E179 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 000057341'^^ 
 

 
 % 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^... v^v \-^^\/ v^% 
 
 ..• A 
 
 'bv" 
 
 
 
 
 *„ '* 
 
 
 ^/ /\ '-^W^- ^^'\ \W-' /\ '' 
 
 -. ^°^:^^'> .//^;'-\ C°^Ci^-."^^ 
 
 .4 o>. 
 
 
 
 
 'vP9- 
 
 '.' .r%. -i 
 
 
 
 1 > y<^ (« 
 
 
 
 ,^^-"*. 
 

 •» o 
 
 
 e M o ■ -0 '^^ * » / 1 
 
 
 
 •V^ 
 
 
 ■'^ 
 
 Ac 
 
 .*^= 
 
 J-^*. - ^ ,, 
 
 »'° ^.^^ "'^'- %>/ -'^k- ^.^^ 
 
 ► •o. 
 
 ^'^^^ 
 
 ^^ ^'K - 
 
 
 
 
 
 v .^ 
 
An American Princess 
 
 Irene Cowan Tippett 
 
An American Princess 
 
N 
 
 
 fl 
 
 
 
 ^* 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 
 
 ;^ 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 !=1 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 P^ 
 
 bt 
 
 
 
 EH 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 =n^ 
 
 o 
 
 ;3 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 '^3 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 O 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 •TS 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 
 
 K 
 
 
 o 
 
 rt 
 
 b 
 
 
 
 Q 
 
 ?^ 
 
 
 
 ,=3 
 
 to 
 
 ^ 
 
 .3 
 
 -M 
 
 
 !S5 
 
 % 
 
 o 
 
 
 pR 
 
 5- 
 
 o 
 
 
 CiJ 
 
 
 =^. 
 
 n 
 
 ;^ 
 
 
 (D 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^w 
 
 :g 
 
 (,^ 
 
 W 
 
 
 03 
 
 
 
 PQ 
 
 
 
 
 
 i^ 
 
 n3 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 :z; 
 
 S 
 
 < 
 
 -S 
 
 
 Ifi 
 
 Ph 
 
 pC 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 S 
 
 tT 
 
 
 
 "A 
 
 X! 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 Q 
 VI 
 
 S 
 
 c3 
 
 
 
 
 Ph 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 

 An American Princess 
 
 and Other Sketches 
 
 By 
 Irene Cowan Tippett 
 

 Copyright igsi 
 By Irene Coivan Tippett 
 
 g)CLA630398 
 
 DONE BY 
 THE BOOKFELLOWS 
 
 AT 
 
 THE TORCH PRESS 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS 
 
 IOWA 
 
 NOl/ 22 1921 
 
I humbly and affectionately dedicate 
 this little volume to the United Daugh- 
 ters of the Confederacy, through whose 
 indefatigable effort many precious rec- 
 ords of our Southern orators and states- 
 men and the history of our Army and 
 Navy have been preserved. 
 But for their solicitous care, many Con- 
 federate veterans and their families 
 would have been destitute. They have 
 alleviated the sorrows of penniless old 
 age and have kept a torch burning in 
 Memory's Hall, where the living may 
 read of the heroic deeds of the dead. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 An American Princess 9 
 
 Daughters of the Confederacy . . 30 
 Alabama Eoom Home of League o:f 
 
 Nations 41 
 
 The Invulnerable Spirit of the 
 
 Khaki 51 
 
AN AMERICAN PRINCESS 
 
 When Achille Murat, son of Caroline, sis- 
 ter of Napoleon Bonaparte, and Catherine 
 Willis Gray, a daughter of Virginia, were 
 united in marriage, it was one of the many 
 illustrations of the admiration America 
 awakens in the heart of a Frenchman. 
 
 The friendship of France and America is 
 of long standing. From the tune Lafayette 
 crossed the sea to come to the help of the in- 
 fant republic; to the time Pershing stood 
 at the head of his tomb and cheered the 
 weary, war-worn soldiers of France with 
 his now famous words, ^^ Lafayette, we have 
 come!" the two nations have joined hands in 
 mutual protection. 
 
 Nearly three quarters of a century after 
 the marriage of Prince Achille to a Virgin- 
 ian, the name of Murat came before the eyes 
 of the world again, when Woodrow Wilson, 
 also a son of Virginia, on his first visit to 
 
 9 
 
France during the world war occupied the 
 Murat home in Paris. 
 
 America sent her chief executive across 
 the ocean in a floating palace, with a distin- 
 guished retinue, and on his arrival he was 
 received with greater pomp than that ac- 
 corded any sovereign of recent times. 
 
 At the request of the French government, 
 Prince and Princess Joachim Murat placed 
 their town house at 28 Pue de Monceau at 
 the disposal of the French authorities to 
 receive President and Mrs Wilson. 
 
 Prince Joachim Murat is the son of Prince 
 Lucien Charles Murat, and was born at Bor- 
 dentown, New Jersey. He is a descendant 
 of Caroline Bonaparte. Princess Murat 
 before her marriage was Cecile Ney, Duchess 
 d'Elchingen. Both Murat and Ney were 
 marshals in the Napoleonic armies. 
 
 During the war Prince Murat, despite his 
 age, reentered the cavalry. The Princess 
 spent a great part of her time at the Chateau 
 de Chambly in the Department of the Oise, 
 where she looked after several hundred 
 wounded French soldiers. 
 
 The splendor of the famous Murat man- 
 sion is well known ; the extravagance of the 
 
 10 
 
bedrooms, the dinner service of solid, glit- 
 tering gold, the priceless paintings and tap- 
 estries. *^ There are marbles and mirrors 
 everywhere, vari-colored marbles from the 
 remotest quarries of the world." 
 
 It must have given the President great 
 pleasure to find here various souvenirs of 
 General George Washington, presented, no 
 doubt, by his grand niece, the Princess Cath- 
 erine. 
 
 Many Southrons of yesterday have writ- 
 ten their names on the pages of history, but 
 the name of Woodrow Wilson, like the name 
 of Abou Ben Adhem, leads all the rest. 
 
 Statesman, historian, idealist, he was an 
 adversary fiercely opposed, yet compelling 
 admiration. General Jan Christian Smuts, 
 premier of South Africa, in an article writ- 
 ten for the New York Evening Post, takes 
 the position that Mr. Wilson was so placed 
 that he could not have achieved what the 
 world was expecting of him, even if he had 
 been a superman or a demigod. 
 
 His failure to bring about a peace with his 
 famous fourteen points was due to the per- 
 versity of human nature. He explains: 
 
 **Tlie position occupied by President Wil- 
 li 
 
son in the world's imagination at the close of 
 the great war and at the beginning of the 
 Peace Conference was terrible in its great- 
 ness. Probably to no human being in all 
 history did the hopes, the prayers, the aspir- 
 ations of so many millions of his fellows 
 turn with poignant intensity as to him at 
 the close of the war. At the time of the 
 deepest darkness and despair, he raised aloft 
 a light to which all eyes had turned. His 
 lofty moral idealism seemed for a moment 
 to dominate the brutal passions that had 
 torn the Old World asunder. And he was 
 supposed to possess the secret to remake the 
 world on fairer lines. The peace which 
 Wilson was bringing the world was expected 
 to be God's peace. Prussianism lay crusht; 
 brute force had failed utterly. The moral 
 character of the universe had been most sig- 
 nally vindicated. There was a universal 
 great hope of a great moral peace, of a new 
 world order rising visibly and immediately 
 on the ruins of the old. . . In this atmos- 
 phere of extravagant, almost frenzied ex- 
 pectation, he arrived at the Paris Peace Con- 
 ference. Without hesitation he plunged into 
 that inferno of human passions. . . He 
 
 12 
 
labored until he was a physical wreck. . . 
 After six months of agonized waiting, he 
 emerged with the Peace Treaty, but it was 
 not a Wilson peace. . . Let us admit the 
 truth, however bitter it is to do so for those 
 who believe in human nature. It was not 
 Wilson who failed, but human nature itself 
 that failed at Paris. . . Idealists believe 
 in the power of the spirit, in the goodness 
 which is at the heart of things, in the triumph 
 which is in store for the great moral ideas 
 of the race. But this faith only too often 
 leads to an optimism which is sadly and 
 fatally at variance with actual results. It 
 is the realist and not the idealist, who is 
 usually justified by results. . . Paris 
 proved this terrible truth once more. Hu- 
 manity itself failed and not the statesman. 
 The hope, the aspiration, for a new world 
 order of peace and right and justice, how- 
 ever deeply and universally felt, was still 
 only feeble and ineffective in comparison 
 with the dominant national passions which 
 found their expression in the Peace Treaty. 
 Even if Wilson had been one of the great 
 demigods of the human race, he could not 
 have saved the peace." 
 
 13 
 
The Manchester (England) Gtiardian sent 
 an eloquent tribute to the New York Times 
 by cable. . . ''A thrill of joy and pride, 
 such as never came again, went through the 
 huge British army in France on the day 
 when the news spread that Germany had 
 sued for peace on the basis of Mr. Wilson's 
 famous fourteen points. . . Had Mr. 
 Wilson had persuasive strength equal to his 
 clarity of vision, he might have dominated 
 at Paris the little crowd of post-war imita- 
 tors of pre-war Germany. '^ 
 
 The name of Lafayette awakens memories. 
 In the Washington home at Mt. Vernon may 
 be seen many relics once used by this gallant 
 Frenchman. During his visits to the United 
 States he was often accompanied by Prince 
 Achille Murat, who, as has been mentioned, 
 married the grand niece of General George 
 Washington, and it was General Lafayette 
 who introduced the Prince to Catherine 
 Willis. It is extremely interesting to re- 
 member that the Prince was a nephew of the 
 great Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte, and so 
 closely resembled him that Belgian soldiers 
 
 U 
 
often stopped Mm on the streets, and with 
 tears in their eyes would shower his hands 
 with kisses. With the blood of the great 
 warrior Napoleon coursing through his 
 veins, and the heritage of an ambition that 
 knew no bounds, with a mind of such bril- 
 liancy that he was able to converse easily in 
 seven di:fferent languages, Achille Murat 
 astonished France by coming to America and 
 refusing every offer of political advance- 
 ment. He settled down to the quiet life of 
 a southern gentleman. 
 
 A brief reflection of the sacrifices made on 
 the altar of ambition and the last desolate 
 hours spent by Xapoleon on the island of 
 St. Helena, together with a brief outline of 
 the career of his father and its tragical end- 
 ing, brings the answer. 
 
 Before beginning the history of the Mur- 
 ats a short outline of the career of the 
 father, Joachim Murat, will enable the read- 
 er to account for many of the idiosyncrasies 
 of Prince Achille. 
 
 According to Encyclopaedia Britannica; 
 as a very young man he was dismissed from 
 the army several times for insubordination. 
 
 15 
 
In Paris, he gained a reputation for Ms 
 good looks, swaggering attitude, and the vio- 
 lence of his revolutionary sentiments. 
 
 He served in the army under Napoleon 
 and was rapidly promoted. He was a cav- 
 alry leader whose dashing bravery inspired 
 his men to almost superhuman courage. Af- 
 ter the Battle of the Pyramids he was made 
 General. In 1800 he married the youngest 
 sister of Napoleon, Maria Annunciana Car- 
 olina. They had two sons: Prince Achille 
 Murat and Lucien Charles. 
 
 In 1808 he was appointed by Napoleon to 
 the throne of Naples, made vacant by the 
 transference of Joseph Bonaparte to Spain. 
 King Joachim Napoleon, as he styled him- 
 self, dazzled Naples with the unusually ex- 
 travagant splendor of his clothes and his 
 sumptuous court. Being placed in author- 
 ity, his caliber immediately became evident. 
 His vain-glorious nature prompted him to 
 break relations with Napoleon to whom he 
 owed his prominence, and he began to enter- 
 tain thoughts of suspicion against his wife, 
 who, he imagined, wished to dethrone him. 
 He grew reckless in his political ambition to 
 extend his dominion and in his headstrong 
 
 16 
 

 w 
 
efforts to carry out his plans ; he was finally 
 imprisoned in the fort at Pizzo and on the 
 13th of October, 1815, he was tried by court- 
 martial under a law he himself had made 
 concerning the disturbing of public peace, 
 and he was sentenced to be shot in half an 
 hour. 
 
 After reading his father's career and its 
 tragical ending, it is small wonder that 
 Achille Murat apparently had no political 
 ambition, but refused many offers of ad- 
 vancement and spent the best part of his 
 life on his favorite plantation called Bcon- 
 chattie, located near Tallahassee, Florida. 
 Here he wrote a number of books on the 
 constitution and politics of the United 
 States, and spent his pastime experimenting 
 in cooking and making discoveries as to the 
 dyeing properties of certain plants and veg- 
 etables. 
 
 The following excerpts were taken from 
 an article written by Matilda McConnell 
 which appered in the Century Magazine in 
 the year eighteen-ninety- three : 
 
 *^ Catherine Willis was a daughter of a 
 Colonel Willis of Virginia. At the age of 
 
 17 
 
fifteen, Catherine married a Scotchman. At 
 his death, a year later, Catherine Willis 
 Gray became a widow at the age of sixteen. 
 
 '^At this time many political refugees 
 found homes in America. Prince Achille 
 Murat, who was the eldest son of the King 
 of Naples had visited America several times 
 with Lafayette. On his last visit, his broth- 
 er, Lucien Charles came also, and in a short 
 while after their arrival. Prince Achille met 
 the young widow Catherine. 
 
 *^At their first meeting Catherine did not 
 receive a favorable impression. He was ex- 
 tremely careless in dress and manners, but 
 as time went by, she began to recognize his 
 superior intellect and excuse his peculiari- 
 ties, and after a most unusual courtship, the 
 grand-niece of George Washington became 
 the wife of the nephew of the great Corsican, 
 Napoleon Bonaparte. At this time, the home 
 of Prince Murat and his charming wife be- 
 came the gathering place for a coterie of 
 brilliant and cultured men and women." 
 
 When distinguished northern friends 
 came down to visit these lord-like slavehold- 
 ers, their regal entertainment furnished a 
 
 18 
 
topic of conversation long after the visit 
 was nothing more than a memory. All 
 classes, including the slaves themselves, un- 
 consciously imbibed these ideals of hospital- 
 ity, and when a stranger was invited to break 
 bread, the host, even at the expense of a 
 future sacrifice, welcomed him with a cor- 
 diality equal in spirit to that of his princely 
 neighbor. 
 
 With the leisure of the nobility, the land 
 holder, having little in the way of athletics 
 or sports to furnish diversion, turned in- 
 stinctively to his library, and seated on his 
 wide verandah, with the perfume of honey- 
 suckle and magnolia about him, he climbed 
 the Alps, glided silently through the streets 
 of Venice, visited Paris, cultivated the war- 
 like Romans, ancient philosophers and poets, 
 and unconsciously laid the cornerstone of 
 culture and chivalry, which through coming 
 generations will be the birthright of the 
 Southern gentleman. 
 
 The story continues : 
 
 ^'Prince Achille was eccentric to a painful 
 degree, and many amusing little stories were 
 told at his expense. The Murats spent the 
 
 19 
 
best part of their married life at Econchat- 
 tie, their large plantation in Jefferson Coun- 
 
 ty. 
 
 ^^On one occasion, after the arrival of 
 several unexpected guests, an excited servant 
 informed the hostess that there was not 
 enough flour left to prepare an elaborate 
 meal, and it would be necessary to send a 
 messenger twenty miles to purchase a bar- 
 rel. Unfortunately the messenger was not 
 told what he was to buy and instead he pre- 
 sented a note in the wretched hand writing 
 of the Prince. The storekeeper could not 
 read it and he called in several others who 
 could not decipher it. Finally, after long 
 deliberation, the servant was sent back, car- 
 rying with him a lancet with which to bleed 
 horses. Imagine the helpless consternation 
 of the hostess with a number of hungry 
 guests awaiting dinner!" 
 
 Let us leave the Murats long enough to 
 pause for a moment and recall that history 
 has recorded many instances where wives 
 have been obliged to bear the burden of their 
 husband's eccentricities. The wives of great 
 men, statesmen, artists, and musicians have 
 been subjected to much adverse criticism. 
 
 20 
 
Instead of commending her as a thrifty 
 housewife, who has mastered the art of mak- 
 ing one guinea do the work of five, the world 
 asks the question: ^^How did he happen to 
 marry herV^ 
 
 William Wordsworth is accused of having 
 formed the habit of waking up in the mid- 
 dle of the night. ^^O wife," he would say, 
 ^^I have had an inspiration. Get up and 
 hunt a pencil and paper. I have thought of 
 a good word for one of my poems." 
 
 An American woman once remarked that 
 if she had been the unfortunate wife, she 
 would have replied, ^^Get up yourself hus- 
 band, I have thought of a bad word." 
 
 Xantippe, the much abused wife of Socra- 
 tes, had a dreadful time making both ends 
 meet, as Socrates spent most of his time 
 ambling about the streets of ancient Athens 
 making speeches to the rabble. The exas- 
 perated wife was often obliged to interrupt 
 his weighty discourse by making impatient 
 demands for money in order to obtain daily 
 provisions for the family, for even a philoso- 
 pher must eat. Yet an old English writer 
 describes the long suffering wife as a 
 ^'shrewd, curste and wayward woman, wife 
 
 21 
 
of pacient Socrates.'' How many Xantip- 
 pes there are in the world! 
 
 Madam Murat must have had many des- 
 perately embarrassing moments caused by 
 the carelessness of the absentminded Prince, 
 but it is said that she could never refer to 
 him without tears in her eyes, for in spite of 
 his peculiarities, he was a most affectionate 
 husband. 
 
 *'At one time. Prince Murat owned a large 
 sugar plantation in Louisana, and one day 
 while showing visitors over the place he ven- 
 tured too near and fell into what appeared 
 to be a vat of boiling syrup. His friends, 
 in alarm, quickly assisted him out, and in 
 answer to their inquiries to his being burned 
 he replied : ' Kate will make me wash ! ' He 
 had a decided aversion to water and drank 
 it only when mixed with whiskey. ^ Water,' 
 he said repeatedly, 'is intended only for the 
 beast of the field.' 
 
 ^* Prince Achille bore a striking resem- 
 blance to his uncle Napoleon Bonaparte, and 
 while in Belgium in command of a regiment 
 he was often stopped in public by soldiers 
 who knelt and covered his hand with kisses, 
 and during the while he conversed with them 
 
 22 
 
in seven different languages. He remained 
 in Belgium two years. 
 
 * ' During their stay, the Princess was asked 
 to chaperone two English girls on a long 
 ride in the country. She was given a lively 
 English steed so strong she could not manage 
 him. The Princess, being a typical Ameri- 
 can girl, decided that she would not allow her 
 friend to discover the real truth of the mat- 
 ter, so being unable to restrain her horse, 
 she let him go at a rapid gate. ^How well 
 you ride. Princess! But how fast! Do all 
 Americans ride so fast?' After a few hours 
 they returned, Catherine Murat nearly dead 
 with fatigue and the English girls loud in 
 their praise of her wonderful horsemanship. 
 
 *^ After returning to America, the Murats 
 lived for a while in St. Augustine and later 
 in New Orleans, where the Prince studied 
 law and was admitted to the bar. However, 
 they eventually returned to Econchattie and 
 he served as Alderman, Postmaster, and 
 Mayor of the city of Tallahassee. During 
 the Florida Indian war he was aide-de-camp 
 to Gen. R. K. Call. The love of the Princess 
 prompted her to follow the Prince most of 
 the time he was engaged in the Indian war 
 
 23 
 
and she watched over him many times when 
 her own life was in danger. Once he lay 
 prostrated with fever for many weeks. Dur- 
 ing the time the wife attended him in places 
 of peril and was often obliged to lean over 
 him in the darkness to ascertain if his heart 
 was still beating, not daring to burn a light, 
 lest the Indians should discover their hiding 
 place." 
 
 A favorite story at the expense of the 
 Prince is often heard in Tallahassee : 
 
 ^'At one time Madame Murat went away 
 to spend the day with a friend. On her re- 
 turn home, as she approached the house, a 
 huge cloud of smoke could be seen. Think- 
 ing the house was on fire, the wife arrived 
 in frantic haste. In her absence, her hus- 
 band had decided to experiment with certain 
 plants in order to see if dyes could be made 
 from them. They found him in the back 
 yard perspiring over a huge kettle. *0 Kate,' 
 he exclaimed, ^I have made all your clothes 
 a most beautiful pink, you will look so lovely 
 in them ! ' He had, in his enthusiasm, dyed 
 indiscriminately everything he could lay his 
 hands on, sheets, towels, pillowcases, and all 
 
 24 
 
the clothes he could find. Fortunately, the 
 servants, perceiving his intention, had hid- 
 den their mistress' best gowns. 
 
 ^^His experiments in various other lines 
 were still more alarming. ' Alligator tail soup 
 is fine — but BUZZARD is not good.' His 
 gentlemen friends were extremely careful 
 about accepting an invitation to dine when 
 the wife was not at home, as the host always 
 expected his guests to help him pass judg- 
 ment on his freakish concoctions. 
 
 ''He died at Econchattie in 1847, and his 
 remains lie in the Episcopal cemetery in 
 Tallahassee. During his lifetime, the Mu- 
 rats visited their royal cousins, and soon af- 
 ter the death of the Prince came the restora- 
 tion of the Bonapartes. They did not forget 
 their charming cousin Kate, and on her next 
 visit to. France, she was given a royal re- 
 ception by the Emperor. On this occasion 
 a most extraordinary little courtesy was 
 shown her by giving her the seat of honor 
 which was usually occupied by the Empress. 
 She afterwards remarked to some of her 
 friends in Tallahassee that the dazzling 
 splendor and the sudden realization of the 
 
 25 
 
honor bestowed upon her excited her so 
 much, she never knew how she was able to 
 walk down the steps. 
 
 *^ Presuming that the Empress was suffer- 
 ing from indisposition, the Princess asked to 
 see her. When she was ushered into the 
 room, she was astonished to see the Empress 
 in perfect health and she advanced to meet 
 her with open arms. ^ Ah Eugenie, ' laughed 
 the husband, 'will you never remember that 
 you are an Empress?' The royal family 
 tried to persuade their cousin to make her 
 home in France where she might live in 
 great magnificence." 
 
 At this time came a significant moment 
 in the life of Catherine Murat which unmis- 
 takably revealed her caliber. 
 
 Louis Napoleon and the Empress, know- 
 ing of her loneliness, gave her an insistent 
 invitation to remain in France. The Em- 
 peror offered to maintain a magnificent es- 
 tablishment at his expense. But with the 
 undying love and patriotism a Southerner 
 feels for the Southland, Catherine Murat 
 replied that she must return in order to 
 care for her two hundred slaves who would 
 require assistance after having been granted 
 
 26 
 
their freedom, and instead of occupying 
 a palatial establishment in royal circles, 
 this charming, cultured, democratic Ameri- 
 can woman returned home and spent the 
 remainder of her life at Bellevue. The pho- 
 tograph used in illustration shows how 
 Bellevue looks today. The Princess un- 
 doubtedly denied herself many luxuries in 
 order to make ends meet, for the inside of 
 the cottage was neither stained nor painted. 
 The house sits some distance from the road, 
 on the crest of a small hill overlooking the 
 city of Tallahassee. The estate, originally, 
 covered many acres. 
 
 ^^ After the close of the war, many white 
 and negro families were in dire distress. 
 Every day found her carriage at the door of 
 the Hospital with some delicacy for a sick 
 soldier. Many of the slaves were suffering 
 for necessities. About this time came a 
 movement on the part of the women to make 
 a special effort for the preservation of 
 Mount Vernon. Being a grand-niece of Gen- 
 eral Washington the Princess made a mighty 
 effort and raised three thousand dollars for 
 the cause. In desperation, she sacrificed 
 many of her jewels which she shipped to 
 
 27 
 
New York uninsured. In some manner they 
 were lost in transit and nothing came of the 
 sacrifice. 
 
 ^' While she was very poor, Napoleon set- 
 tled a large annuity upon her. ^God bless 
 Louis!' she said to a friend. *One night, I 
 lay awake thinking of what I would do for 
 money to live on and the next night I lay 
 awake thinking of how I would spend my 
 money. ' 
 
 '^The devotion of her slaves, after their 
 freedom, was a silent testimonial of her lov- 
 ing kindness and at her death their grief 
 was inconsolable. Mt is ompossible for mis- 
 sus to die,' they protested brokenly." 
 
 The United Daughters of the Confederacy 
 was not organized until 1894, but Catherine 
 Murat was a most exemplary Daughter. Af- 
 ter her death she was laid to rest by the side 
 of her husband. They lie under plain mar- 
 ble slabs and tourists, unfamiliar with the 
 story, stare in amazement at the two simple 
 marble shafts, one of which contains the in- 
 scription, '^Prince Achille Murat, eldest son 
 of the King of Naples." 
 
 This brings to a close the story of a south- 
 ern woman in whose veins ran the bluest 
 
 28 
 
A Portion of What Was Once a Landscape Garden at 
 Bellevue. 
 
blood in America, a Daughter of the Confed- 
 eracy whose undeniable charm and nobility 
 of character prompted her to return home 
 and take up her burden of genteel poverty 
 in the difficult days of reconstruction. 
 
 29 
 
DAUGHTERS OF THE 
 CONFEDERACY 
 
 ^'The patriotic ardor and devotion 
 of the men and women of the South, 
 their valor and heroism, their en- 
 durances and sacrifices, their for- 
 titude and forhearance in defeat, 
 their proud resolution to rise above 
 the horrors of reconstruction and 
 their determination to rebuild their 
 devastated country, will never be 
 fully told, but as the years go by, 
 we should keep these things in the 
 Booh of Remembrance/^ 
 
 — From aint Address by a U.D.C. 
 
 ^^Of what real consequence is the organiza- 
 tion — the United Daughters of the Confed- 
 eracy ? Isn 't it an organization of sentiment, 
 more passive than active ? Do they pretend 
 to be charitable?" 
 
 The gentleman who advanced this ques- 
 30 
 
tion was a New Englander, and his igno- 
 rance was excusable, but when a refined 
 Southern woman hinted at the same con- 
 clusion, it was distinctly shocking. 
 
 Since Sept. 10, 1894, this remarkable pa- 
 triotic organization has modestly marched 
 forward toward its ultimate goal, overcom- 
 ing seemingly insurmountable obstacles and 
 today it occupies a unique place in the an- 
 nals of American history. 
 
 While the writer feels unworthy to record 
 any of the virtues of this band of noble wo- 
 men, for the benefit of any who should doubt 
 the importance and far reaching influence 
 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 
 and without asking their permission, I am 
 presuming to attempt as briefly as possible 
 to give an outline of the nature of their un- 
 dertakings. 
 
 The excerpts given are taken from var- 
 ious chapters found in the minutes of Annu- 
 al Conventions. The prevailing sentiment 
 is expressed by Ruth Jennings Lawton, 
 President of the South Carolina Division, 
 when she says : . . . ^^and so we are not 
 unmindful of these men, who gave their all 
 for us, realizing, as we do, that a people f or- 
 
 31 
 
getting its past, deserves itself to be forgot- 
 ten.'' 
 
 Again, another expresses their tender in- 
 terest: ''The Confederate Veterans and the 
 Women of the Confederacy should be our 
 first consideration. We care for them in life 
 and honor them when they have passed into 
 the Great Beyond.'' 
 
 It is a sad, deplorable fact that the major- 
 ity of old soldiers are without adequate 
 means of support, and being too proud to 
 accept promiscuous assistance, would have 
 suffered untold privations but for the sup- 
 port offered them by the U. D. C. chapters. 
 
 A few figures from various reports will 
 give an idea of the work that is being done 
 along different lines. It will be remembered 
 that many of these reports came from small 
 towns where amounts cannot be raised ex- 
 cept by personal sacrifices. 
 
 ''Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts 
 
 to soldiers $50.00 
 
 Thirty baskets of fruit for sick vet- 
 erans 37.00 
 
 Coal and food for needy soldiers . . 65 . 99 
 Care of veterans and families in 
 northern states 
 
 32 
 
Donations for memorials 
 
 To educate French and Belgian orphans 
 
 Armenian relief 
 
 Donation for service man — soldier in 
 
 world war 
 Division scholarships." 
 
 Hundreds of dollars are spent yearly for 
 the relief of Confederate women, their chil- 
 dren, and their grand-children. 
 
 The Education Committee: ^^ Madam 
 President-General and the United Daugh- 
 ters of the Confederacy: Your Education 
 Committee in presenting this, its twelfth an- 
 nual report, brings you the glad tidings of 
 a new stage reached in the development of 
 the most important of your activities. The 
 first Education Committee felt the need of 
 a fund to assist a student wherever he de- 
 sired to obtain an education, and so in 1909, 
 a recommendation was adopted to bestow 
 the scholarship living fund then given, with 
 whichever tuition scholarship the student se- 
 lected ; but the plan was not practical at the 
 time, therefore Washington and Lee and 
 Vassar scholarships were definitely provid- 
 ed for. The need persisted however, finally 
 being answered in Miss Poppenheim's res- 
 
 33 
 
olution for a $50,000.00 endowment fund for 
 loan scholarships, adopted at Chattanooga. 
 The following year this was changed into 
 a great memorial for the boys of the South 
 who saw service in 1917-1918, and the first 
 interest from the fund set aside as gift 
 scholarships for these boys, the fund to be 
 employed as planned when they no longer 
 needed it. Through this wonderful Hero 
 Fund the U. D. C. have entered this fall on 
 a definite constructive policy. Hitherto, 
 the General Organization has been but an 
 agent giving out the scholarships that have 
 been given to it, except in the cases of the 
 appropriations to the scholarships referred 
 to above. Now it is in a position to pay its 
 way, and as this fund increases, to open the 
 doors of any institution over the whole 
 world to Southern boys and girls." 
 
 This spring Part Wx 2 of Education Cir- 
 cular number 17, issued April 1, 1920, was 
 headed 1917-1918 Hero Fund. 
 
 ^^To honor the men of the South, who 
 served their reunited country wherever 
 needed in 1917 and 1918 and to offer assist- 
 ance to the descendants of Confederate vet- 
 erans, who have served in the world war." 
 
 34 
 
A number of ex-service men have already 
 taken advantage of this excellent opportun- 
 ity and have attended the following colleges : 
 
 Princeton University. 
 Tulane University. 
 University of Virginia. 
 University of Alabama. 
 Clemson College. 
 University of North Carolina. 
 State Agricultural Colleges. 
 S. C. Medical College. 
 
 With the help of the Hero Fund, many 
 young men, who would have otherwise spent 
 their lives behind counters, have been able 
 to enter colleges and acquire professional 
 and vocational training. 
 
 Outside of this fund for ex-service men, 
 provision is made for the education of boys 
 and girls in the South who could not enter 
 college without some assistance. 
 
 Scholarships may be secured each year 
 through local chapters, to be used at any of 
 the following colleges: 
 
 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
 Washington and Lee University, Lexing- 
 
 ington, Va. 
 Stonewall Jackson College, Abdingdon, 
 
 Va. 
 
 35 
 
Converse College, Spartanburg, S. C. 
 Davidson College, Davidson, N. C. 
 Elizabeth Mather College, Atlanta, Ga. 
 Gulf Coast Military Academy, Gulfport, 
 
 Miss. 
 Sophie Newcomb Memorial Institute, New 
 
 Orleans, La. 
 Universitv of North Carolina, Chapel 
 
 Hill, N.^ C. 
 Medical College of South Carolina, Char- 
 leston, S. C. 
 Lucy Cobb Institute, Athens, Ga. 
 University of Virginia. 
 Army and Navy Preparatory School, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, 
 
 Ala. 
 Centenary College, Cleveland, Tenn. 
 Eastern College, Manassas, Va. 
 Harriman College, Harriman, Tenn. 
 Martin College, Pulaski, Tenn. 
 Meridian College Conservatory, Meridian, 
 
 Miss. 
 Marian Institute, Marian, Ala. 
 Presbyterian Preparatory School, Annis- 
 
 ton, Ala. 
 Randolph-Macon Academy, Fort Royal, 
 
 Va. 
 Southern Methodist University, Dallas, 
 
 Tex. 
 
 36 
 
Southwestern Presbyterian College, 
 Clarksville, Tenn. 
 
 Springside School, Chestnut Hill, Penn. 
 St. Mary's School, Memphis, Tenn. 
 Trinity College, Durham, N. C. 
 University of Alabama, University, Ala. 
 University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. 
 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 
 University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky. 
 University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. 
 Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Mo. 
 Breneau College Conservatory, Gaines- 
 ville, Ga. 
 Columbia Institute, Columbia, Tenn. 
 
 This is the list given in full for the in- 
 formation of any who might be interested. 
 Each state, through Divisional Chapters, 
 supports fifty or more divisional scholar- 
 ships. 
 
 The following report shows the total ex- 
 penditure for educational purposes from 
 November, 1919, to November, 1920 : 
 
 290 and over Scholarships in Di- 
 visions and Chapters, value . . $57743 . 00 
 
 73 Scholarships in General Or- 
 ganization, A^alue 9370 . 00 
 
 23 unclassified scholarships . . . 3525 . 00 
 
 Total Scholarships in U. D. C. $70638.00 
 37 
 
Assistance given schools and col- 
 leges $4139.00 
 
 Assistance given libraries 518 . 50 
 
 1,364 volumes presented to li- 
 braries 1535.25 
 
 237 prizes and medals to students 1677 . 15 
 Gifts to schools 3031.50 
 
 Total expenditure $81539.40 
 
 Involuntaril}^ comes an exclamation. 
 ''How magnificent!" From the Minutes I 
 take this paragraph : 
 
 ''Human beings, through the toilsome 
 yester ages, have learned the art of living 
 together. Out of elemental impulses grew 
 family life with a spirit of love, self sacri- 
 fice and a sense of duty as to the rights of 
 each in relation to the rights of all. Out 
 of family life, as we know, grew national 
 life with its evolving democratic principles 
 of government, based on the consent to be 
 governed. Good government depends on the 
 educated intelligence of the governed, so we 
 swing to education as the keynote of prog- 
 
 ress." 
 
 What a privilege to have even a small 
 share in such an undertaking ! 
 
 The work of the Confederate Museum has 
 
 38 
 
gone forward slowly but surely, and the 
 U. D. C. are now looking forward to the day 
 when they will be able to erect a library on 
 the grounds of the Museum. 
 
 For many years untiring effort on the 
 part of the members has resulted in a splen- 
 did collection of relics, books, manuscripts, 
 gifts, etc., in memory of some hero of the 
 'Sixties. 
 
 The Provisional Constitution of the Con- 
 federate States of America is one of the 
 priceless manuscripts found in the Museum 
 and the Original Great Seal of the Confed- 
 erate States of America is also in their keep- 
 ing. 
 
 Visitors stand before the cases of Lee, 
 Jackson, Stuart and Johnson and look with 
 reverence on what was actually worn or used 
 by these men who helped to make a world's 
 history. 
 
 In addition to what has already been men- 
 tioned, costly monuments and memorials 
 have been erected all over the United States 
 in honor of the South 's distinguished dead. 
 
 America is always in pursuit of the al- 
 mighty dollar. But for the perseverance of 
 its women, many valuable records of orators, 
 
 39 
 
statesmen, and veterans serving in the war 
 between the states, also soldiers serving in 
 the world war, would have been irredeem- 
 ably lost. 
 
 Mrs. C. F. Harvey, President of North 
 Carolina Division, in her welcoming address 
 at the annual convention, held in Asheville 
 in nineteen-twenty, pays this beautiful trib- 
 ute to the land of her birth: 
 
 ^^ Dixieland is a land of memories and tra- 
 ditions; memories sacred and sweet, with 
 traditions that inspire in us the love of coun- 
 try. We are justly proud of our ancestry; 
 its achievements, its deeds of valor, its feats 
 of endurance, its fortitude and courage are a 
 sacred heritage." 
 
 In attempting to offer a closing eulogy to 
 this, perhaps the most patriotic organiza- 
 tion of its kind in existence, I chanced to 
 find these beautiful words in the Twenty- 
 seventh Annual. 
 
 '' ... women whose stories will al- 
 ways live, glorious examples of truest wo- 
 manhood, tender and pure, beautiful and 
 gracious, women whose souls were bound up 
 in a cause, than which earth knew no 
 nobler." 
 
 40 
 
ALABAMA EOOM HOME OF LEAGUE 
 OF NATIONS 
 
 '^Ah Sir Lancelot, there tJiou Uest, 
 Thou ivert head of all Christian 
 Knights, and I dare say, thou wert 
 the courtliest Knight that ever hare 
 shield. Thou wert the kindest man 
 that ever strake with the sword. 
 Thou wert the meekest and gentlest 
 that ever ate in the hall among la- 
 dies and thou wert the sternest 
 Knight to thy mortal foe that ever 
 put spear in rest." 
 
 — Tribute to Robert E. Lee. 
 
 Through the activities of Admiral Raphael 
 Semmes, an Alabaman and a distinguished 
 naval veteran, the room of the Town Hall 
 in Geneva, Switzerland, in which the various 
 international offices are located, will be 
 known as the ^'Alabama" room, for it was 
 in this room that the famous controversy 
 
 41 
 
between the United States and Great Brit- 
 ain was settled. Here it has practically been 
 decided that the League of Nations will have 
 its permanent abiding place. The Geneva 
 correspondent of the Christian Science Mon- 
 itor gives ns some interesting details con- 
 cerning the cause of the christening. 
 
 A mural tablet which commemorates the 
 event reads as follows: ^^On September 
 14th, 1872, the arbitration tribunal consti- 
 tuted by the Treaty of Washington, pro- 
 mulgated in this room its decision regarding 
 the Alabama claims. In this way, there was 
 settled in a pacific manner the difference that 
 had arisen between the United States and 
 the Kingdom of Great Britain." 
 
 The vessel which Captain Eaphael 
 Semmes commanded — the Alabama — was 
 built for the Confederate government by 
 Laird & Sons, Berkshire, England, and it in- 
 flicted such terrible injury on the shipping 
 of the northern states during the Civil War, 
 that when the war ended disastrously to the 
 South, claims were made against England 
 by the North, based on the tremendous losses 
 sustained by the activities of Semmes. It 
 
 42 
 
was a small vessel carrying only eight guns 
 and intended not for fighting, but preying 
 on defenceless ships. It was a screw steam- 
 sloop, 1,040 tons register, built of wood and 
 for speed rather than strength. She was 
 bark-rigged and had two engines of 350- 
 horsepower each. While great secrecy was 
 enjoined in her construction and the purpose 
 of the vessel, the government at Washington 
 got secret information that led it to call 
 England's attention to the matter, but be- 
 fore England could take definite action, the 
 vessel had disappeared and gone to sea. The 
 crew consisted of eighty men all told and 
 had an armament of only eight 32-pounders. 
 The history of the Alabama consists of a 
 monotonous succession of captures in differ- 
 ent seas, her prizes being principally mer- 
 chant vessels which were burned, or when 
 there was convicting evidence of neutral 
 ownership of her cargo, were liberated on 
 bond. She captured in all 65 vessels, and the 
 value of the property destroyed has been es- 
 timated at many million dollars. It was, 
 however, by causing increasingly heavy 
 insurance for war risks, and still more diffi- 
 
 43 
 
culty in getting freights that her career in- 
 flicted the greatest injury to the ship owners, 
 and the great hurt to the union cause. 
 
 Finally, an enemy ship, the ^^Kearsarge," 
 appeared. Captain Semmes, according to 
 one historian, did not know the extent of the 
 superiority of the enemy ship. The Kear- 
 sarge had considerable advantage in number 
 of crew, armament, speed, and general con- 
 dition, beside she was, in some degree, 
 protected amidships by rude armor. The 
 fight took place outside the harbor at Cher- 
 bourg and about noon Captain Semmes sur- 
 rendered, his vessel having begim to sink, 
 and twenty minutes later, the Alabama dis- 
 appeared under the water. As she went 
 down, Semmes and forty officers and men 
 plunged into the sea, and were picked up by 
 the English yacht ^^Deerhound'' that had 
 brought out a party of sightseers from Cher- 
 bourg. The English government refused to 
 deliver the men when called upon to do so, 
 and out of this incident grew intense feeling 
 on the part of the United States, which con- 
 tinued until after the Civil War. 
 
 It will be interesting to the rising gener- 
 ation of southerners to know that John A. 
 
 44 
 
Boles, solicitor of the navy department, to 
 whom was given the work of looking up the 
 evidence against Semmes, in his report said : 
 
 ^^Not only did Semmes' official conduct 
 conform to a well known policy of the Amer- 
 ican navy, but it was directed by similar 
 instructions from the Secretary of the Con- 
 federate Navy. Do the enemy's commerce 
 the greatest injury in the shortest time, was 
 Mr. Mallory's significant order to Semmes, 
 and never in naval history has an order been 
 so signally obeyed." 
 
 Naturally, Alabama is very proud of her 
 distinguished veteran, and several chapters 
 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy 
 bear his name. 
 
 In Washington, District of Columbia, in 
 nineteen-seventeen the parade of the Con- 
 federate Veterans took place. The follow- 
 ing tribute to the heroic old soldiers was 
 written by Richard J. Beamish, staff corres- 
 pondent for the Philadelphia Press, It is 
 exquisitely beautiful, throbbing with tender- 
 ness for the boys of the 'sixties, who can 
 linger but a few more years. 
 
 '^I have seen an army of ghosts today. 
 Gray as graveyard mist it was, and slowly 
 
 45 
 
as graveyard mist it drifted past. . . . 
 No more pathetic spectacle was ever wit- 
 nessed in Washington than that which un- 
 folded and dissolved like a dream this morn- 
 ing. . . . Like a dream it will remain 
 with those who looked with seeing eyes, a 
 dream in which human sacrifice was viewed 
 through a veil of tears. 
 
 ^^From all parts of the South they came, 
 those who gave their all to follow Jefferson 
 Davis and his generals in their unavailing 
 efforts for secession. Above the creeping, 
 dull-gray line flew the rebel Stars and Bars. 
 Eebel battle flags that had flashed forward to 
 victory at Bull Eun and had been driven 
 from Pennsylvania soil at Gettysburg 
 showed their shell torn tatters through pro- 
 tective webs of silk as they were lifted high 
 above the stooping ranks. But beside the 
 cross-barred flag floated Old Glory, and up- 
 on the withered chests of the men in gray 
 gleamed the tri-color that spells both France 
 and America. 
 
 '^No inauguration procession within the 
 memory of Washington brought forth en- 
 thusiasm that compared with that that swept 
 
 46 
 
over the hundreds of thousands who saw 
 the thin gray line today. 
 
 ^^ Never can I forget the last rank of the 
 Arkansas division. There w^as the usual 
 flutter of flags, the usual applause as the fine 
 old commanders of the division on their se- 
 date livery horses paced by. Then came the 
 ranks on foot. Clad in that peculiar death- 
 gray of the Southern back-woods, they came 
 with the slow silent movement of oncreeping 
 age. . . . But the unforgettable feature 
 of that rear rank was a plain old woman of 
 the Arkansas back woods at the end of the 
 line near the President. Little and bent, she 
 was in all rusty black. Her black bonnet 
 was of another era and her dress was of no 
 recognizable period, but no woman in all 
 Washington, not Mary Custis Lee, who com- 
 bines all the blood for which the South glad- 
 ly faced death, not the beautiful wife of the 
 President in her modish and becoming rai- 
 ment, nor any other woman in or out of that 
 parade received half the attention or one- 
 tenth the honor that followed the little old 
 woman of Arkansas. 
 
 ^^For she walked with her hand in that of 
 
 47 
 
her dauntless lover. Close to ninety was he, 
 and feeble almost unto death, but the spirit 
 that rode with Stuart kept him moving slow- 
 ly, painfully, steadily on. His weariness was 
 such that his head fell forward upon his 
 chest. It was only by the full force of an 
 imperious and unshaken will that he lifted 
 his eyes from the cruelly hot asphalt to sa- 
 lute with a heart-breaking effort at old-time 
 gallantry the President of the United States. 
 Every step took from him hours of life, but 
 he pressed on and on. 
 
 '^The little old woman in black steadied 
 hhn when he faltered, and at intervals 
 fanned him with a crumpled newspaper, 
 whispering words of assurance as she did 
 so. Then the command to resume the march 
 came and she took his hand and drifted on 
 with her man, a black edge to the fog of liv- 
 ing gray. Hundreds of helpers besides the 
 little old woman in black were among the 
 10,000 in the slow, gray line. Daughters 
 and sons were there to lend cheer and helpful 
 arms to men that were dare-devils in the 
 great struggle and who marched with firm 
 steps, but these were plainly the drummer 
 boys in the days of the 'sixties. 
 
 48 
 
^^ Just to show how they felt about the lit- 
 tle affair into which we have just entered, 
 they carried banners, ^Damn a man who 
 ain 't for his country right or wrong. ' ' We 11 
 go to France or anywhere you want to send 
 us.' ^Call on US boys if YOU can't do it.' 
 
 *^I saw faces made noble by war-time sac- 
 rifices and by hardships nobly endured, faces 
 that stood out softly in the mist, each like a 
 Moses carved from a cloud by a Michael 
 Angelo. Never have I seen such majesty 
 of Americanism as in the slow, loving salute 
 with which they turned their faded eyes and 
 withered hands towards the President. It 
 was an expression of eternity; of that un- 
 quenched and unquenchable spirit, that, 
 please God, will hold America together while 
 life lasts." 
 
 OLD GLORY 
 
 Here's to the red of it. 
 There's not a thread of it, 
 No, nor a shred of it 
 In all the spread of it 
 
 From foot to head, 
 But heroes bled for it. 
 Precious blood shed for it. 
 
 Bathing it red. 
 
 49 
 
Here's to the white of it, 
 Thrilled by the sight of it, 
 Who knows the right of it. 
 But feels the might of it 
 
 Through day and night; 
 Womanhood's care for it, 
 Made manhood dare for it. 
 Purity's prayer for it, 
 
 Kept it so white. 
 
 Here's to ihe blue of it. 
 Heavenly blue of it, 
 Star-Spangled hue of it. 
 Honesty's view of it, 
 
 Constant and true ; 
 Here 's to the whole of it. 
 Stars, Stripes and pole of it 
 Here's to the soul of it, 
 
 EED, WHITE, and BLUE. 
 
 50 
 
THE INVULNERABLE SPIRIT OP 
 THE KHAKI 
 
 ^^ Lafayette — we have come" 
 
 Perhaps nothing in the history of mankind 
 is half so sweet as the silence that follows 
 the hush of the roar of the cannon. 
 
 Peace, like a great brooding dove, is hov- 
 ering over the world and her wings are con- 
 triving to cover any obstreperous little na- 
 tion which, like an unruly chick, attempts to 
 wander from the nest and stir up a contro- 
 versy over a choice morsel. 
 
 Today the American flag has a new signi- 
 ficance, for in the great commonwealth of 
 the United States mansions and tenements 
 alike were crushed beneath the heel of the 
 grim-visaged War, and there were few 
 homes that did not send forth some bright- 
 eyed, red-lipped boy to become cannon fod- 
 der for the insatiable guns of the Germans. 
 
 East, West, North, South — fired with 
 patriotism our khaki-clad boys entered 
 
 51 
 
eagerly into tlie strenuous experience of in- 
 tensive training. With blistered feet and 
 aching heads, men less robust than their 
 comrades, having spent practically all their 
 lives in a class room in silk shirts and flan- 
 nels, sat in the sickening glare of a shadeless 
 cantonment, and with that keen sense of 
 humor which characterizes the khaki, wrote 
 letters home. 
 
 ' ' Say ! Hello Dad ! I 've been promoted. I 
 am now acting Madonna of the Cook stove. 
 Tell mother at dishwashing I'm a whirlwind 
 and at potato peeling I'm a graduate." 
 
 From the soft, clear eyes of a debutante, 
 these young Americans, looking across ISTo 
 Man's Land, saw through a cloud of vile 
 smoke and gas the distorted features of the 
 approaching Hun, 
 
 ^^Oh forget it! forget it!" the ex-soldier 
 exclaims irritably. 
 
 But America should never forget it— - 
 that Reign of Terror. 
 
 No warrior of any nation, however bar- 
 baric, knew of any torture that equalled the 
 horrors of mustard gas, classed shrapnel, 
 and high explosives. 
 
 Some member of the Marine Corps, in a 
 52 
 
letter home, makes what he calls a feeble 
 attempt to describe modern warfare: 
 
 ' ' There is nothing in the history of heaven 
 or earth or nightmares of a deranged mind, 
 that can offer a sunile to this war. . . 
 Sherman's expression is mild and civilized 
 . . . so battles have intensified until they 
 are a million hells rolled into one." 
 
 This was written after twenty days or 
 more at Chateau Thierry where inexperi- 
 enced soldiers, who had never faced shell 
 fire, dashed into the thickest of the fray like 
 veterans, and according to an ofiicer in 
 charge : 
 
 ^^ Never have men fought under the flag 
 with greater heroism, dash, and gallantry, 
 than did those machine gunners of the lone 
 battalion at Chateau Thierry. ' ' 
 
 Even now rosy-cheeked school children 
 are being told of the remarkable valor of 
 their older brothers on the battlefield. 
 
 They hear of the superb action in Belleau 
 Wood and Argonne Forest — of the Thir- 
 tieth Division, composed of boys from the 
 states of Tennessee and the Carolinas, who 
 broke the Hindenburg line and struck terror 
 to the heart of Germany — the Thirty-sixth 
 
 53 
 
Division from Texas — the Rainbow Divi- 
 sion — and their eager little mouths fly agape 
 at the daring of the naval aeroplanes. 
 
 The pugnacity of the Wild Cats from Ala- 
 bama is said to have become alarming, for 
 like Don Quixote, the Knight of olden fame, 
 when they had no living thing to attack, they 
 fought the inanimate. 
 
 The masterful generalship of Pershing 
 filled the average recruit with an overwhelm- 
 ing sense of awe. At one time while review- 
 ing some troops from a southern canton- 
 ment, the general exclaimed in astonishment : 
 
 ^'Why, lieutenant, here is one of your men 
 who can't even stand attention.'' 
 
 The lieutenant, a very young man, 
 coughed, choked, and cleared his throat, and 
 wondered if he might dare to explain the fact 
 that String Beans was born with a crooked 
 back and to straighten out his anatomy 
 would be nothing short of an impossibility. 
 
 ^^ Well, how did you like the general's com- 
 pliment?" the boys asked the long, lanky 
 youth on whom Pershing had looked con- 
 temptuously. 
 
 ^^ Don't know no thin', he said," answered 
 
 54 
 
string Beans, grinning. *^ Couldn't hear it 
 for the music." 
 
 ^^Music?" 
 
 ^^Yes, har! har! gosh ding it, my knees 
 were playin' Home Sweet Home." 
 
 Noticeable about our heroes in khaki, is 
 their impenetrable reserve and their innate 
 modesty concerning their deeds of bravery. 
 While reading that thrilling story, ^'With 
 the Help of God and a few Marines, ' ' I came 
 across this letter, a portion of which I take 
 the liberty to quote : 
 
 ^^ Machine guns were everywhere. We 
 saw one German a short distance before us, 
 who had two dead, ones lying across him. 
 He Avas in a sitting posture and shouting, 
 *Kamerad! Kamerad!' We discovered he 
 was serving as a lure, and wanted a group of 
 marines to come to his rescue, so that the 
 kind hearted Americans would be in direct 
 line for the machine guns that were in read- 
 iness. . . Before I knew what I was do- 
 ing, I bobbed up and stuck my bayonet in 
 that Kamerad bird, while the others were 
 all shouting at me to stay back. My pack 
 
 55 
 
was pretty badly shot up — but they didn't 
 get me. After that I thought I was bullet 
 proof, but on the second day a machine gun 
 got me in the right arm, just above the el- 
 bow. . . I picked up the part of the arm 
 that was hanging loose and started to walk 
 to the dressing station, and I nearly got 
 there." 
 
 Innumerable instances of other indomi- 
 table spirits have been cited by war corre- 
 spondents. 
 
 ^^When you are thinking about battle- 
 fields," exclaimed a private, *^and dwelling 
 on the luxury of a pick and shovel, and the 
 sight of a dead man with a cigaret in his 
 hand and with his head blown off, don't for- 
 get the COOTIE, for it belongs in the same 
 class. Omnipresent, devilishly sociable 
 with a bottomless pit for a stomach, the 
 cootie came into his own when Germany 
 cried Havoc 1^^ — and let loose the dogs of 
 war. With two exceptions he showed little 
 partiality but visited majors and privates 
 alike. Many a time while I was looking to 
 see how many more dozen I could add to my 
 collction, I 'd look across the way and see ole 
 Maj. in Suicide Annex, exploring his shirt 
 
 56 
 
also, paying no attention whatever to the 
 death hiss of the shells in the heavens.'' 
 
 The sociable one, it seems, had a preference 
 for underwear and Eed Cross knitting. 
 
 Many grotesque looking objects, knitted 
 by children and school girls at home, reached 
 the helpless Sammies in the cantonments. 
 
 ^^ Several girls sent me sweaters," confided 
 a soldier, ^^but my best girl was named Elsie. 
 Well, Elsie, bless her heart — can't do any- 
 thing but shake a mean biscuit with her foot- 
 sies, but she learned to knit and crocheted me 
 a sweater. The holes in that sack were near- 
 ly as big as a half dollar and she wrote and 
 asked me : 
 
 " ^How do you like it. Precious "?' 
 
 '' ^Well, Kiddo, if you don't mind my say- 
 ing so, she's a corker. She is wonderfully 
 and fearfully made and will stretch from 
 earth to heaven.' " 
 
 This invincible spirit of humor stuck to 
 the American soldier through the most cru- 
 cial moments, and even in the trenches, again 
 and again with machine guns belching a 
 leaden death, Sammie never exhausted his 
 reserve stock of wit and humor. 
 
 **Ha! Fritzie try again! Rotten aim, old 
 
 57 
 
Buddy! Heigho! IVe put your address on 
 this shell Hunnie!" and now and then the 
 comical wail of ^'Oh! if Mama could only 
 see little Willie now!'' 
 
 A characteristic story was told me by a 
 sergeant who formed the habit of cultivat- 
 ing the acquaintance of old men and women 
 in Prance and trying to induce them to tell 
 him historical stories. 
 
 On one occasion a little old French woman, 
 about to celebrate her eightieth birthday, yet 
 still vivacious and attractive, insisted on ac- 
 companying the young soldier to the city, 
 where some kind of a festival was in pro- 
 gress. 
 
 *^She told me more about the customs, tra- 
 ditions, and history of France than all the 
 other people I met put together, so I told her 
 to come along and she and me would have 
 the time of our young lives. How she'd 
 laugh when I'd say that! Well, you know 
 French people are death on wines. At the 
 banquet, she kept drinking and drinking and 
 then she'd say the cutest things you ever 
 heard. I kept on begging her not to fill her 
 glass, for she was such a nice little old wo- 
 man, with about a million wrinkles on her 
 
 58 
 
face, and I hated like the dickens to see her 
 get tipsy, but she simply wouldn't' stop, and 
 finally, ' ' — he laughed so heartily at the recol- 
 lection, he was obliged to pause and get his 
 breath. 
 
 ^^What on earth did you do with her?" I 
 asked curiously. 
 
 ^^Well," answered the boy, his white teeth 
 gleaming, '^I didn't have any long green 
 to hire a taxi, she — didn't live far — and she 
 didn't weigh much, so yours truly picked her 
 up and carried her." 
 
 Little wonder the old women of France at 
 the sight of our army said to themselves: 
 ^^Ah! we are saved! We are SAVED. The 
 Americans have come — and their legs are 
 of a bigness!" Truly the sight of a husky 
 regiment in khaki was enough to inspire this 
 confidence. 
 
 ^^Oh!!!! here is Captain — won't you 
 please tells us about that awful time when 
 you spent eighteen days in Argonne For- 
 est?" several college girls implored a young 
 man who had just returned from the trench- 
 es. 
 
 He shook his head, but in spite of the mas- 
 tery of mind over body — in a moment, he 
 
 59 
 
was back again and he heard the rage of a 
 wild, demoniacal tempest — he felt himself 
 pushing on into a forest reeking with poison 
 gas and bristling with bullets — then a lull 
 — and the end of another day — a gray 
 morning when his brother was left behind 
 and the memory of a salute — the only salute 
 a private ever received — somewhere in 
 France. 
 
 ^^ Please," begged the girls, innocent of the 
 hurt they were inflicting. 
 
 ^^Once," said the officer evasively, *^when 
 I was a kiddie, I had a hobby horse, and 
 every night I'd feed him straw and hay and 
 every morning father and mother would take 
 the food away and I thought my pony was 
 eating. Then my mother bought me a choc- 
 olate coated rabbit that was so ornamental 
 I used to put it on the parlour mantel so the 
 company could admire it. ' ' He stopped and 
 lifted his eyebrows significantly: '^And — 
 when I was sure my mother was too busy to 
 watch me — every time I had a chance, I took 
 it down and licked it. ' ' 
 
 The eager friends were silent. Something 
 in the mute appeal to allow him f orgetful- 
 ness, had reached them. 
 
 60 
 
Such is the enviable spirit of our soldier. 
 
 As a result of high explosives, gas, and 
 other fiendish inventions hitherto unlvnown 
 in warfare, hundreds and hundreds of ex- 
 service men are now languishing in govern- 
 ment hospitals, sleeping in plaster casts and 
 iron jackets. It is enough that they should 
 fight the Hun, but they are still battling — 
 with a foe that is seldom conquered. 
 
 ^'What is the matter, if I may ask?" you 
 inquire of an inmate. 
 
 *^0h, I went to France, was gassed, got a 
 scratch that was neglected. Now I've got 
 T. B., but I'll get weU, lots of fellows do, 
 don 't you know ? ' ' 
 
 ^^God bless each particular hair on each 
 particular head!" exclaimed a grayhaired 
 woman as she came out of Kenilworth hos- 
 pital at Asheville. 
 
 **Cut it out, grandma," urged her grand- 
 son who had left his right leg on No Man's 
 Land ; then he added imploringly : * ' Try to 
 be a good sport like me — old top!" 
 
 Flower of our manhood in homes for the 
 incurable! Youth of our army sleeping in 
 Flanders ! 
 
 Brigadier-General Catlin expresses the 
 61 
 
belief that America went into this war sole- 
 ly to save the ideals of Christianity from 
 destruction. 
 
 ^^It is my country that sent its manhood 
 to fight and die for that cause. It is my 
 country that stands here on the great West- 
 ern continent, facing the future with faith 
 undimmed, ideals untarnished, in the full 
 strength of her prime, the world acknowl- 
 edged champion of the right of man. God 
 save my country ! " 
 
 ^'Yes, it is good to battle, and good 
 
 to he strong and free, 
 To carry the hearts of a people to 
 
 the uttermost ends of the sea, 
 To see the day steal up ' the hay, 
 
 where the enemy lies in wait. 
 To run your ship to the harbor's lip 
 
 and sink her across the strait. 
 But better the golden evening, when 
 
 the ships round heads for home. 
 And the long gray miles slip stviftly 
 
 past, in a stvirl of seething foam. 
 And the people wait, at the haven's 
 
 gate, to greet the men who win. 
 Thank God for peace! Thank God 
 
 for peace, when the great gray 
 
 ships come in." 
 
 62 
 
H 19 89 4 
 
i 
 
^v ^-^.v : 
 
 *^^^, ^ 
 
 \^^^' 
 ^^'\ 
 
 ^^ *»-<>' ^^'^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^<> *«»«o** o,*^ ^o. -r/,*" ,0' 
 
 

 ^.< 
 
 
 
 ; c?-^"- 
 
 
 ! c 
 
 
 '^,,^^ ' 
 
 
 0^^' oO'L*''. '^c 
 
 > /^^^i^y L 
 
 HECKMAN 
 
 BINDERY INC. |e| 
 
 €^ DEC 88 
 W N. MANCHESTER, 
 ^ INDIANA 46962