‘ I am informed that in your paper of the 16th inst. it was stated that the maggot was very troublesome in the wounds of the soldiers, and that some had prescribed calomel, and some elder juice, to drive them out. I have tried both on animals, and also tried honey, and the latter far surpassed either of them.--A fly won't come near honey, and it is of a searching character, and will find its way to every part of the wound, while it is also of a healing nature. Calomel only finds its way where it is put; the elder juice has no healing quality. ’ I give you this information for the benefit of the unfortunate wounded. L. C. A lady correspondent sends a recipe for making rice-gruel, a very nourishing decoction for the sick: Take four tablespoonsful of rice flour, dissolved as you would arrow-root, and pour it in one quart of boiling water; let it boil twenty minutes; add one pint of sweet milk; sweeten to suit taste. M. A. B.
The ladies of Rockbridge.
"A Soldier" requests us to publish a tribute to the ladies of Rockbridge, a county which has furnished her full quota of volunteers for the war: ‘ In Lexington alone there are three separate organizations of ladies, all of which have made large donations in clothing and hospital supplies. One of these, known as the "Secession Aid Society," have been very successful in obtaining contributions, and the first box sent off contained 125 garments, besides bed clothing and a large supply of handkerchiefs, towels, &c. ’ Their officers are, Miss M. E. Compton, President; Miss. Lou. G. Brokenbrough, Secretary; Miss Lelia Pendleton, Treasurer. Other organizations of a similar character exist in different portions of the county, and there will be no flagging in the energies of our ladies to do their utmost for alleviating the sufferings of their brave defenders."Union" men — Affairs in Roanoke.
A letter from Salem, Roanoke county, Va., furnishes some interesting information, which we subjoin: ‘ We have here in our county jail a number of Union men (!) of Carlile & Co's kingdom — Some of them are genteel looking fellows, the rest are rather scarce in the regular habiliments of Southerners — at least, not such as would satiate the desire of a connoisseur. The disaffected portion of Tennessee, not so beguiled eternally as those within the borders of the Old Dominion, begin to see the error of their ways and act accordingly. I received a letter from a very boisterous Union place in East Tennessee several days since, which states that there is an unprecedented reflux of public opinion there, and thinks that the disaffection will soon be ferreted out under the strict military surveillance of Gen. Zellicoffer. The action in regard to Mr. Nelson is having a good effect. Their eyes are beginning to open, and they now begin to see that we have a Government worthy of a place on the enduring tablets of history, and a Government which, while it is able to maintain its supremacy, does not exercise a virulent disposition towards those of its enemies who may chance to fall into its power, but the utmost leniency consistent with its welfare. The gentleman who wrote the letter has been a Union man. He further states that a gentleman from his neighborhood was attacked in the night by six Union men, two of whom be shot, the rest begged off on the plea that they were intoxicated. ’ This county (Roanoke) has nearly furnished her quota. She has now another company in process of forming, which, when filled out, will make us square. Dr. John Deyerley has been elected captain of it. There has been a great deal of rain in this part of the "moral vineyard" recently. In the western portion of this county and Montgomery there was the greatest rain known for years. Portions of corn were completely deluged, covered with mud or washed away. Several bridges on the macadamized road were swept away. A number of farm-houses were borne on by the watery element. Corn looks fine in this county. From the present aspect of the crop, we will have an unprecedented yield. It is so far advanced to maturity that it will make fine corn with any sort of a season now. At any rate, we will make so much that we will not be dependent upon the Hoosiers of the Far West, and can laugh at Old Abe's efficient blockade. Mr. J. M. Harlow is manufacturing at this place very nice envelopes of all sizes. Gulielmus.
A North Carolina watering place.
The war has in a great measure deprived, our people of their usual summer gaieties, and "Springs Correspondence" is a thing almost unheard of. By way of varying matters somewhat, we append an extract of a letter from "S.," dated Kitrell's Springs, N. C., August 29: Kittrell's is a beautiful spot, and, owing to its healing, medicinal waters, will become one of the first watering places in the South. It has been patronized this season with a liberality known to no other health-giving location. Much is to be attributed to the courtesy of its proprietors, much to its waters, and much to the fact that it is secure from invasion. The ravages of war have diminished both the number of its visitors and the gaiety of the season; yet night after night soft and gentle spirits; mingling in the gay and brilliant throng, give themselves up to revelry and song; and I could but see, as they whirled in the mazes of the dizzy dance, that proud and manly hearts were touched, and golden arrows shot from the bows of Cupid just as they were wont to do in times of piping peace. To particularize — to individualize — might to some seem invidious; but in this world of ours, so full of sadness and sorrow, God made alike, for wise and useful purposes, inscrutable to man, the nobleman and the peasant, dealing here and there with a sparing hand the inimitable graces of a munificent Providence. When nature clothes herself in beauty, who ceases to admire, who ceases to praise? When the petals of the violet and the lily spread their fragrant bosoms to the wooing breath of Spring, what heart does not leap to in hale the delicate perfume? When the painter, with his wizard touch, evokes the breathing landscape to his life-giving canvass, who stands dead and cold before his thrilling power? God made the beautiful women — beautiful in intellectual and moral graces — and if our hearts are touched by the witchery of her power, it is but the compliment nature pays to divinity.Extortions.
We have received a letter from a volunteer, complaining of extortions practiced in King George county, Virginia, upon Marylanders who have crossed the Potomac to fight under the Southern banner. We deem it unnecessary to publish names; but we agree that every individual who swindles a soldier in these times deserves the execration of every good man.The late Captain Wm. Fitzhugh Lee.
A correspondent, in a tribute to the memory of this gallant officer, who died on the 29th of July of a wound received in the battle of Manassas, says: ‘ He was the only surviving son of a formerly well-known and much-beloved citizen of Richmond — the late Rev. William F. Lee, Rector, successively, or St. John's and Christ Churches, and editor of the Southern Churchman. On the paternal side, he was the great grandson of R. H. Lee, of revolutionary fame, and on the maternal side of Colonel Levin Powell, a revolutionary officer and a member of the Continental Congress. A graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, he entered the United States Army, and remained in that service, discharging his duties with fidelity until the secession of Virginia, when he hastened to enlist under her banner. ’ Devoted as he was to the old Union, for which his ancestors had sacrificed so much, he felt that his duty to his and their State was paramount; and, convinced of the justice of her cause, he, with his earthly future bright with promise, laid himself a willing sacrifice upon the altar of his country.Another gallant spirit gone.
Lieut. J. E. McP. Washington, of the Confederate Army, died recently at Monterey, Highland county, Va., of measles. He was a native of Charleston, S. C.,and died in the 24th year of his age. The following tribute to his memory was written by a brother officer: ‘ Far from his home, in a stranger's land, died this brave and generous young officer. Truly he has fallen in the flower of his manly strength. No mother was there to bathe his fevered brow and throbbing temples — no sister's hand to smooth his pillow; yet on that death-bed he asked the God that made him to forgive his sins and take him to that realm where trouble is known no more. This he asked through Him that perished upon the brow of Calvary to redeem His fallen race. ’ His gallantry at Carrack's ford, where a tempest of bullets rained around his noble form, is known by every one; and He who rules us all saw fit to let him pass through that ordeal unharmed, and but a few short weeks had passed when death came in the form of fell disease and claimed him for his own. The honor of his State and country called him to the field; he has fallen for her sake. May his name be ever fresh in the memory of his countrymen. He has carved a niche in the temple of fame — small it may be, still it is there and as undying as his own immortal soul itself. ‘ "Green be the grass above thee,Friend of my former days;
None knew thee but to love thee
Or named thee but to praise."
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