ters, packers, and others, on alternate days, or at times
semi-weekly, without fee or compensation. Arduous as their duties were,
and far as they were from any romantic idea of heroism, or of notable
personal service to the cause, these noble, patient, and really heroic
women, rejoiced in the thought that by their labors they were indirectly
accomplishing a good work in furnishing the means of comfort and healing
to thousands of the soldiers, who, but for their labors would have
perished from sickness or wounds, but through their care and the
supplies they provided, were restored again to the ranks, and enabled to
render excellent service in putting down the Rebellion.

In her closing report, Mrs. Seymour says:

"We have sent nearly three thousand packages to Louisville, and six
hundred and twenty-five to New York. We have cut and provided materials
at our rooms, for over twenty thousand suits, and other articles for the
army, amounting in all to more than two hundred thousand pieces. Little
children, mostly girls under twelve years of age, have given us over
twenty-five hundred dollars."

Like all the earnest workers of this class, Mrs. Seymour expresses the
highest admiration for what was done by those nameless heroines, "the
patriot workers in quiet country homes, who with self-sacrifice rarely
equalled, gave their best spare-room linen and blankets, their choicest
dried fruits, wines and pickles,--and in all seasons met to sew for the
soldiers, or went about from house to house to collect the supplies to
fill the box which came regularly once a month." Almost every woman who
toiled thus, had a family whose sole care depended upon her, and many of
them had dairies or other farm-work to occupy their attention, yet they
rarely or never failed to have the monthly box filled and forwarded
promptly. We agree with Mrs. Seymour in our estimate of the nobleness
and self-sacrificing spirit manifested by these women; but the patriotic
and self-denying heroines of the war were not in country villages, rural
hamlets, and isolated farms alone; those ladies who for their love to
the national cause, left their homes daily and toiled steadily and
patiently through the long years of the war, in summer's heat and
winter's cold, voluntarily secluding themselves from the society and
social position they were so well fitted to adorn, and in which they had
been the bright particular stars, these too, for the great love they
bore to thei