North.
General Butler's Order Number 28 was a common topic for
editorial discussion and divided the press into two camps re-
gardless of section. This much-discussed order directed that any
female who should annoy or insult a Union soldier on the streets
of New Orleans should be arrested at once and treated like any
bold woman of the town plying her trade. Whatever may have
been the necessity for such an edict, it aroused press rebukes
from feminine pens. A Southern woman, writing to the editor
of The Savannah Republican, urged " every woman in our Con-
federacy" to contribute "her mite to the ripe sum" of ten
thousand dollars offered in a paper of the South for "the in-
famous Butler's head."
PUBLICATION OF FOEGED PROCLAMATION
A forged proclamation, reported to have come from the pen of President Lincoln, was published in May, 1864, by two New York newspapers, The World and The Journal of Commerce. The proclamation was designed by those interested in the forgery to promote financial disturbance in the stock market which could be taken advantage of by the promoters. It called for four thousand citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, either by volunteer or by draft, to take up arms for the preser- vation of the Union and in addition appointed a day of fasting and prayer. The forged proclamation was received by The World and by The Journal of Commerce on thin manifold sheets exactly like those received regularly from the Associated Press, and the time of its delivery was so arranged that the late arrival did not permit extensive investigation before publishing.
Both The World and The Journal of Commerce were deceived. After their discovery of the imposition, they did all in their power to rectify the wrong. The sale of papers by newsboys and over the counters was stopped at once. Where it was possible, papers which had already been mailed to distant points were recalled. Rewards were offered for the discovery of the forger. The Associated Press was requested to notify every newspaper in its service that the proclamation was a forgery. In spite of
