than all the profits accruing
from this work. He will have been more than rewarded by the knowledge
that he has been the instrument, through which charity has once more
visited the South, and swept oppression and want from our land. Such
scenes as those we daily witness were never seen, even in the mildest
form a few short years ago. Prior to the war there was scarcely a
beggar in the South, and from one end of the country to the other
could we walk without hearing the voice of the mendicant appealing to
our benevolence. How changed now! In every city of the South the
streets are filled with ragged boys and girls stopping each passer by
and asking aid. It is a disgrace to humanity and to God, and that such
things should be in our land, whose sons have exhibited such heroism
and devotion.--Many of these beggary are the sons and daughters of our
soldiers--of our honored dead and heroic living. To the soldier who
lies beneath the sod a martyr to his country's cause, their sufferings
are unknown; but if in Heaven he can witness their penury, his soul
must rest ill at peace and weep for those on earth. To the soldier,
who is still alive and struggling for our independence, the letter
that brings him news of his wife's and children's poverty must bring
him discontent, and render him unwilling to longer remain in the army
and struggle for liberty while they are starving. How many times have
not desertion taken place through this very cause. In Mississippi we
witnessed the execution of a soldier for the crime of desertion. On
the morning of his execution he informed the minister that he never
deserted until repeated letters from his wife informed him of her
wretched condition; informed him that herself and her children were
absolutely starving. He could no longer remain in the army; the
dictates of his own heart; the promptings of his affection triumphed
and in an evil hour he deserted and returned home to find her tale,
alas! too true. He was arrested, courtmartialed and _shot_. He had
forfeited his life by his desertion and bore his fate manfully; his
only fear being for the future welfare of that wife and her children
for whom he had lost his life. When he fell, pierced by the bullets of
his comrades, was there not a murder committed? There was, but not by
the men who sentenced him to death. They but performed duty, and, we
are charitable enough to suppose, performed it with regret. The
murderers were the heartless men who a