was in some sort an auxiliary of the New
England Women's Auxiliary Association. This society was formed in the
beginning of the war and proposed first to furnish well made clothing to
the soldiers, and second to give employment to their families, though it
was not confined to these, but furnished work also to some extent to
poor widows with young children, who had no near relatives in the army.
In this enterprise were enlisted a large number of ladies of education,
refinement, and high social position. During four successive winters,
they carried on their philanthropic work, from fifteen to twenty of them
being employed during most of the forenoons of each week, in preparing
the garments for the sewing women, or in the thorough and careful
inspection of those which were finished. From nine hundred to one
thousand women were constantly supplied with work, and received in
addition to the contract prices, (the ladies performing their labor
without compensation) additional payment, derived from donations for
increasing their remuneration. The number of garments (mostly shirts and
drawers) made by the employes of this association in the four years, was
three hundred and forty-six thousand seven hundred and fifteen, and the
sum, of twenty thousand thirty-three dollars and seventy-eight cents
raised by donation, was paid as additional wages to the workwomen. The
association of these poor women for so long a period with ladies of
cultivation and refinement, under circumstances in which they could
return a fair equivalent for the money received, and hence were not in
the position of applicants for charity, could not fail to be elevating
and improving, while the ladies themselves learned the lesson that as
pure and holy a patriotism inspired the hearts of the humble and lowly,
as was to be found among the gifted and cultivated. We regret that we
cannot give the names of the ladies who initiated and sustained this
movement. Many of them were conspicuous in other works of patriotism and
benevolence during the war, and some found scope for their earnest
devotion to the cause in camp and hospital, and some gave vent to their
patriotic emotion in battle hymns which will live through all coming
time. Of these as of thousands of others in all the departments of
philanthropy connected with the great struggle, it shall be said, "They
have done what they could."

NORTHWESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION.

When the United States Sanitary