A nice Nest of secesh women.
Up North they have what are known as Soldiers' Aid Societies; so, too, they have down
South.
One is Union, however, and the other rebel.
I write of the latter.
There is one in this city.
Its
modus operandi may not be uninteresting.
A number of secesh ladies get together, of all ages, especially sizes and complexions.
They have stated periods for meeting, and regular resorts.
Here they sigh and pine over the poor prospect of the rotten Confederacy, and vow eternal allegiance and fidelity to King Jeff the First.
After an inexhaustible supply of prayers for the socalled S. C. A., and rivers of tears being shed for the want of more greenbacks to carry out their designs, the organization is called to order, and contributions commence to flow in to an exhausted treasury for the relief of rebel prisoners in Northern palaces — that is, they are palaces compared to such shocking places as Libby Prison.
While attending a “rapping” medium (a lady friend of mine) the other evening, I asked her if she thought the spirits would so control her as to give me a list of the articles donated by those fair sympathizers of rebeldom.
After my friend patted her classical forehead a half-dozen times, and pulled my proboscis twice as often, she informed me that the spirits very condescendingly complied with my request, and the following are some of the articles said to have been contributed at the last meeting, which was on the Thursday evening last, and took place at the residence of
Mrs. N----. Here are the valuable treasures, most of which have been sent to
Chicago,
Columbus, and
Johnson Island prisoners:
Twenty-five thousand copies of the New-York
Tribune, containing old
Greeley's article on the right of States to secede, and a powerful tirade against the doctrine of coercion.
Twenty-five thousand copies of said paper, containing the poem, commencing, “Tear down the flaunting lie,” and having reference to the emblem of American liberty, the glorious Stars and Stripes.
[
8]
One thousand copies of
Wendell Phillips's works treating of the diseases incident to the negro when suffering from the effects of mental excitement and Robinson County whisky.
One volume of
Lloyd Garrison's sermons, wherein is discussed the probability of leasing the waste land in the moon for the purpose of building contraband camps thereon, and devising some means by which the circumference of
Humphrey Marshall may be diminished.
One million copies of soft-soap
Beecher's flattering eulogies on
Stonewall Jackson, who killed several thousand Federal soldiers, and his bitter abuse of that patron saint of piety,
Vallandigham, who never killed a man in his lifetime.
The moral to be had from this is: Since no abolitionists are in the war,
Jackson must have killed Democrats, and they in turn killed some rebs at least, and it is, therefore, (as said
Beecher believes it to be,) a logical consequence that, if this war continues for fifty or one hundred years, both Democrats and rebs will get killed, and the abolitionists run the country to the d — l, where they are now trying to run it.
One daguerreotype of
Harriet Beecher Stowe — not so much on account of its beauty as its----
Two barrels of wooden nutmegs, as evidence of the skill, enterprise, and ability of the
Yankees to carry on this war one million years or more.
One half pumpkin, grown in
Connecticut, carried to
Texas, and captured in Cork by a Tennesseean, who went hunting his rights in a bold privateer, to be used as a washtub by the prisoners at
Camp Douglas,
Chicago.
One thousand copies of each of the Louisville
Journal, containing the highly complimentary letters of its correspondent,
Dr. Adonis, on the secesh women of the
South, their frailties and follies.
When read by the
Northern rebel prisoners they (the papers) all to be reported at this post, then distributed to the fair little “rebs” of
Murfreesboro, who are to use them as pillows, (wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, of course,) the better to facilitate their enraptured dreams of bliss, of the moral progress and intellectual improvement of said correspondent.
Time forbids my enumerating the many other and valuable articles bestowed toward alleviating the wants of the devoted bands of chivalry who pine in Southern prisons.
As the ladies who are engaged in this laudable undertaking are open and avowed rebels, it will be no breach of courtesy to give an admiring public the names of these beauties.
Among the most enthusiastic and devoted of those home-made warriors, is the charming
Miss Kit C----,
Miss D----e, the
Misses Mac K----,
Miss Betty G----e, Miss Kate M----l, and numerous others.
Mrs. N----(lovely creature as she is) has her whole soul in the work, and is one of the leading spirits.
Outside the lines, there are vivacious and sprightly young ladies, who worship at the same shrine: there's Miss Lucy H----l and
Miss Fanny B----y. They are what is known as “country girls,” and have less policy and more honesty in their actions.
Miss B----refused to take the oath, and vowed she would rather die, or get married, first.
The modest officer who was to administer the oath allowed her her liberty on condition that she soon became a Union woman.
If
Mars relaxes his grasp from this precious daughter of the sunny
South, an agonized nation and weeping people pray that
Cupid (a god of more affable propensities) seize upon her, till she sends up three hurrahs and a tiger for some kind of a Union.
