The receipts and disbursements of the Woman's Central are as astounding to itself as to the public. So much love and patriotism, so little money! As early as May, 1863, the Treasurer in his Report, remarks:
"That so small a sum should cover all the general amount of expenses of the Association in the transaction of a business which, during the year, has involved the receipt or purchase, assorting, cataloguing, marking, packing, storing and final distribution of nearly half a million of articles, will be no less satisfactory to the donors of the funds so largely economized for the direct benefit of the soldier, than to those friends of the Association from whose self-denying, patriotic and indefatigable personal labors, this economy has resulted."
In the Table of supplies received and distributed from May 1st, 1861, to July 7th, 1865, prepared by Miss Collins, the item of shirts alone amounts to two hundred and ninety-one thousand four hundred and seventy-five.
For four years' distribution, purchase of hospital delicacies, and all office expenses, except those of the committee which purchased material for the aid-societies amounting to seventy-nine thousand three hundred and ninety dollars and fifty-seven cents, the sum expended was only sixty-one thousand three hundred and eighty-six dollars and fifty-seven cents.[L]
Mrs. Marianne F. Stranahan.
Engd. by A.H. Ritchie.
How was this accomplished by the Woman's Central except through its band of daily volunteers (the great unnamed) its devoted associate managers through whom came an increase of one hundred and thirty-eight new societies, the generosity of Express companies, the tender self-sacrifice of country-homes, and the indefatigable labors of the several committees, all of whom felt it a privilege to work in so sacred a cause. Neither love nor money, nothing less than sentiment and principle, could have produced these results.
To the Brooklyn Relief Association the Woman's Central always felt deeply indebted for supplies. Its admirable President, Mrs. Stranahan, was in close sympathy with the association, often pouring in nearly half of the woollen garments it received.