Noble Deeds Of American Women Part 17

A POOR WOMAN'S OFFERING.

The world is but a word; Were it all yours, to give it in a breath, How quickly were it gone!

SHAKSPEARE.

The following anecdote was related, a few years ago, by the Rev. W. S.

Plumer, while addressing the Virginia Baptist Education Society. We regret that he did not give the name of the good woman who possessed such commendable zeal for the missionary cause.

"A poor woman had attended a missionary meeting a few years since. Her heart was moved with pity. She looked around on her house and furniture to see what she could spare for the mission. She could think of nothing that would be of any use. At length she thought of her five children, three daughters and two sons. She entered her closet, and consecrated them to the mission. Two of her daughters are now in heathen lands, and the other is preparing to go. Of her sons, one is on his way to India, and the other is preparing for the ministry, and inquiring on the subject of a missionary life."

THE MOTHER OF PRESIDENT JACKSON.

How often has the thought Of my mourn'd mother brought Peace to my troubled spirit, and new power The tempter to repel.

Mother, thou knowest well That thou has bless'd me since my natal hour.

PIERPONT.

The mother of General Jackson had three children. Their names were Hugh, Robert and Andrew. The last was the youngest and lost his father when an infant. Like the mother of Was.h.i.+ngton, she was a very pious woman, and strove to glorify G.o.d as much in the rearing of her children as in the performance of any other duty. She taught Andrew the leading doctrines of the Bible, in the form of question and answer, from the Westminster catechism; and those lessons he never forgot. In conversation with him some years since, says a writer, "General Jackson spoke of his mother in a manner that convinced me that she never ceased to exert a secret power over him, until his heart was brought into reconciliation with G.o.d."

This change, however, he did not experience till very late in life--after he had retired from the Presidency. He united with the Presbyterian church near the close of the year 1839, then in his seventy-third year. Just before his death, which occurred in June, 1845, he said to a clergyman, "My lamp of life is nearly out, and the last glimmer is come. I am ready to depart when called. The Bible is true....

Upon that sacred volume I rest my hope of eternal salvation, through the merits and blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."

If departed spirits, the saintly and ascended, are permitted to look from their high habitation, upon the scenes of earth, with what holy transport must the mother of Andrew Jackson have beheld the death-bed triumph of her son. The lad whom she early sent to an academy at the Waxhaw meeting-house, hoping to fit him for the ministry, had become a man, and led the hosts of the land through many a scene of conflict and on to a glorious and decisive victory; had filled the highest office in the world, and was now an old man, able, in his last earthly hour, _by the grace of G.o.d attending her early, pious instruction_, to challenge death for his sting and to shout "victory" over his opening grave.

THE YOUNG HEROINE OF FORT HENRY.

Judge me not ungentle, Of manner's rude, and insolent of speech, If, when the public safety is in question, My zeal flows warm and eager from my tongue.

ROWE'S JANE Sh.o.r.e.

The siege of Fort Henry, at the mouth of Wheeling creek, in Ohio county, Virginia, occurred in September, 1777. Of the historical _fact_ most people are aware; yet but few, comparatively, knew how much the little band in the garrison, who held out against thirty or forty times their number of savage a.s.sailants, were indebted, for their success, to the courage and self-devotion of a single female.

The Indians kept up a brisk firing from about sunrise till past noon, when they ceased and retired a short distance to the foot of a hill.

During the forenoon the little company in the fort had not been idle.

Among their number were a few sharp shooters, who had burnt most of the powder on hand to the best advantage. Almost every charge had taken effect; and probably the savages began to see that they were losing numbers at fearful odds, and had doubtless retired for consultation. But they had less occasion for anxiety, just at that time, than the men, women and children in the garrison. As already hinted, the stock of powder was nearly exhausted. There was a keg in a house ten or twelve rods from the gate of the fort, and as soon as the hostilities of the Indians were suspended, the question arose, who shall attempt to seize this prize? Strange to say, every soldier proffered his services, and there was an ardent contention among them for the honor. In the weak state of the garrison, Colonel Shepard, the commander, deemed it advisable that only one person should be spared; and in the midst of the confusion, before any one could be designated, a girl named Elizabeth Zane,[48] interrupted the debate, saying that her life was not so important, at that time, as any one of the soldier's, and claiming the privilege of performing the contested service. The Colonel would not, at first, listen to her proposal; but she was so resolute, so persevering in her plea, and her argument was so powerful, that he finally suffered the gate to be opened, and she pa.s.sed out. The Indians saw her before she reached her brother's house, where the keg was deposited; but, for some unknown cause, they did not molest her, until she re-appeared with the article under her arm. Probably divining the nature of her burden, they discharged a volley as she was running towards the gate; but the whizzing b.a.l.l.s only gave agility to her feet, and herself and the prize were quickly safe within the gate. The result was that the soldiers inspired with enthusiasm by this heroic adventure, fought with renewed courage, and, before the keg of powder was exhausted, the enemy raised the siege.

[48] We learn, from Withers, that Miss Zane has since had two husbands.

The name of the second was Clarke, a resident of Ohio. She was living, not long since, near St. Clairsville.

A BENEVOLENT WIDOW

Charity ever Finds in the act reward.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

Several years ago, a poor widow had placed a smoked herring,--the last morsel of food she had in the house--on the table for herself and children, when a stranger entered and solicited food, saying that he had had nothing to eat for twenty-four hours. The widow unhesitatingly offered to share the herring with him, remarking, at the same time, "We shall not be forsaken, or suffer deeper for an act of charity."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WIDOW AND HER SON.]

As the stranger drew near the table and saw the scantiness of the fare, he asked, "And is this all your store? Do you offer a share to one you do not know? Then I never saw charity before. But, madam, do you not wrong your children by giving a part of your morsel to a stranger?"

"Ah," said she, with tears in her eyes, "I have a boy, a darling son, somewhere on the face of the wide world, unless Heaven has taken him away; and I only act towards you as I would that others should act towards him. G.o.d, who sent manna from heaven, can provide for us as he did for Israel; and how should I this night offend him, if my son should be a wanderer, dest.i.tute as you, and he should have provided for him a home, even as poor as this, were I to turn you unrelieved away!"

The stranger whom she thus addressed, was the long absent son to whom she referred; and when she stopped speaking, he sprang from his feet, clasped her in his arms, and exclaimed, "G.o.d, indeed, has provided just such a home for your wandering son, _and has given him wealth to reward the goodness of his benefactress_. My mother! O, my mother!"[49]

[49] Abridged from Cyclopedia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes.

ANNE FITZHUGH.

Who shall find a valiant woman?

The price of her is as things brought from afar.

PROVERBS.

'T is the last Duty that I can pay to my dear lord.

FLETCHER.

The wife of Colonel William Fitzhugh, of Maryland, while he was absent at one time during the Revolution, was surprised by the news that a party of British soldiers was approaching her house. She instantly collected her slaves; furnished them with such weapons of defence as were at hand; took a quant.i.ty of cartridges in her ap.r.o.n, and, herself forming the van, urged her sable subalterns on to meet the foe. Not looking for resistance, the advancing party, on beholding the amazon with her sooty invincibles, hastily turned on their heels and fled.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HEROIC MOTHER.]

On a subsequent occasion, a detachment of soldiers marched at midnight to Colonel Fitzhugh's house, which was half a mile from the sh.o.r.e, and near the mouth of the Patuxent river, and knocked at the door. The Colonel demanding who was there, and receiving for reply that the visitants were "friends to King George," told the unwelcome intruders that he was blind and unable to wait upon them, but that his wife would admit them forthwith. Lighting a candle and merely putting on her slippers, she descended, awoke her sons, put pistols in their hands, and, pointing to the back door, told them to flee. She then let the soldiers in at the front door. They inquired for Colonel Fitzhugh, and said he must come down stairs at once and go as a prisoner to New York.

She accordingly dressed her husband--forgetting meanwhile, to do as much for herself--and when he had descended, he a.s.sured the soldiers that his blindness, and the infirmities of age unfitted him to take care of himself, and that it could hardly be desirable for them to take in charge so decrepit and inoffensive a person. They thought otherwise; and his wife, seeing he must go, took his arm and said she would go too. The officer told her she would be exposed and must suffer, but she persisted in accompanying him, saying that he could not take care of himself, nor, if he could, would she permit a separation.

It was a cold and rainy night, and with the mere protection of a cloak, which the officer took down and threw over her shoulders before leaving the house, she sallied forth with the party. While on the way to their boat, the report of a gun was heard, which the soldiers supposed was the signal of a rebel gathering. They hastened to the boat, where a parole was written out with trembling hand, and placed in the old gentleman's possession. Without even a benediction, he was left on sh.o.r.e with his faithful and fearless companion, who thought but little of her wet feet as she stood and saw the cowardly detachment of British soldiers push off and row away with all their might for safety.

ESTHER GASTON.