The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-01-08
miscellaneous.
MARGARET OF NEW ORLEAN.
Whose Memory Was Revered by d
phanS Oh Christmas Day.

Whose Memory Was Revered by Or
phans OH Christmas Day.
A friend has given me picture. 1t is be-
fore me now
1t is simply photograph of plain, stout
old woman. The face is broad, lit up witha
by an expression both shrewd and kindly.
Margaret Haughery was poor girl Of
Irish parentage who could neither read nor
write, yet she made fortune of half mil,
lion of dollars. That of itself was enough to
make any woman famous.
AT this time Of the year she comes back
to the memory with especial vividness, for
now hundreds of orphans in New Orleans
will be enjoying the festive season which she
gave them.
Margaret, the orghaps' friend, had herself
been lonely orphan. She began life as a
domestic servant. But she was naturally
drawn to the alienation of human suffering.
She was devout Roman Catholic, and un-
der the direction ofthe Sisters of Charity she
became a hospital nurse. While serving in
this field one of her patients noted what good
care she took of him, and made up his mind
that he would have her all to himself He
proposed marriage and was accepted But
the husband died in their first years of married
life. Her only child died, too, and Margaret
She managed the dairy in an orphan
asylum a while. Then she opened a little
ealing-house. She had noted how the Mis-
sissippi steamboat laborers, deck hands, "
they are called, were swindled out of their
money, and how they stupetied themselves
with whskey and then lay about boozng
kens until they were pushed out. Margaret
thought she could do them some good
So she opened the little shop where river
aborers could get cup of good coffee and
q roll for the merest trifle.
1t is not on record that she ever succeeded
in reforming the deck hands to any great eX-
tent, but she did build IN in time great
manufacturing business. She erected steam
cracker bakery, building several stories
in height. Her wagons supplied bakers
goods for the city. On the oltside were the
words: "Margaret's Bread and Crackers !"
At first she drove her own bread cart about
the city. Money rolled in, and she might
easily have died millionaire
But most Of all the orphans had her care
She knew what it was to be left without
father or mother, and get no education, not
even enough to read. In the course of her
life she either founded or aided eleven orphan
asylums, Catholic and Protestant, black and
white alike.
In February, 1882, this good woman died.
Never was there such funeral in Louisiana
She was the only woman in America that
has ever been buried with public honors-
She is buried in st. Louis Cemetery.
The day after her death the building of the
monument, shown in the picture, was pro-
posed. 1t has been erected by the contribu-
tons Of all classes of people in Louisiana and
New Orleans, even to the newsboys. All
alike rcverenced Margaret. 1t was unveiled
July 0, 1884.
The statue stands in the square, opposite
the orphan asylum she helped to build 1t
represents her, not idealized, like a classic
figure, but far more worthiy, broad, plain
and with the common dress she wore, her
arm encircling one of the orphans whom she
loved
And so she died. and so the people set
Amid their heroes with proud consent
This single woman crowned monument
And carved thereon the one word Margaret"