Page:The Southern Literary Messenger - Minor.djvu/251

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Literary Messenger
225

Run, Yankee Doodle do was changed to Yankee Doodle done.

"The Mystic Circle of Kate's Mountain" was composed by John Howard, a lawyer of Richmond. A few years ago, he republished it and showed it to this writer. It is a full poetical description of a visit which a party of ladies and gentlemen at the Greenbrier White, in 1860, made to the lofty Kate and hoisted upon a tall oak on its highest peak the first secession flag. Towards the close of 1861, the contributors of verse are Dr. Holcombe, Rev. Dr. John C. McCabe (now a Chaplain, C. S. A.), Mary J. Upshur, Henry C. Alexander, Dr. Ticknor, Mrs. S. A. Dinkins, of South Carolina, and James B. Randall, who does justice to Gen. Sterling Price—"Old Pap."

The prose writers are Dr. Holcombe, Klutz, W. S. Bogart, Augusta Washington, Burwell, Fannie G. Ireton, Iris, of Fauquier county, Mead, W. S. Grayson, and others anonymous.

One leading editorial is devoted to stirring up the subscribers and inciting them to do speedy justice to the proprietors, who have done so much to entitle them to gratitude, liberality and prompt payment. Another deplores the continued inactivity of the Confederate armies and urges a more vigorous and aggressive policy.

Three sisters of southwestern Virginia resent