y not be great; but those who actually occupy a
prominent position, must pay the penalty of their prominence, in the
publicity which follows it.

Miss May is a native of Boston, born in 1829, and educated in the best
schools of her natal city. She early gave indications of the possession
of a vigorous intellect, which was thoroughly trained and cultivated.
Her clear and quick understanding, her strong good sense, active
benevolence, and fearlessness in avowing and advocating whatever she
believed to be true and right, have given her a powerful influence in
the wide circle of her acquaintance. She embarked heart and soul in the
Anti-slavery movement while yet quite young, and has rendered valuable
services to that cause.

At the very commencement of the war, she gave herself most heartily to
the work of relieving the sufferings of the soldiers from sickness or
wounds; laboring with great efficiency in the organization and
extension of the New England Women's Auxiliary Association, and in the
spring and summer of 1862, going into the Hospital Transport Service of
the Sanitary Commission, where her labors were arduous, but accomplished
great good. After her return, she was prevailed upon to take the
Chairmanship of the Executive Committee of the Association, and
represented it at Washington, at the meeting of the delegates from the
Branches of the Sanitary Commission. Her executive ability was signally
manifested in her management of the affairs of the Association, in her
rapid and accurate dispatch of business, her prompt and unerring
judgment on all difficult questions, her great practical talent, and her
earnest and eloquent appeals to the auxiliaries. Yet fearless and daring
as she has ever been in her denunciation of wrong, and her advocacy of
right, and extraordinary as are the abilities she has displayed in the
management of an enterprise for which few men would have been competent,
the greatest charm of her character is her unaffected modesty, and
disposition to esteem others better than herself. To her friends she
declared that she had made no sacrifices in the work, none really worthy
of the name--while there were abundance of women who had, but who were
and must remain nameless and unknown. What she had done had been done
from inclination and a desire to serve and be useful in her day, and in
the great struggle, and had been a recreation and enjoyment.

To a lady friend who sought to win from her some incident