14 THEAUDUBONBULLETIN 



When the first Audubon Society was organized, Mrs. Ridg- 

 way was asked to act as local secretary. A little later the Audu- 

 bon Society of the District of Columbia was organized. Of this 

 she was a charter member, and was not only very active in in- 

 creasing the membership, but was appointed one of a committee 

 delegated to canvas the millinery establishments and department 

 stores in Washington for the purpose of trying to induce the 

 proprietors to discard birds and feathers as ornaments on 

 women's hats. In this effort Mrs. Ridgway was successful to 

 the extent of persuading one milliner, a Miss Henderson (who 

 has since married), who faithfully kept her promise, and, I am 

 glad to say, to her financial advantage; for at an exhibition of 

 featherless hats, held under the auspices of the Audubon Society 

 at the Arlington Hotel, Miss Henderson's hats were highly 

 praised and gained her many new patrons. 



Ill health, immediately following the death of her only son 

 in his twenty-fourth year, has since prevented Mrs. Ridgway 

 from taking an active part in Audubon Society work, but has 

 not in the least diminished her interest in bird protection. Here 

 at our home she has spared no effort to encourage the birds to 

 stay with us, with results that are extremely gratifying. For 

 more than a year past, however, this labor of love has been too 

 much for her, and she has had to turn her charges over to me. 



Mrs. Ridgway is a lover of her home, family, and friends and 

 cares nothing for what is called "Society." Her life has been 

 marked by such complete devotion to her husband and his inter- 

 ests that even Ruth of olden times did not say more truly than 

 has she in practice: "Whither thou goest I will go; and where 

 thou lodgest I will lodge : thy people shall be my people, and thy 

 God my God." It has not always been easy for her, especially 

 when she left old friends and familiar scenes for others untried ; 

 but she has become completely adjusted and reconciled to the 

 change and does not regret it. Old friends are sadly missed, but 

 new ones, some of them very precious, have been found ; many 

 things far more than compensate for what has been lost, and 

 neither she nor I would return to city life except from the direst 

 necessity. 



In a letter just received from a very dear but distant friend 

 to whom I had written of Mrs. Ridg way's illness, he says : 



"Greetings, with love and sympathy: with my hope and prayer 

 also for the restoration to health of Mrs. Ridgway, whose gra- 

 cious influence I have been sensible of even at a great distance. 



"One phrase she used in a letter crowns her with immortality: 

 'Where love is, there is no such word as sacrifice.' 



"Learned first in time's dawn, the ages have taught nothing 

 finer, nothing truer. Mrs. Ridgway compressed in a sentence 

 all that Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll said in a long lecture, some of 

 whose glittering phrases I recall even yet. . . . But all of it is ex- 



