NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
January and February 1864
From The Missouri Democrat, Monday, February 1, 1864.
GREAT MISSISSIPPI VALLEY SANITARY FAIR.
By an advertisement in another column, it will be seen that the loyal ladies of St. Louis are about organizing for a great Mississippi Valley Fair, to be held in St. Louis in May next, for the benefit of sick and wounded soldiers. No better enterprise than this could have been set on foot. It will attract aid and sympathy from all the Northwestern States, and re-animate thousands of loyal and generous hearts to do for the soldiers who are fighting the battles for our country. The meeting on this Monday evening, at Mercantile Library Hall, will be addressed by able and popular speakers, and it is confidently expected that the great Generals of our army, now in the city, will be present, and give this noble enterprise their presence, as we know they already do their encouragement and sympathy.
In this movement there is a glorious opportunity for all classes of loyal citizens, Conservative and Radical, German and native born, to engage in a good work that will afford a genuine pleasure in the performance and a noble satisfaction in the result. Let our loyal men encourage their wives and sisters to enter into it with warm hearts and ready hands, and the loyal women stimulate their husbands, brothers and sons to lend a helping hand, and we can have a Sanitary Fair in St. Louis that shall equal or excel that of our sister city of Cincinnati, and strengthen our Western Sanitary Commission, our Ladies’ Union Aid, Freedmen’s Aid Relief, and Women’s Loyal League Societies to go on in the good work of sending aid and comfort to our sick and wounded soldiers in camp and field and hospital, to the end of the war.
Let our German fellow citizens come forward also, with all their loyal wives and daughters, and put themselves in communication with their friends in Germany, and generous contributions will come from that source as well as from our own land. To them no doubt will be assigned a permanent part in the grand enterprise, and there is no class of people who know how to do their part better than they.
As much depends on a good beginning, we urge especially that all who have a heart for this great cause come up promptly and give their presence and co-operation to-night at Mercantile Library Hall.
