A NOBLE LIFE.

Evening Star, Issue 5967, 27 April 1882, Page 4

A NOBLE LIFE.

A most remarkable funeral took place in New Orleans on Saturday, February 11. It was the occasion of the burial of Mrs Margaret Haughery, '' a woman who never wore a silk dress or a kid glove." But no woman in the whole South was better known than she was. Margaret's pallbearers were the Governor of Louisiana, ex-Govern or Nicholls, the Mayor of New Orleans, the editor of the ' Picayune' (representing the Press of the city), and some of the most prominent merchants and bankers of New Orleans. Among those who gathered to do her honor were Generals Beauregard, Ogden, and Meyer, and others oi the most distinguished men of Louisiana. The funeral was attended by a concourse of people that could scarcely be numbered, they were so many. The Archbishop of the diocese conducted the services. Following the carriage of the pallbearers were the children of eleven orphan asylums, white and colored, Catholic and Protestant. At the church the Howard Association of the city, with its president at the head, joined the procession formally, and followed it to d;he grave. Who was she? A plain, humble woman, who had been good to the little children of the poor. Her history is thus related by the Cincinnati ' Commercial' *.—

Years and years ago, it is said, she was a Roman Catholic Sister of Charity. During her benevolent ministrations she attended through his last illness a gentleman who became much interested in her and her work. There seems a discrepancy in the account here, but the story is the gentleman proposed that Margaret should marry him on his death-bed, so that she could inherit his estate. At any rate the marriage took place, and she was left a widow in possession of a small property. It was then that the work of life began. The business of a certain restaurant and bakeshop along the river front had fallen into decay. Mrs Haughery bought this and established a cheap eating-house for Bteamboat laborers. She thought by means of furnishing them wholesome food at a trifle to lure them away from drinking dens. As one acquainted with the plan said—" She gave them a roll and a cup of coffee for five cents, to keep them from from spending a quarter for whisky, and they took the roll and coffee and then spent twenty cents for whisky all the same." She worked very hard with her hands herself, for she was only an humble, uneducated woman. But under the labors of those hard hands her business prospered mightily. She had a shrewd head, and in time might have became one of the richest women In New Orleans, had she chosen to amass wealth. But she used her money for good as soon as she got it. Fast as it came in, even so freely it flowed out for the good of little children. She founded and supported three orphan asylums. The money she left maintains them still, and will continue to do so long after the brave hands that earned the wealth have turned to dust. One of her beloved orphans became her adopted son, and finally her partner in business. Her work will still goon just where she laid it down, and money will still flow from it to the numberless noble charities she established or aided. The same papers that notice her funeral contain the announcement that the business of the firm of "Margaret Haughery and Co." will noi be suspended by her death, but will continue as heretofore.