fearful deed is ever
mingled with that fiendish face and speech.

The next day the Rebel Commissioner Mason, replying to some remarks of
the American Minister, Mr. Adams, in the Times, took occasion most
emphatically to deprecate the insinuation that the South had any
knowledge of, or complicity in this crime.

MRS. WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.

At the opening of the war Mrs. Holstein was residing in a most pleasant
and delightful country home at Upper Merion, Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania. In the words of one who knows and appreciates her
well--"Mr. and Mrs. Holstein are people of considerable wealth, and
unexceptionable social position, beloved and honored by all who know
them, who voluntarily abandoned their beautiful home to live for years
in camps and hospitals. Their own delicacy and modesty would forbid them
to speak of the work they accomplished, and no one can ever know the
greatness of its results."

As Mrs. Holstein was always accompanied by her husband, and this devoted
pair were united in this great patriotic and kindly work, as in all the
other cases, duties and pleasures of life, it would be almost
impossible, even if it were necessary, to give any separate account of
her services for the army. This is shown in the following extracts from
a letter, probably not intended for publication, but which, in a spirit
far removed from that of self-praise, gives an account of the motives
and feelings which actuated her, and of the opening scenes of her public
services.

"The story of my work, blended as it is, (and should be) so intimately
with that of my husband, in his earnest wish to carry out what we felt
to be simply a matter of duty, is like an 'oft told tale' not worth
repeating. Like all other loyal women in our land, at the first sound
and threatening of war, there sprang up in my heart an uncontrollable
impulse _to do, to act_; for _anything_ but idleness when our country
was in peril and her sons marching to battle.

"It seemed that the only help woman could give was in providing comforts
for the sick and wounded, and to this, for a time, I gave my undivided
attention. I felt sure there was work for _me_ to do in this war; and
when my mother would say 'I hope, my child, it will not be in the
hospitals,'--my response was ever the same--'Wherever or whatever it may
be, it shall be done with all my heart.'

"At length came the battle of Antietam, and from among us six ladies
went to spend ten da