Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
History
Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
Women -- United States -- Biography
Such were the doings, such was the character, of Margaret Prior. We see
her organizing week-day and Sabbath schools, industrial associations and
temperance societies; establishing soup houses and orphan asylums;
visiting the sick, the poor, the idle, the culprit, the outcast;
pointing the dying to a risen Saviour, leading the destitute by the hand
to the place of relief, the idle to houses of industry, and warning the
outlaw and the corrupt of the certain and terrible doom that would
attend persistency in their downward course. With the sweetness,
gentleness, simplicity, and delicacy, so becoming in woman under all
circumstances, were blended in her character, energy that was
unconquerable, courage that danger could not blench, and firmness that
human power could not bend. The contemplation of such a character is
superficial, if it does not prompt benevolent feelings, re-affirm
virtuous resolutions, and revive and strengthen drooping piety.
NOBLE ACTS OF KINDNESS.
We are to relieve the distressed, to put the wanderer in the way,
and divide our bread with the hungry.--SENECA.
The Rev. Thomas Andros, of Berkley, Massachusetts, was a firm patriot
and a keen sufferer in the strife for freedom. He was captured whilst on
board a privateer, and transferred to the Jersey prison ship. In the
autumn of 1781, he escaped; and, skulking through the east end of Long
Island, received at the hands of females such marks of pity and kindness
as were thought worthy of noting in his journal. The following are
extracts:
"I came to a respectable dwelling-house and entered it. Among the
inmates were a decent woman and a tailor. To the woman I expressed my
want of something to nourish my feeble frame, telling her if she would
give me a morsel, it would be a mere act of charity. She made no
objection, asked no questions, but promptly furnished me with the dish
of light food I desired. Expressing my obligations to her, I rose to
depart. But going round through another room, she met me in the front
entry, placed a hat on my head, put an apple pie in my hand, and said,
'you will want this before you get through the woods.' I opened my mouth
to give vent to the grateful feelings with which my heart was filled.
But she would not tarry to hear a word, and instantly vanished. The
mystery of her conduct I suppose was this: she was satisfied that I had
escaped from prison, and if she granted me any succor, knowing me to be
such, it might cost her family the confiscation of their estate. She did
not therefore wish to ask me any questions or hear me explain who I was
in the hearing of the tailor, who might turn informer. This mark of
kindness was more than I could well bear, and as I went on the tears
flowed copiously! The recollection of her humanity and pity revives in
my breast even now the same feeling of gratitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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