Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: NoneVarious
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: None
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
We go into a little oratory, where all pray together nightly before they
retire to rest. Thence we descend into a garden for the men; and pass
thence by a door into the women's court. The chapel-bell invites us to
witness the assembly of the Sisters for the repetition of their psalms
and litanies. From the chapel we return into the court, and enter a
large room, where the women are all busy with their spinning-wheels. One
old soul immediately totters to the Sister (not the same Sister with
whom we set out), and insists on welcoming her daughter with a kiss. We
are informed that it is a delusion of her age to recognize in this
Sister really her own child, who is certainly far away, and may possibly
be dead. The Sister embraces her affectionately, and does nothing to
disturb the pleasant thought.
And now we go into the kitchen. Preparation for coffee is in progress.
The dregs of coffee that have been collected from the houses of the
affluent in the neighborhood, are stewed for a long time with great
care. The Sisters say they produce a very tolerable result; and, at any
rate, every inmate is thus enabled to have a cup of coffee every
morning, to which love is able to administer the finest Mocha flavor. A
Sister enters from her rounds out of doors with two cans full of broken
victuals. She is a healthy, and, I think, a handsome woman. Her daily
work is to go out with the cans directly after she has had her morning
coffee, and to collect food for the ninety old people that are in the
house. As fast as she fills her cans, she brings them to the kitchen,
and goes out again; continuing in this work daily till four o'clock.
You do not like this begging? What are the advertisements on behalf of
our own hospitals? what are the collectors? what are the dinners, the
speeches, the charity sermons? A few weak women, strong in heart,
without advertisement, or dinners, or charity sermons; without urgent
appeals to a sympathizing public; who have no occasion to exercitate
charity, by enticing it to balls and to theatrical benefits; patiently
collect waste food from house to house, and feed the poor with it,
humbly and tenderly.
The cans are now to be emptied; the contents being divided into four
compartments, according to their nature--broken meat, vegetables, slices
of pudding, fish, &c. Each is afterward submitted to the best cookery
that can be contrived. The choicest things are set aside--these, said a
Sister, with a look of satisfaction, will be for our poor dear sick.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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