re efficient and capable Matrons. In the West, there were
also Homes for Refugees, families of poor whites generally though not
always sufferers for their Union sentiments, sent north by the military
commanders from all the States involved in the rebellion. Reduced to the
lowest depths of poverty, often suffering absolute starvation, usually
dirty and of uncleanly habits, in many cases ignorant in the extreme,
and intensely indolent, these poor creatures had often little to
recommend them to the sympathy of their northern friends, save their
common humanity, and their childlike attachment to the Union cause. Yet
on these, women of high culture and refinement, women who, but for the
fire of patriotism which burned in their hearts, would have turned away,
sickened at the mental and moral degradation which seemed proof against
all instruction or tenderness, bestowed their constant and unwearying
care, endeavoring to rouse in them the instinct of neatness and the love
of household duties; instructing their children, and instilling into the
darkened minds of the adults some ideas of religious duty, and some
gleams of intelligence. No mission to the heathen of India, of Tartary,
or of the African coasts, could possibly have been more hopeless and
discouraging; but they triumphed over every obstacle, and in many
instances had the happiness of seeing these poor people restored to
their southern homes, with higher aims, hopes, and aspirations, and with
better habits, and more intelligence, than they had ever before
possessed.

The camps and settlements of the freedmen were also the objects of
philanthropic care. To these, many highly educated women volunteered to
go, and establishing schools, endeavored to raise these former slaves to
the comprehension of their privileges and duties as free men. The work
was arduous, for though there was a stronger desire for learning, and a
quicker apprehension of religious and moral instruction, among the
freedmen than among the refugees, their slave life had made them fickle,
untruthful, and to some extent, dishonest and unchaste. Yet the faithful
and indefatigable teachers found their labors wonderfully successful,
and accomplished a great amount of good.

Another and somewhat unique manifestation of the patriotism of our
American women, was the service of the Refreshment Saloons at
Philadelphia. For four years, the women of that portion of Philadelphia
lying in the vicinity of the Navy Yar