itude
of the sex for refinement. These women were among the
so-called worst, and all from the lowest haunts of vice. Yet
nothing could have been more decorous than their conduct,
while it was also frank; and they showed a sensibility
and sense of propriety, which would not have disgraced any
society. All passed, indeed, much as in one of my Boston
classes. I told them I was writing about Woman; and, as my
path had been a favored one, I wanted to gain information from
those who had been tempted and afflicted. They seemed to
reply in the same spirit in which I asked. Several, however,
expressed a wish to see me alone, as they could then say
_all_, which they could not bear to before one another. I
shall go there again, and take time for this. It is very
gratifying to see the influence these few months of gentle and
intelligent treatment have had upon these women; indeed, it is
wonderful.'

So much were her sympathies awakened by this visit, that she rejoiced
in the opportunity, soon after offered, of passing Christmas with
these outcasts, and gladly consented to address the women in their
chapel. "There was," says one present, "a most touching tenderness,
blended with dignity, in her air and tone, as, seated in the desk, she
looked round upon her fallen sisters, and begun: 'To me the pleasant
office has been given, of 'wishing you a happy Christmas.' A
simultaneous movement of obeisance rippled over the audience, with
a murmured 'Thank you;' and a smile was spread upon those sad
countenances, like sunrise sparkling on a pool." A few words from this
discourse,--which was extemporaneous, but of which she afterward made
an imperfect record,--will show the temper in which she spoke:--

'I have passed other Christmas days happily, but never felt
as now, how fitting it is that this festival should come among
the snows and chills of winter; for, to many of you, I
trust, it is the birth-day of a higher life, when the sun of
good-will is beginning to return, and the evergreen of hope
gives promise of the eternal year. * * *

'Some months ago, we were told of the riot, the license, and
defying spirit which made this place so wretched, and the
conduct of some now here was such that the world said:--"Women
once lost are far worse than abandoned men, and cannot be
restored." But, no! It is not so! I know my sex better. It i