Women of distinction/Chapter 20

CHAPTER XX.

LOUISA DeMORTIE.

Down on the lower part of the James, in the proud little city of Norfolk, Va. , was born in 1833, of free parents, Eouisa DeMortie. She, like the children of other free parents, was denied the advantages of education. She found her way to Boston, Mass., in 1853. Here she seized every opportunity for gaining instruction. It is said that she was a girl of much beauty and sweetness of manner and appearance. She was a remarkable winner of friends wherever she went; high-toned but not arrogant. In 1862 she became a center of attraction as a public reader, a natural and refined elocutionist. To her acquired ability she added her natural wit and most attractive manner, which placed her high in her chosen sphere. About the time she came very prominently into public favor she heard of the needs and cries of colored children in the city of New Orleans. With a brave and sympathetic heart full of desire to help them, and like a disciple of Jesus Christ, she started for the spot. It seemed to be her chief object to do good and serve Him whom she loved because He first loved her. There she labored in the interest of the orphans with a zeal of earnestness and devotion that gained the admiration of all who knew of her work.

In 1867 she had raised sufficient money to be ready to build for them a comfortable home, where she hoped to especially care for these and other unfortunate little ones. Before she could consummate her plans that much dreaded monster, yellow fever, came upon her like a raging tyrant whose grasp she could not break, and to whom she fell a victim October lo, 1867, with the following words that passed her dying lips: "I belong to God, our Father."

A tender plant, a mighty and sainted worker, like a flourishing flower, cut down in the days of a useful and glorious work, yet a conqueror, because she still lives to inspire many to follow her example.