ard
all the private and public benefactions of her husband and children. Her
quiet satisfaction in these was beautiful to see. Her children received
all sympathy and encouragement in every good work they undertook, but
she never assumed the right to dictate in these matters or took any
credit to herself for anything they did, not thinking of the power of
her example and the life-long training she had given them.

Her recognition of all her husband's benefactions and her sympathy in
his planning for them were unfailing. One of the most important and far
reaching of these was in connection with a work along social lines in
the town of Bemis, Tennessee, where his firm had built a cotton mill.
From the inception of the town the need of this work was much in the
thought of their son, who has since succeeded his father as president
of their company, and whose practical interest in the betterment of all
social relations, especially of those between the employer and the
employed, is widely known. Together they carried out their ideals in the
new town of Bemis. The operators were those known in the south as poor
whites. The opening of the mill gave to these people an undreamed of
opportunity to earn money. It also offered to them a great privilege and
at the same time a possibility of great danger. The privilege was that
of being able for the first time in their lives to command money and to
use it so that it would make them better and happier; the danger was
that they might use it so that moral deterioration would follow. Both
these possibilities were foreseen in the first plans for the town, and
provision was made for the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of the
people that would as far as possible avert the danger. A social worker
was engaged to live as a friend among the people, and a church, school,
and library were provided for them. Mrs. Bemis had much pleasure in
following every step in the development of this work, while careful to
disclaim any credit for its success, again not thinking what her
encouragement and cooeperation meant to both husband and son. But they
and all her children pay her full tribute for the stimulus of example
and for the sympathy shown in every good work to which they put their
hands.

* * * * *

This woman of many noble traits was especially endowed with the rare
gift of loyal and understanding friendship. Her relation to kindred and
personal friends brough