Noble Deeds Of American Women Part 12

[30] Vide Women of the Revolution, vol. 1 p. 278.

THE MOTHER'S EFFECTUAL PEt.i.tION.

What rhetoric didst thou use To gain this mighty boon?

ADDISON.

James M. Wilson was one of the unfortunate young men who engaged in the Cuban invasion, in 1851; and he was taken prisoner and sent to Spain.

His mother pet.i.tioned for his release through President Fillmore, and so earnest, so full of the beauty of maternal love, and so touching was her appeal, that her request was granted, and the erring son was permitted to return to his mother's embrace. The following is a copy of the letter which she addressed to the President. It is said to have called forth flattering commendation from the heads of State and the highest encomiums from the Majesty of Spain.

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 25, 1851.

DEAR FATHER OF OUR COUNTRY:--To you I look for help. My dear son is one of the unfortunate prisoners to Spain. He is all the child I have; is only nineteen years old, not twenty-two, as stated. He was innocent and unsuspecting, and the more easily duped. He saw no means of making a support for himself and me, we being poor: he could get no employment; my health was bad; he therefore hoped to do something by going to Cuba.

But, alas! I am worse than poor! Death would have been more welcome. His father died, when he was very young, in Texas, which makes him more dear to me. Oh! cruel fate, why have I lived to see this? Perhaps to suit some wise design. G.o.d's will be done, not mine! I have prayed for his life from the time he left; it was spared. Dear President, will it be possible for you to do any thing? Can you comfort me? I am wearing away.

Methinks I cannot bear up under the idea of ten years; perhaps executed, or detained for life, or the climate cause his death. I feel for all of them, and pray for all. It was not my will that he should go; he was seduced into it by others. Dear father of the land of my birth, can you do any thing? Will you ask for their release? Methinks you will, and it would be granted. Will you feel offended with me for appealing to you for comfort? If so, I beg pardon. My distress has stimulated me to venture to dare to address the President. To whom else could I look for comfort? If you could but see me, I know you would pity me. If any one knew I had approached you, they might think I presumed much. Perhaps I do. Yet methinks you will view it in charity.

With all due respect to your Excellency.

OPHELIA P. TALBOT.

NOTEWORTHY INTEGRITY.

Honesty, even by itself, though making many adversaries Whom prudence might have set aside, or charity have softened, Evermore will prosper at the last.

TUPPER.

We have often read an interesting story of a stockbroker who, just before his death, laid a wager on parole with a Parisian capitalist; and a few weeks after his death, the latter visited the widow and gave her to understand that her late husband had lost a bet of sixteen thousand francs. She went to her secretary, took out her pocket-book, and counted bank notes to the stated amount, when the capitalist thus addressed her: "Madame, as you give such convincing proof that you consider the wager binding, _I_ have to pay you sixteen thousand francs. Here is the sum, for _I_ am the loser, and not your husband."

An act that, in principle, matches the above, came to light not long since in Philadelphia. During the speculations of 1837-38, Mr. C., a young merchant of that city, possessed of a handsome fortune, caught the mania, entered largely into its operations, and for a time was considered immensely rich. But when the great revulsion occurred he was suddenly reduced to bankruptcy. His young wife immediately withdrew from the circles of wealth and fas.h.i.+on, and adapted her expenses, family and personal, to her altered circ.u.mstances.

At the time of Mr. C.'s failure, his wife was in debt to Messrs. Stewart and Company, merchants of Philadelphia, about two hundred dollars for articles which she had used personally. This debt, she had no means of liquidating. It became barred by the statute of limitation, before Mr.

C. became solvent, though his circ.u.mstances gradually improved. After the lapse of twelve years, and when the creditors had looked upon the debt as lost, Mrs. C. was able to take the principle, add to it twelve years' interest, enclose the whole in a note and address it to Messrs.

Stewart and Company.[31]

[31] Messrs. Stewart and Company, upon the receipt of the money, addressed a note in reply to Mrs. C., in which they requested her acceptance of the accompanying gift, as a slight testimonial of their high appreciation of an act so honorable and so rare as to call forth unqualified admiration. Accompanying the letter was sent a superb brocade silk dress, and some laces of exquisite texture and great value.--[Philadelphia Enquirer.

A FAITHFUL MOTHER.

--Her pure and holy spirit now Doth intercede at the eternal throne.

MISS LANDON.

The following anecdote strikingly ill.u.s.trates the strength of maternal love, the beauty of faith, and the efficacy of prayer. It was related by a blind preacher:

"When I was about eighteen years of age, there was a dancing party in Middleboro, Ma.s.sachusetts, which I was solicited to attend, and act, as usual, in the capacity of musician. I was fond of such scenes of amus.e.m.e.nts then, and I readily a.s.sented to the request. I had a pious mother; and she earnestly remonstrated against my going. But, at length, when all her expostulations and entreaties failed in changing my purpose, she said: 'Well, my son, I shall not forbid your going, but remember, that all the time you spend in that gay company, I shall spend in praying for you at home.' I went to the ball, but I was like the stricken deer, carrying an arrow in his side. I began to play; but my convictions sank deeper and deeper, and I felt miserable indeed. I thought I would have given the world to have been rid of that mother's prayers. At one time I felt so wretched and so overwhelmed with my feelings, that I ceased playing and dropped my musical instrument from my hand. There was another young person there who refused to dance; and, as I learned, her refusal was owing to feelings similar to my own, and perhaps they arose from a similar cause. My mother's prayers were not lost. That was the last ball I ever attended, except _one_, where I was invited to play again, but went and prayed and preached _instead_, till the place was converted into a Bochim, a place of weeping. The convictions of that wretched night never wholly left me, till they left me at the feet of Christ, and several of my young companions in sin ere long were led to believe and obey the gospel also."

ANECDOTE OF MRS. SPAULDING OF NEW HAMPs.h.i.+RE.[32]

Through the deep wilderness, where scarce the sun Can cast his darts, along the winding path The pioneer is treading.

STREET.

An energy A spirit that will not be shaken.

WILLIS.

One of the first two settlers of Northumberland, New Hamps.h.i.+re, was Daniel Spaulding, who removed thither in the summer of 1767. On the way to his new home, with his wife and child, the last burnt himself so badly at Plymouth that the mother was obliged to remain and take care of him, while Mr. Spaulding proceeded to the end of the journey. She soon became uneasy, and, anxious to join her husband, started off with her child, twenty-one months old, to travel twenty-six miles through the wilderness. A friend who had agreed to accompany her the whole distance with a horse, returned after traveling about one third of the way.

Undaunted and persevering, she pushed on, alone and on foot; waded through Baker's river with her child in her arms; was overtaken by a heavy "thunder gust" in the afternoon, and thoroughly drenched; seated herself beside a tree when darkness appeared, and held her child in her lap through a long and sleepless night; resumed her journey early the next morning; waded through a small pond, with the water waist-high; pushed on to another river, which, though swollen by the rain of the preceding day and looking rapid and terrifying, she forded in safety; and at eleven o'clock that day, the second of her journey, she met her husband, who was on his way back with a horse for her accommodation.[33]

[32] The substance of this anecdote we find in the second number of the first volume of a periodical called "Historical Collections," published nearly thirty years ago at Concord, New Hamps.h.i.+re, and edited by J.

Farmer and J. B. Moore. The anecdote was communicated by Adino N.

Brackett, Esq., of Lancaster, and appeared in the June number for 1822.

[33] This pioneer matron of northern New Hamps.h.i.+re, was living at Lancaster, in 1822, then in her eighty-second year. She was a descendant, "in the third degree," of Mrs. Dustin, the heroine of Penacook.

THE WIFE OF COLONEL THOMAS.

Then since there is no other way but fight or die, Be resolute, my lord, for victory.

SHAKSPEARE.

Jane Thomas, wife of John Thomas, Colonel of the Spartan regiment of South Carolina, was a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania. She was a woman of remarkable coolness and intrepidity, as a single act of hers, in the times that tried _women's_ souls, plainly indicates.

Governor Rutledge having stored a quant.i.ty of arms and ammunition in the house of Colonel Thomas, under a guard of twenty-five men, the tories were determined to obtain these munitions. To this end they sent a large party under Colonel More of North Carolina. Apprised of their approach and not daring to engage with a force so superior, Colonel Thomas fled with his twenty-five soldiers, taking along as much ammunition as could be conveniently carried. Two young men and the women were now the sole occupants of the house. The tories marched up to the door, but instead of being invited by the ladies to enter, they were ordered off the premises. Not choosing to obey the commands of the mistress, they commenced firing into the logs of the house. The compliment was instantly returned from the upper story; and the women now loading the guns for the older of the two young men to discharge, a constant and perilous firing was kept up from the chamber, which soon made the a.s.sailants desperate. They forthwith attempted to demolish the "batten door," but it was too strongly barricaded. Finding that themselves were likely to share a worse fate then the door, they finally obeyed the original orders of the intrepid mistress; withdrew from the premises and fled. Mrs. Thomas soon afterwards descended, and opening the door, there met her returning husband.--The ammunition saved on that occasion by the courage of a woman, was the main supply, it is said, of Sumter's army in the skirmishes at Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock.

EXEMPLARY PIETY.