I was asked to visit one day in a neat brick cottage which I should have passed many times with no suspicion of need within. On entering, the first thing that attracted my attention was that the walls and ceiling were entirely unfinished; the walls were the bare bricks, and overhead were the flooring beams, and, where the walls and ceiling met, were wide open spaces for the wind to sift up from under the eaves. The inmates were a colored woman, unfitted for work by age and rheumatism, and her daughter; the daughter was her widowed mother’s only dependence, yet the poor girl was lying sick with pneumonia, and had been two weeks without medical treatment. They had no money, but pride kept them reticent of their affairs. To provide medicines, and later, little delicacies; to visit the sick girl every day and sometimes twice a day was my care for three weeks. She is now well again, and they are independent.
I have made, up to December 31, one hundred and twenty-five calls, and have succeeded in relieving some suffering with gifts of fuel and food, although the little accomplished in that direction is as one drop in the sea.
From barrels of clothing received from the North I have sold and given a great many garments; have oftener sold, because it seems always wiser, although the prices may be ridiculously small. This money helps me to purchase medicine for the many sick persons. Let me add here, that with homeopathic remedies I have had most flattering success, always preparing the medicines myself, and carefully renewing them until the patients, without exception so far, are cured.
In addition to my visits, I have tried to reach the women by means of cabin prayer-meetings, and to help the girls and young women by the medium of sewing-schools. I have two schools in successful operation in different parts of the city. One numbers twenty pupils, the other nearly forty. We begin with prayer and short Scripture reading, and then with great eagerness the girls set about their sewing, or lesson in cutting, as the case may be. When a garment is finished, each girl purchases her own work for a dime or fifteen cents.
While they sew I read to them, if occasion permits, and sometimes they sing. They have begged to meet twice a week—a fact which proves their enthusiasm. My kind friends in Boston and Providence have done much toward supplying me with print, gingham and cotton cloth for my sewing-schools.