The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-27

mirAl ana Mrs Semmes. and without previous warning. in despite of the fact that the admiral carried in his pocket | paroie signed by Gen. sherman: q parole as adfAirai in the Confederate States navy, and brigadier general In the Confederate States army. that parole was violated, and Admiral Semmes was placed under arrest. with a marine (soldier) at either door of his bedroom, and the other guards disposed about the house. Who can picture the distress of the wifei And the night passed; occasionally the grounding Of a musket by one of the guards. The admiral with his usual pnhosophic equanimlty, though he could but forebode a weary imprison- ment, and perchance. a miserable death, yet worn with fatigue and anx- fety. fell asleep. His despairing wife. dissolved in tears. bemoaned his ap- preaching dread fate. What. she could only conjecture in her fearful imaginings; at last utterly overcome and hysterical she wakened her hus- band, saying:
 Husband how can you sleep when my heart Is breaking with such cruel anxiety for you" And with that same calm philosophy that had ever guided all his ways he replied: Dear heart.
  there can no harm come to me, and if 1t does, why we must bear it. that is all: could sleep quietly, though quite sure that I was to be hanged tomor- row" And with & sympathetic pat on the hand he again fell asleep. and his wife afterwards added so pathetical- ly: And I kept on waking him and would not be comforted, although I knew he had had hard day behind aaA xraf a hAf him."
 Tn a short time. Mrs. Semmes fol- lowed her husband to his prison in Washington, and during much of the -four months of his Imprisonment she spent in Baltimore with her married daughter. Mrs. Colston. and every day. went over to Washington to visit the prisoner. She interviewed lawyers and secretaries of state, and war and navy, and besieged the President Andrew Johnson. now praying, now demand ing her husbands release. And at last 1t came. practically with a verdict of honorable acquittal. and the reunit- ed couple resumed their home life In Mobile. The admiral devoting himself to the law. and Mrs. Semmes rounding out her life with the homely duties of wife and mother, at the same time that 1t embraced the wider field of phi1an- n alive the principle of pure patriotism for which the South had expended all. land lost all. On the 30th of August, 1877, on the shores of Mobile Bay, al Point Clear. where he had his summer home. with the ever-restless waves signing the requiem. "Nunc dimittis." Raphael Semmes passed to his eternal rest, and his wife was strong to bear her great sorrow and still lived on to do tha work aDpOinfed her
 In Association.
 For years, Mrs. Semmes was an ener- getic member of the Ladies' Memorial Association of Mobile. and for years before her death. as president of the beloved association. she threw all her enthusiasm and zeal into the cause, and was ever the head of all enter prises looking to the progress and im- provement of memorial work In all philanthropic work. Mrs Semmes was ever foremost. giving valuable assist ance in civic and charitable work, even when not at the helm.
 Sine was an enterprising and inde- fatigable worker in behalf of the Catholic orphans of Mobile. being for many years an active member of the Board of Management of the Catholic Orphan Asylums and twice its presi- dent.
 Anne E. SemmeS was Weil-FouHucu cha racter;a a most charming talker, full of "reminiscences of over half cen- tury. she held her auditors speil-bound by the wealth of her narrative. her quick witted fancy. and by her direct md simple speech.
 Of the quickest insight into charac- ters, she never made mistake in ,onsirg her friends. nor never lost one through want of tact, or through indis- cretion. An earnest. consistent mem- Der Of the Catholic Church, she was charitable and pious.
 loyal wife to her husband. ten- der mother to her children, her counsel was full of an almost intuitive wis., dom generous to her friends, open- handed to the needy and poor. she ex- erted a magnetic attraction on all who came within the sphere of her infiu. ence.
 strong beautiful character, and when on March 8, 1870. as the Angelus bells were ringing the midday hour, death claimed Anne E. Semmes for his own, she but joined her loved ones