Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/413

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
378
Part Taken by Women in American History


obliterating as speedily and as entirely as possible the distinctions which have separated the North and South into hostile sections."

This letter was written from New York in 1867, and, of course, the rule of conduct outlined in the words here quoted was more difficult to follow when he declared them than it has been in later years. In general, however, it has been followed by all who served the Confederacy in high military and civic station.

And with the women no less than with the men the necessity of accepting the situation and of adjusting themselves to the new conditions made a powerful appeal. This was true of the women and the men who remained in the South, as well as those who immediately after the war sought the larger opportunity for a betterment of fortune which the wealthy and growing North and West offered.

The latter found means of helping the South of which at the outset they did not dream. In the book just named Mrs. Pryor mentions many instances of this sort in her own experience. From her wealthy New York neighbors she brought aid to many poor people, formerly of high position in the South, whom she met in that city. She served on committees which gave entertainments in New York for the endowment of scholarships in Washington and Lee University in Virginia; for the relief of yellow fever sufferers in Florida and Alabama; and for succor to the surviviors of the tidal wave which destroyed Galveston in 1900. But she did not find time to tell about any of this work in books until within the past few years.

The Southern states have produced and are producing many prominent women in all the great fields of activity. They have won a wide reputation for hard, conscientious, intelligent work. In the social scheme of the New South there are no Amelia Sedleys or Dora Spenlows. A great many of them