herself in all enterprises for the welfare of the soldiers, and the promotion of the cause for which the war was undertaken, was suddenly taken from her, falling a victim to fever contracted in his ministrations to the sick and wounded of the Army of the Potomac, and the home and city where his presence had been to her a joy and delight, became, since he was gone too full of gloom and sorrow to be borne. Mrs. Streeter returned to her New England home in the hope of finding there some relief from the grief which overwhelmed her spirit.

Two other ladies of Baltimore, and doubtless many more, deserve especial mention in this connection, Miss TYSON, and Mrs. BECK. Active and efficient members of the Ladies' Relief Association of that city, they were also active and eminently] useful in the field and general hospitals. To the hospital work they seem both to have been called by Mrs. John Harris, who to her other good qualities added that of recognizing instinctively, the women who could be made useful in the work in which she was engaged.

Miss Tyson was with Mrs. Harris at French's Division Hospital, after Antietam, and subsequently at Smoketown General Hospital, and after six or eight weeks of labor there, was attacked with typhoid fever. Her illness was protracted, but she finally recovered and resumed her work, going with Mrs. Harris to the West, and during most of the year 1864, was in charge of the Low Diet Department of the large hospital on Lookout Mountain. Few ladies equalled her in skill in the preparation of suit able food and delicacies for those who needed special diet. Miss Tyson was a faithful, indefatigable worker, and not only gave her services to the hospitals, but expended largely of her own means for the soldiers. She was always, however, disposed to shrink from any mention of her work, and we are compelled to content ourselves with this brief mention of her great usefulness.

Mrs. Beck was also a faithful and laborious aide to Mrs. Harris, at Falmouth, and afterwards at the West. She was, we

believe, a native of Philadelphia, though residing in Baltimore. Her earnestness and patience in many very trying circumstances, elicited the admiration of all who knew her. She was an excellent singer, and when she sang in the hospitals some of the popular hymns, the words and melody would often awaken an interest in the heart of the soldier for a better life.

MRS. C. T. FENN.

B

ERKSHIRE County, Massachusetts, has long been noted as the birth-place of many men and women distinguished in the higher ranks of the best phases of American life, literature, law, science, art, philosophy, as well as religion, philanthropy, and the industrial and commercial progress of our country have all been brilliantly illustrated and powerfully aided by those who drew their first breath, and had their earliest home among the green hills and lovely valleys. of Berkshire. Bryant gained the inspiration of his poems-sweet, tender, refined, elevating-from its charming scenery; and from amidst the same scenes Miss Sedgwick gathered up the quiet romance of country life, often as deep as silent, and wove it into those delightful tales which were the joy of our youthful hearts.

The men of Berkshire are brave and strong, its women fair and noble. Its mountains are the green altars upon which they kindled the fires of their patriotism. And these fires brightened a continent, and made glad the heart of a nation.

Berkshire had gained the prestige of its patriotism in two wars, and at the sound of the signal gun of the rebellion its sons"brave sons of noble sires"-young men, and middle-aged, and boys, sprang to arms. Its regiments were among the first to answer the call of the country and to offer themselves for its defense. Let Ball's Bluff and the Wilderness, the Chickahominy, and the deadly swamps and bayous of the Southwest, tell to the

listening world the story of their bravery, their endurance and their sacrifices.

But these men who went forth to fight left behind them, in their homes, hearts as brave and strong as their own. If Berkshire has a proud record of the battle-field, not less proud is that which might be written of her home work. Its women first gave their best beloved to the defense of the country, and then, in their desolate homes, all through the slow length of those horrible, sometimes hopeless years, by labor and sacrifice, by thought and care, they gave themselves to the more silent but not less noble work of supplying the needs and ministering to the comforts of the sick and wounded soldiery.

Foremost among these noble women, as the almoner of their bounty, and the organizer of their efforts, stands the subject of this sketch, Mrs. C. T. Fenn, of Pittsfield, whose devotion to the work during the entire war was unintermitted and untiring.

Mrs. Fenn, whose maiden name was Dickinson, was born in Pittsfield just before the close of the last century, and with the exception of a brief residence in Boston, has passed her entire life there. Her husband, Deacon Curtis T. Fenn, an excellent citizen, and enterprising man of business, in his "haste to be rich," was at one time tempted to venture largely, and became bound for others. The result was a failure, and a removal to Boston with the idea of retrieving his fortunes in new scenes. Here his only son, a promising young man of twenty-two years, fell ill, and with the hope of arresting his disease, and if possible saving his precious life, his parents returned to his native place, giving up their flattering prospects in the metropolis. It was in vain, however—in a few months the insidious disease, always so fatal in New England, claimed its victim, and they were bereaved in their dearest hopes.

This affliction did not change, but perhaps intensified, the character of Mrs. Fenn. She was now called to endure labor, and to make many sacrifices, while her husband was slowly win

ning his way back to competence. But ever full of kindness and sympathy, she devoted her time more unsparingly to doing good. Her name became a synonym for spontaneous benevolence in her native town. By the bed-sides of the sick and dying, in the home of poverty, and the haunts of disease, where sin, and sorrow and suffering, that trinity of human woe are ever to be found, she became a welcome and revered visitant. All sought her in trouble, and she withheld not counsel nor aid in any hour of need, nor from any who claimed them.

This was the prestige with which she was surrounded at the opening of the war, and her warm heart, as well as her patriotic instincts were at once ready for any work of kindness or aid it should develop. The following extract from the Berkshire County Eagle, of May, 1862, tells better than we can of the estimation in which she was held in her native town.

"Mrs. Fenn, as most of our Pittsfield readers know, has been for many years the kind and familiar friend of the sick and suffering. Familiar with its shades, her step in the sick chamber has been as welcome and as beneficial as that of the physician. When the ladies were appealed to for aid for our soldiers suffering from wounds or disease, she entered into the work with her whole soul and devoted all her time and the skill learned in years of attendance on the sick to the new necessities. Possessing the entire confidence of our citizens, and appealing to them personally and assiduously, she was met by generous and well selected contributions which we have, from time to time, chronicled. In her duties at the work room, in preparing the material contributed, she has had constant and reliable assistance, but very much less than was needed, a defect which we hope will be remedied. Surely many of our ladies have leisure to relieve her of a portion of her work, and we trust that some of our patriotic boys will give their aid, for we learn that even such duties as the sweeping of the rooms devolve upon her.

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Knowing that Mrs. Fenn's entire time had been occupied for