he cart by means of which
her bread and milk were distributed, and all the money that she made was
contributed to the cause of the forsaken children whom she loved. She
died in 1882, and to her was erected the first monument to a woman ever
reared in the United States. As the first woman to be thus honored she
deserves to be remembered by more than local affection; and it speaks
well for our country that the pioneer shaft raised to a woman did not
commemorate the triumphs of intellect or even militant bravery, but the
labors and unselfishness of one who could not so much as write her name,
signing with a cross the will by which she made her last gift to the
orphans--Protestant as well as Catholic, for her large soul knew of them
nothing but that they were in need of care--of the city of New Orleans.
Even yet, in these days of rush and bustle, New Orleans has not
forgotten the woman whom it knew by the simple name of "Margaret,"
neglecting further identification of title; for to New Orleans there was
but one Margaret, and the name carried unique meaning, even as would
that of a reigning queen.

To return from this substitution of the individual for the general:
Reconstruction, in a political sense, was happily of brief life in the
South; but Feminine Reconstruction, which had its birth in the same time
as the political, was destined to prove lasting in its work and effects.
There was need of complete reconstruction, of thought as well as
society, if woman were not to be a clog rather than an aid to the
efforts of man; for the conditions which had enabled the latter, at
least in the South, to look upon woman as the companion only for his
leisure had disappeared, while in both sections there were left
destitute thousands of women, with mouths which must be fed, both of
themselves and of little ones. Moreover, in both sections the home was
no longer the inevitable and perfect refuge which it had been. Either
the father, the breadwinner, had been swept away by the destroying tide
of war, together with the brothers upon whom the home might still have
leaned, or he was so disabled in body or purse that he could not care
for those who by nature were dependent upon him. These conditions did
not press so heavily upon the Northern homes, since in that section
there was plenty of work for willing hands and the men had little
difficulty in obtaining a sufficient living for their households; but in
the South those conditions were wid