The Industry of the women of the South.
A letter from Lincoln County, Tenn., says:“ I witnessed many a scene in this rural district, which the gay ladies of our fashionable cities may well ponder on, with the reflection of surprise, of how little they know of the hardships which their sex are forced to undergo to sustain and support their families, while their husbands and brothers are absent fighting the battles of our country. On the small farms throughout this section all is life, activity, and industry. Many a woman who never before held a plough is now seen in the corn-field; many a young girl who would have blushed at the thought of handling a plough-line, now naturally and unconsciously cries, ‘Gee up!’ to Dobbin, to the silvery tones of which the good brute readily responds, as if a pleasure to comply with so gentle a command. Many a Ruth as of old, is seen to-day, binding and gleaning in the wheat-fields; but alas! no Boaz is there to console or to comfort. The picture of the rural soldier's home is at this time but a picture of primitive life. Throughout the country, at every farmhouse and cottage, the regular sound of the loom, as the shuttle flies to and fro, with the whirl of the spinning-wheel, is heard, telling of home industry. Cotton fabrics, of neat, pretty figures, the production of home manufactory, are now almost wholly worn in Tennessee, instead of calicoes. But it is a sad thought, that while these exertions of thriving industry are being made for the support of the soldier's family, his little cottage home, of which he nightly dreams, is to be abandoned and left unprotected by the falling back of our troops, and subject to the pillage and plunder of the vandal infidels. Such, at least, I fear will be the case in the counties of Bedford and Coffee, from which we have fallen back.
”
--Charleston Courier, July 24.
able to defend “the flag.” --“On the sixteenth of June, a Copperhead meeting was held near Plainfield, N. J. In the immediate vicinity resided an old couple named Jenks, the old gentleman, aged sixty-seven, being a soldier of the war of 1812. During the meeting, Mrs. Jenks, whose age is seventy-one, indignant at the proceedings, got out an old American flag which had seen service, and hoisted it on her house, her husband being absent. The base wretches who participated in the meeting, seeing the flag, determined it should come down, and they forthwith proceeded to the house and demanded of Mrs. Jenks that she should take it down. With all the patriotic indignation of a matron of ‘76, she refused. They then threatened to tear it down. Seizing her husband's old, rusty musket, she dared them to try it. Cowed by her resolution, and feeling as much shame as such cattle can feel, they sneaked away, leaving the old Stars and Stripes “still full high advanced” in all its proud splendor. Some gentlemen of New-York City, hearing of the circumstance, came up and took Mr. Jenks down to that city, purchased for him a magnificent American flag, and bade him give it into Mrs. Jenks's hand, to be hoisted on the Fourth of July ensuing, saying, as they gave it, that they were sure “she was able to defend it and keep it flying.” ” --Newark Mercury.
