d building at a little distance from the town. She commenced
with six outcast boys, and in five weeks the house would not hold the
number that came. The commissioners, at her instance, erected the
present school-building of Bordentown, a three-story brick building,
costing four thousand dollars; and there, in the winter of 1853-4, she
organized the city free-school with a roll of six hundred pupils. But
the severe labor, and the great amount of loud speaking required, in the
newly plastered rooms, injured her health, and for a time deprived her
of her voice--the prime agent of instruction. Being unable to teach, she
left New Jersey about the 1st of March, 1854, seeking rest and a milder
climate, and went as far south as Washington. While there, a friend and
distant relative, then in Congress, voluntarily obtained for her an
appointment in the Patent Office, where she continued until the fall of
1857. She was employed at first as a copyist, and afterwards in the more
responsible work of abridging original papers, and preparing records for
publication. As she was an excellent chirographer, with a clear head for
business, and was paid by the piece and not by the month, she made money
fast, as matters were then reckoned, and she was very liberal with it. I
met her often during those years, as I have since and rarely saw her
without some pet scheme of benevolence on her hands which she pursued
with an enthusiasm that was quite heroic, and sometimes amusing. The
roll of those she has helped, or tried to help, with her purse, her
personal influence or her counsels, would be a long one; orphan
children, deserted wives, destitute women, sick or unsuccessful
relatives, men who had failed in business, and boys who never had any
business--all who were in want, or in trouble, and could claim the
slightest acquaintance, came to her for aid and were never repulsed.
Strange it was to see this generous girl, whose own hands ministered to
all her wants, always giving to those around her, instead of receiving,
strengthening the hands and directing the steps of so many who would
have seemed better calculated to help her. She must have had a native
genius for nursing; for in her twelfth year she was selected as the
special attendant of a sick brother, and remained in his chamber by day
and by night for two years, with only a respite of one half-day in all
that time. Think, O reader! of a little girl in short dresses and
pantalettes, neither g