The daily gazette., 1879-07-14
FIFTH EDITION.
The Davis Bequest

THE LADY WHO HAS LEFT ALL HER
FORTUNE TO JEFFERON DAVIS.
A New Oreleans telegram of the Sth
instant announced that Mrs. Sarah A.
Dorsey, Of Mississippi, who died in the
frs week of July, had bequeathed, her
entire estate to Mr.. Jefferson DAVIS.
In making this bequest Mrs. Dorsey, re-
fers to the great services and sacrifices of
MIR. Davis on behalf of the South, and
reproaches his countrymen for their
failure in gratitude and appreciation for
snch services, and regrets the small con-
tribution which she is able to make for
his relief.
Mrs. Dorsey was well known In litera-
ry society both in Europe and America.
She was on terms Of personal friendship
with Carlyle Herbert Spencer, Dean
Stanley, the Rosettis and others, and
co respondents in Rome Dresden and
Calcutta, as well as New York and Lon
don. She kept up to the close of her
lite the exercise of an elegant and hos
pltality, and hers was one of the few
Southern homes in which since the war,
anything approximating the style of EN-
tertainmrnt of the olden time could be
msintaned.
She was an earnest, ardent, faithful,
unchanging and enthusiastic friend. Her
admiration for certain persons-as for
Governor Allen, Thomas Carlyle and
her aunt, MIS-. Warfeld, and few 9TH
ers of less note, partook of the character
of hero-worship in its highest, best and
most unselfish form. Above all was her
reverent admiration for Jefferson Davis.
Her house was habitually the home of
the Confederate ex-President and his
family, aDd.it was her chief delight in
every possible way to show him respect
and honor, combining the Office of hostess
with that OF secre ary or anianuensis, as
circumstances might rt quire.
| few months ago the progress Of an
old hereditary malady admonished her
of the necessity for submitting to surg
ical operation which might either give
relief or prove fatal. With the utmost
composure and deliberatlon she made
full pre eparatlou for either al ernative and
when this was done went to New Or
cans and placed herself in the hanGs of
the surgeons. With characteristic
thougbtlessness of self her first question
on recovering from the effects oil cblorO-
form after the operation, was to inquire
whether refreshments had been provided
for the two or three lady friends in at
tendance upon her. She fingered for
some two or three mouths in a condition
which gave her friends alternate hope
fulness and anxiety, but finally sank
rapidly and quietly to rest.
Mrs. Dorsey had been q very earnest
churchwoman of type asthetically
rather than doctrinally characterized a
"rtualistic." When the mistress of &
plantation, with many slaves. she haC
provided chaplain, chapel and all tn,
accessories of Worship for them, and hac
devoted much personal to their religious
training. disappointment freely ex
pressed at the result of these efforts to
gether with indications in some of he
later essays of the influence of the mod
ern school of latitudinarian philosophy
had given rise to many apprehension III
among some Of her lends as to the ulti
mate Effect upon her religious faith
Perhaps her mind-like many Others o
this generation-may have been unset
lied for a time. But however this ma
b-, her last hours were illumined by tn
light that NAV have been dimmed br
not quenched. She received the sacri
menls of the Church and died professir
!, the Christian faith and at peace with a
!, the world.