filled. Many of the women
received no remuneration, and great suffering and dissatisfaction was
the result. The good to the suffering of the army was perhaps the same.

Amidst all her sorrows and disappointments, Mrs. Edson continued her
labors till the end of the war. Nothing could keep her from the
fulfilment of what she regarded as an imperative duty, and nobly she
achieved her purpose, so far as her individual efforts were concerned.

A lady, herself ardently engaged in the work of relief, and supply for
the soldiers, visited the Army of the Potomac in company with Mrs.
Edson, in the winter of 1865, not long before the close of the war. She
describes the reception of Mrs. Edson, among these brave men to whom she
had ministered during the terrific campaign of the preceding summer, as
a complete ovation. The enthusiasm was overwhelming to the quiet woman
who had come among them, not looking nor hoping for more than the
privilege of a pleasant greeting from those endeared to her by the very
self-sacrificing efforts by which she had brought them relief, and
perhaps been the means of saving their lives.

Irrepressible shouts, cheers, tears and thanks saluted her on every
side, and she passed on humbled rather than elated by the excess of this
enthusiastic gratitude.

MISS MARIA M. C. HALL.

Although the Federal City, Washington, was at the outbreak of the war
more intensely Southern in sentiment than many of the Southern cities,
at least so far as its native, or long resident inhabitants could make
it so, yet there were even in that Sardis, a few choice spirits, reared
under the shadow of the Capitol, whose patriotism was as lofty, earnest
and enduring as that of any of the citizens of any Northern or Western
state.

Among these, none have given better evidence of their intense love of
their country and its institutions, than Miss Hall. Born and reared in
the Capital, highly educated, and of pleasing manners and address, she
was well fitted to grace any circle, and to shine amid the gayeties of
that fashionable and frivolous city. But the religion of the
compassionate and merciful Jesus had made a deep lodgment in her heart,
and in imitation of his example, she was ready to forsake the halls of
gayety and fashion, if she might but minister to the sick, the suffering
and the sorrowing. Surrounded by Secessionists, her father too far
advanced in years to bear arms for the country he loved, with no brother
ol