Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/402

 394 Southern Historical Society Papers,

ALL woman's work.

A Dispatch reporter saw this afternoon one of the ladies who for years has been striving and working most nobly for the end which has at last been attained — Mrs. William S. Simpson.

" How did you get the money ? ' * she was asked.

" By begging for it/* was the reply. '' We received it in contribu- tions of every conceivable amount, from $ioo to ten cents. We made personal appeals on the streets to our friends ; we sent out cir- culars ; we wrote to friends in the North and South — from New York to New Orleans. We never lost heart ; and so, in spite of all our set-backs, in spite of the slowness with which our appeals were an- swered, we finally got a sufficient amount of money in hand to pay for our monument.**

Thus spoke a lady who can tell from experience how hard it is to carry a popular subscription to success. For many years she has been the honored secretary of the Ladies* Memorial Association, and her books will show how faithfully she has labored. To all the mem- bers, however, belongs praise without stint.

THEIR EARLIEST LABORS.

With what obstacles they were at first confronted only those who have been through such an ordeal can imagine. Their first duty was to enclose the graves of the dead Confederates who had been buried near the poor-house farm, this, too, at a time when a Federal officer was acting as mayor of the city, and when the notes from the bugles of the Federal trumpeters quartered at the Fair Grounds floated through the city. Never faltering, never discouraged, always abound- ing in good works, they stuck nobly to their self-imposed task, and to-day they are on the eve of reaping the harvest which they sowed in tears, nourished in adversity and brought to a glorious fruition. The Ladies* Association of Petersburg is the pride of all our citizens, and justly so, because they have succeeded where others could see only failure and disappointment.

The Unveiling.

[Richmond Dispatch^ June lo, 1890.]

Petersburg, June 9th, 1890. At an early hour in the afternoon crowds began to wend their way to the cemetery, all bearing flowers and evergreens^ with which to decorate the graves of the soldiers.