Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-03-29

There's beauty in the tiny blade
OF grass of emerald hue .... .......
Oh there's beauty. gladstone beauty,
In every thing we view.
Es#tsse -----.ss>.--- 0r
-. MISS D. L. DIX. - - ~
/ A writer in the Southern Field and
Fireside has recently given some entertain
ing scenes and incidents of tour from N.
Orleans to New York We find in the last
number an interesting sketch of Miss Dix.
This lady has made noble conservation of
her life, energies and means, for the'good
Of the insane. We reproduce the sketch.
ri must not close this letter without an
allusion to one of the most remarkable wo-
men of her age, whom I met on the plat
form here, as left the Memphis cars
She had alighted from the Cairo train, and
was entering that for the South. / knew
her well. I had met her several times in
the past few years, on her missions of mer-
cy. l had only time to shake hands with
her, and learn from her that two weeks be-
fore she had left St. Johns, Newfoundland,
where she had been to get a grant from the
Colonial Government for the establishment
of an Asylum for the Insane there, and
was on her way to Jackson, the capital of
Mississippi, to urge upon its Legislature to
enlarge, by forty rooms, the State Asylum
there, which her own noble efforts a few
years since had caused to be erected. -
I speak of Miss Dorothea L. Dix. Who
has not heard of the name of this benefac-
tress of her race? She has been called the
"Flora Nightingale" of this country. There
is no need of making the comparison. She
stands alone in her own high place. The
two are wholly unlike. Each has her own
mission on earth. -
I will describe her as I saw her on the
platform. Tall and naturally graceful,
plainly dressed in black silk, with dark
bonnet simple as Quakeress in its style
quiet and dignifed in her manner, and with
the air of true and gentle lady, she moved
along, holding leathern bag of papers and
documents in one hand, and her satchel and
shawl hanging on the arm. Her face fair
and horid, but Drowned little with expo
sure and travel, had that steady, benign ex-
preston, mingled with decision and ener-
gy, which characteristics her. This, with
her calm, blue eyes, her fine, expressive
mouth, her intelligent aspect, marked her
as no ordinary woman. Shrinking from OBJ
serVation she was moving towards the other
train. when accompanied her to the cars
she sought. Ten years ago I met her at
Nashville, where she was trying to get the
Legislature to appropriate 100000 to a
State Asylum and succeeded, too! She
was then very fair and interesting looking,
but constant travel over the Union and in
Europe had told upon her, and her face
was strongly marked with lines of thought
and energy. ....
For twenty years this noble Christian la
day has been devoting her time and private
means to improve and elevate the prisoner
and the lunatio. She has been their advo-
cate before every Legislature in the States |!
More than twenty States have Asylums
erected through her eloquent appeals to Le-
gislatures. She has visited others, and had
them enlarged and reformed. Those which
she has compelled Il use the proper word)
Legislatures to erect, she has revisited
Every one she keeps under her eye, and jeal-
ously watches against abuses! A few years
ago she induced Mississippi to build an
Asylum. "It is now two small" she said
to me. ''They have to put beds on the floor !;
| 60 to ask an appropriation for its enlarge
ment." ..
And not only does she make Legislatures
erect Asylums in all States, but she makes
them reform their prisons! She has person
ally inspected every Penitentiary in the Un-
ion, and reported on them to the Legisla-
lures, and recommended reforms and i'm
provements, and ways and means for the
moral and physical benefit of the prisoners.
She presents libraries to Prisons and Asy-
lums! Last year at Natchez, she solicited
and obtained $500 from opulent citizens
to furnish pianos, pictures, books, and other
means of passing time, for the use of female
and male patients of the State As7lum. She
said: "The State provides buildings and
officers and food, but wealthy citizens must
contribute comforts, and even luxuries, to
the unhappy inmates"
A few years since she visited England,
France, Italy, Russia, Austria. She was
received with distinction by Victoria, Louis
Napoleon, the Emperor of Russia, the EN-
peror of Prussia, and by the Pope. Facili.
ties for inspecting prisons ard asylums were
freely furnished her by the crowned heads.
At first the Pope refused her application to
visit bis prisons She then addressed him
letter. 1t obtained for her an audience.
1t lasted for an hour, and she left him with
the keys of all his prisons in her hand, in
the form of a general order to their COVER
nors to admit her. He said to her: Gre