101. A Too Successful Tombola
By ELIZA RIPLEY (1862)
The Romance of the Civil War | ||
101. A Too Successful Tombola
By ELIZA RIPLEY (1862)
IN the neighboring city of Baton Rouge we organized the Campaign Sewing Society: its very title shows how transient we regarded the emergency; how little we deemed the campaign would develop into a four years' war. There many of us received our first lessons in the intricacies of coats and pantaloons. I so well remember when, in the glory of my new acquirements, I proudly made a pair of cottonade trousers for a brother we were fitting out in surpassing style for service, my embarrassment and
CONFEDERATE MONEY.
[Description: Illustration of various types of Confederate bills]From the factory in our little city— the only one, by the way, of any size or importance in the state we procured the cloth required for suits, but in the lapse of time, the supply of buttons, thread, needles, and tape, in fact of all the little accessories of the sewing room, was exhausted, and to replenish the stock our thoughts and conversation were necessarily
A tombola, where every article is donated and every ticket draws a prize, was the happy result of numerous conferences. The scheme was discussed with husbands and brothers; each suggested an advancement or improvement on the other, until the project expanded so greatly, including all classes and conditions of donors, that it was quickly found that not only a large hall, but a stable and a warehouse would also be required to bold the contributions, which embraced every imaginable article from a toothpick to a cow!
The hall was soon overflowing with minor articles from houses and shops. Nothing was either too costly or too insignificant to be refused : a glass show-case glittered with jewelry of all styles and patterns, and bits of rare old silver; pictures, and engravings, old and faded, new and valuable, hung side by side on the walls ; odd pieces of furniture, work-boxes, lamps and candelabra were arranged here and there, to stand out in bold relief amid an immense array of pencils, tweezers, scissors, penknives, tooth-picks, darning needles, and such trifles; the stalls of the stable were tenanted by mules, cows, hogs with whole litters of pigs, and varieties of poultry; the warehouse groaned tinder the weight of barrels of sugar, molasses, and rice, and bushels of meal, potatoes, turnips and corn. Tickets for a chance at this
The tombola was a grand, an overwhelming success; without one dollar of outlay— the buildings and necessary printing bad been donated—we made six thousand dollars. Before this sum could be sent to New Orleans, that city was in the hands of its captors.
Thus cut off from the means of securing necessary supplies, and at the same time for facilities for communication. with those whom we sought to aid, the Campaign Sewing Society sadly disbanded. The busy workers retired to their own houses, the treasurer fled with the funds for safe-keeping, and, when she emerged from her retreat, six thousand dollars in Confederate paper was not worth six cents.
101. A Too Successful Tombola
By ELIZA RIPLEY (1862)
The Romance of the Civil War | ||