Our ladies — their patriotic efforts.
Editors Dispatch: Our ladies are proverbially patriotic, and have bestirred themselves nobly during our revolutionary struggle — none, perhaps, more so than the ladies of the ‘"upper end"’ of
Henrico Early in the fall, they formed the ‘"
Ladies Ridge Benevolent Society,"’ chiefly for the relief of the dependent families of our absent soldiers; and this they effect without calling upon the community for money.
So well, too, have they succeeded, that the relief officer, appointed by the county court, informs me that he has had no application for assistance from our neighborhood since the society was formed.
I will give you their plan of operating.
Through the kind offices of two gentlemen of the neighborhood, they procure from the Quartermaster's Department in
Richmond, garments already cut out, and meeting every Saturday, they distribute the work among the families of the soldiers, to be made up by the next
Saturday; when; being passed by our inspecting Committee, they pay the same prices obtained at the department in the city.
They have thus distributed from $25 to $35 per week, which you will say is efficient service in the right direction.
By this plan the defenceless and dependent are supplied — not by charity, but by the reward of labor, which is much better.
Nor are the members of the society unemployed.
Their skillful hands labor too upon these same garments, and their earnings and fines for absence constitute a fund to be best owed as their united wisdom may direct.
Donations of wool have also been obtained, and, as speedily as possible, transformed into socks for the soldiers.
Nor have our generous and patriotic young ladies been satisfied with these efforts.
They gave on Friday night, the 13th, an exhibit on of tableaux and charades, which gave great satisfaction to the audience, and in the judgment of all present was a decided success, while at the door nearly $40 rewarded their efforts for the same glorious cause.
None of them had ever appeared before, and but few had seen such exhibitions; and yet: all the pieces showed ease, skill and dignity.
So popular was the entertainment that many not present regret their want of information, and there is a strong demand for its repetition, which I understand will be gratified.--Thus you see that while the ‘"upper end"’ is well represented in the field, the fires of patriotism burn brightly at home.
Chiswick.
