' - * 7 C V University of California Los Angeles Form L-l PaY -- M ero- \neei , * X UNIVERSITY OF . Cfatversity of ^a at Log .LIBi, HEROINES OF SERVICE Mary Lyon HEROINES OF SERVICE MARY LYON .'. ALICE FREEMAN PALMER .'. CLARA BARTON .'. FRANCES WILLARD .'. JULIA WARD HOWE .'. ANNA SHAW .'. MARY ANTIN ALICE C. FLETCHER.'. MARY SLESSOR OF CALABAR .'. MADAME CURIE JANE ADDAMS BY MARY R. PARKMAN Author of "Heroes of Today," etc. ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1921 ity of California at Los Copyright, 1916, 1917, by , THE CENTUBY Co. Published September, 1917 Reprinted April, 1918; Reprinted August, 1918. PRINTED IN U. 8. A. TO MY MOTHER AND ALL WHO, LIKE HER, ARK TRUE MOTHERS, AND SO, TRUE "HEROINES OF SERVICE." FOBEWOED From time immemorial women have been con- tent to be as those who serve. Non ministrari sed ministrare not to be ministered unto but to minister is not alone the motto of those who stand under the Wellesley banner, but of true women everywhere. For centuries a woman's own home had not only first claim, but full claim, on her foster- ing care. Her interests and sympathies her mother love belonged only to those of her own household. In the days when much of, the la- bor of providing food and clothing was carried on under each roof -tree, her service was neces- sarily circumscribed by the home walls. Whether she was the lady of a baronial castle, or a hardy peasant who looked upon her work within doors as a rest from her heavier toil in the fields, the mother of the family was not only responsible for the care of her children and the Vll CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I MARY LYON 3 II ALICE FREEMAN PALMER 31 III CLARA BARTON 61 IV FRANCES E. WILLARD 89 V JULIA WARD HOWE 119 VI ANNA HOWARD SHAW 151 VII MARY ANTIN ... ~. ..... 185 VIII ALICE C. FLETCHER . . . -". . . .211 IX MART SLESSOR 235 X MARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE 267 XI JANE ADDAMS . 297 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Mary Lyon Frontispiece Mary Lyon Chapel and Administration Hall . . 17 Alice Freeman Palmer 36 College Hall, Destroyed by Fire in 1914 ... 53 Tower Court, which Stands on the Site of College Hall 53 Clara Barton 79 Frances E. Willard 94 The Statue of Miss Willard in the Capitol at Washington 103 Mrs. Julia Ward Howe 133 Anna Howard Shaw 167 Mary Antin . . . . '. 201 Alice C. Fletcher 227 Mary Slessor 253 Marie Sklodowska Curie ...'.... 280 Madame and Dr. Curie and Their Little Daugh- ter Irene . . . .','. / 289 Jane Addams . , . . 299 Polk Street Facade of Hull-House Buildings . . 309 A Corner of the Boys' Library at Hull House . 309 PROPHET AND PIONEER: MARY LYON Anything that ought to be done can be done. IMMANUEL KAN HEROINES OF SERVICE PROPHET AND PIONEEE ' THAT is my little Mistress Mary trying VV to do?" The whir of the spinning- wheel was stilled for a moment as Mrs. Lyon glanced in surprise at the child who had climbed up on a chair to look more closely at the hour- glass on the chimneypiece. "I am just trying to see if I can find the way to make more time," replied Mary. "That 's not the way, daughter," laughed the busy mother, as she started her wheel again. "When you stop to watch time, you lose it. Let your work slip from your fingers faster than the sand slips that 's the way to make time!" If busy hands can indeed make time, we know why the days were so full of happy work in that little farm-house among the hills of west- ern Massachusetts. It takes courage and 3 HEROINES OF SERVICE ceaseless toil to run a farm that must provide food and clothing for seven growing children, but Mrs. Lyon was never too busy or too tired to help a neighbor or to speak a word of cheer. "How is it that the widow can do more for me than any one else?" asked a neighbor who had found her a friend in need. ' ' She reminds me of what the Bible says, 'having nothing yet possessing all things.' There she is left with- out a husband to fend for her and the chil- dren, so that it 's work, work, work for them all from morning till night, and yet they 're always happy. You would think the children liked nothing better than doing chores." "How is it that the harder a thing is the more you seem to like it, Mary?" asked her seat-mate in the district school, looking won- deringly at the girl whose eyes always bright- ened and snapped when the arithmetic prob- lems were long and hard. "Oh, it 's lots more fun climbing than just going along on the level," replied Mary. "You feel so much more alive. I '11 tell you what to do when a thing seems hard, like a steep, steep hill, you know. Say to yourself: 4 MARY LYON 'Some people may call you Difficulty, old hill; but I know that your name is Opportunity. You 're here just to prove that I can do some- thing worth while/ Then the climbing is the best fun really ! ' ' It is a happy thing to be born among the hills. Wherever one looks there is something to whisper: "There is no joy like climbing. Besides, the sun stays longer on the summit, and beyond the hill-tops is a larger, brighter world." Perhaps it was the fresh breath of the hills that gave Mary Lyon her glowing cheeks, as the joy of climbing brought the danc- ing lights into her clear blue eyes. The changing seasons march over the hills in a glorious pageant of color, from the tender veiling green of young April to the purple mists and red-and-gold splendor of Indian sum- mer. Every day had the thrill of new adven- ture to Mary Lyon, but perhaps she loved the mellow October days best. ' ' They have all the glowing memory of the past summer and the promise of the spring to come," she used to say. How could one who had, through the weeks 5 HEROINES OF SERVICE of growing things, worked together with and sunshine and generous earth for the har- vest but feel the happy possession of all the year at the time when she saw bins overflowing with brown potatoes, yellow corn, and other gifts of fields and orchard? She could never doubt that, given the waiting earth and faith- ful labor, the harvest was sure. Duties and difficulties were always opportunities for higher endeavor and happier achievement. There was no play in Mary Lyon's child- hood except the play that a healthy, active child may find in varied, healthful work done with a light heart. There was joy in rising before the sun was up, to pick weeds in the dewy garden, to feed the patient creatures in the barn, and to make butter in the cool spring- house. Sometimes one could meet the sunrise on the hill-top, when it happened to be one's turn to bring wood to the dwindling pile by the kitchen door. Then there was the baking golden-brown loaves of bread and tempting apple pies. When the morning mists had quite disappeared from the face of the hills, the blue smoke had ceased to rise from the 6 MAKY LYON chimney of the little farm-house. Then was the time to sit beside Mother and knit or weave, sew or mend, the garments that were home- made, beginning with the moment when the wool, sheared from their own sheep, was carded and spun into thread. For holidays, there were the exciting mornings when they made soap and candles, or the afternoons when they gathered together in the barn for a husk- ing-bee. Beauty walked with Toil, however, about that farm in the hills. Mary had time to lift up her eyes to the glory of the changing sky and to tend the pinks and peonies that throve nowhere so happily as in her mother's old- fashioned garden. "May I plant this bush in the corner with your roses?" asked a neighbor one day. "It is a rare plant of rare virtue, and I know that in your garden it cannot die." As the labor of her hands prospered, as her garden posies blossomed, so the wings of Mary Lyon's spirit grew. No matter how shut in the present seemed, no hope nor dream for the fu- ture died in her heart as the days went by. 7 HEROINES OF SERVICE Her plans only took deeper and deeper j;oot as she worked and waited patiently for the time of flowers and fruit. There were few books to be had, but these yielded her of their best. There was opportunity for but few scattered terms in distant district schools, but she learned there more than the teachers taught. "Anything is interesting when you realize that it is important," she used to say. And to Mary everything was important that was real. She learned not only from books, but from work, from people, from Nature, and from every bit of stray circumstance that came her way. It is said that when the first brick house was built in the village she made a point of learning how to make bricks, turning them up, piling them on the wheelbarrow, and putting them in the kiln. She was always hungry to know and to do, and the harder a thing was the more she seemed to like it. Climbing was ever more fun than trudging along on the level. The years brought changes to the home farm. The older sisters married and went to homes of their own. When Mary was thirteen her mother married again and went away with the 8 MAKY LYON younger children, leaving her to keep house for the only brother, who had from early childhood been her best comrade. The dollar a week given her for her work was saved to pay for a term in the neighboring academy. She also taught in a district school for a while, receiv- ing seventy-five cents a week and board. The nineteen-year-old girl who appeared one day at the Ashfield Academy somehow drew all eyes to her. Her blue homespun dress, with running-strings at neck and waist, was queer and shapeless, even judged by village standards in the New England of 1817. Her movements were impulsive and ungainly and her gait awkward. But it was not the crudity, but the power, of the new-comer that impressed people. Squire White's gentle daughter, the slender, graceful Amanda, gave the loyalty of her best friendship to this interesting and en- thusiastic schoolmate from the hill farm. "She is more alive than any one I know, Father," said the girl, in explanation of her preference. "You never see her odd dress and sudden ways when once you have looked into her face and talked to her. Her face seems 9 HEROINES OF SERVICE lighted from within it isn't just her bright color and red-gold curls; it isn't even her merry laugh. I can't explain what I mean, but it seems as if her life touches mine and it 's such a big, warm, beautiful life!" The traditions of this New England village long kept the memory of her first recitation. On Friday she had been given the first lesson of Adams's Latin Grammar to commit to memory. When she was called up early Mon- day afternoon, she began to recite fluently declensions and conjugations without pause, until, as the daylight waned, the whole of the Latin grammar passed in review before the speechless teacher and dazzled, admiring pu- pils. "How did you ever do it? How could your head hold it all?" demanded Amanda, with a gasp, as they walked home together. "Well, really, I '11 have to own up," said Mary, with some reluctance, "I studied all day Sunday ! It was n't so very hard, though. I soon saw where the changes in the conjuga- tions came in, and the rules of syntax are very much like English grammar." 10 MARY LYON Studying was never hard work to Mary, be- cause she could at a moment's notice put all her attention on the thing at hand. Her busy childhood had taught her to attack a task at once, while others were frequently spending their time thinking and talking about doing it. "No one could study like Mary Lyon, and no one could clean the school-room with such despatch," said one of her classmates. It seemed as if she never knew what it was to be tired. She appeared to have a bound- less store of strength and enthusiasm, as if, through all her growing years, she had made over into the very fiber of her being the energy of the life-giving sunshine and the patience of the enduring hills. Time must be used wisely when all one's little hoard of savings will only pay for the tuition of one precious term. Her board was paid with two coverlets, spun, dyed, and woven by her own hands. "They should prove satisfactory covers," she said merrily, "for they have covered all my needs." On the day when she thought she must bid farewell to Ashfield Academy the trustees 11 HEROINES OF SERVICE voted her free tuition, a gift which, as pupil- teacher, she did her best to repay. The hos- pitable doors of Squire White's dignified resi- dence were thrown open to his daughter's chosen friend, and in this second home she readily absorbed the ways of gracious living the niceties and refinements of dress and man- ners for which there had been no time in the busy farm-house. When the^ course at the academy was com- pleted, the power of her eager spirit and evi- dent gifts led Squire White to offer her the means to go with his daughter to Byfield Semi- nary near Boston, the school conducted by Mr. Joseph Emerson, who believed that young women, no less than their brothers, should have an opportunity for higher instruction. In those days before colleges for women or nor- mal schools, he dreamed of doing something towards giving worthy preparation to future teachers. It was through the teaching and in- spiration of this cultured Harvard scholar and large-hearted man that Mary Lyon learned to know the meaning of life, and to understand aright the longings of her own soul. Years 12 MAEY LYON afterward she said : * 'In my youth I had much vigor was always aspiring after something. I called it longing to study, but had few to di- rect me. One teacher I shall always remember. He taught me that education was to fit one to do good." On leaving Byfield Seminary, Miss Lyon be- gan her life-work of teaching. But with all her preparation for doing and her intense desire to do, she did not at first succeed. The matter of control was not easy to one who would not stoop to rigid mechanical means and who said, "One has not governed a child until she makes the child smile under her government," Be- sides, her sense of humor later one of her chief assets seemed at first to get in the way of her gaining a steady hold on the reins. When she was tempted to give up in discour- agement, she said to herself: "I know that good teachers are needed, and that I ought to teach. 'All that ought to be done can be done.' " To one who worked earnestly in that spirit, success was sure. Five years later, two towns were vying with each other to secure her as a 13 HEROINES OF SERVICE teacher in their academies for young ladies. For some time she taught at Derry, New Hamp- shire, during the warm months, going to her beloved Ashfield for the winter term. Wher- ever she was she drew pupils from the sur- rounding towns and even from beyond the bor- ders of the State. Teachers left their schools to gather about her. She had the power to communicate something of her own enthusiasm and vitality.^ Bright eyes and alert faces testi- fied to her power to quicken thought and to create an appetite for knowledge. "Her memory has been to me continually an inspiration to overcome difficulties," said one of her pupils. "You were the first friend who ever pointed out to me defects of character with the expecta- tion that they would be removed," another pu- pil wrote in a letter of heartfelt gratitude. At this time all the schools for girls, like the Ashfield Academy and Mr. Emerson's seminary at Byfield, were entirely dependent upon the enterprise and ideals of individuals. There were no colleges with buildings and equipment, such as furnished dormitories, libraries, and 14 MAKY LYON laboratories, belonging to the work and the fu- ture. In the case of the most successful schools there was no guarantee that they would endure beyond the lifetime of those whose in- terest had called them into being. Miss Lyon taught happily for several years, often buying books of reference and material for practical illustration out of her salary of five or six dollars a week. The chance for per- sonal influence seemed the one essential. ' ' Never mind the brick and mortar ! ' ' she cried. "Only let us have the living minds to work upon!" As experience came with the years, however, as she saw schools where a hundred young women were crowded into one room without black-boards, globes, maps, and other neces- saries of instruction she realized that some- thing must be done to secure higher schools for girls, that would have the requisite material equipment for the present and security for the future. "We must provide a college for young women on the same conditions as those for men, with publicly owned buildings and fixed standards of work," she said. 15 .This idea could appeal to most people of that day only as a strange, extravagant, and dan- gerous notion. Harvard and Yale existed to prepare men to be ministers, doctors, and law- yers. Did women expect to thrust them- selves into the professions? Why should they want the learning of men? It could do nothing but make them unfit for their proper life in the home. Who had ever heard of a college for girls ! What is unheard of is to most peo- ple manifestly absurd. To Mary Lyon, however, difficulties were op- portunities for truer effort and greater service. She had, besides, a faith in a higher power in a Divine Builder of " houses not made with hands" which led her to say with unshaken confidence, " 'All that ought to be done can be done!' " It was as if she were able to look into the future and see the way time would sift the works of the present. Those who looked into her earnest blue eyes, bright with courage, deep with understanding, could not but feel that she had the prophet's vision. It was as if she had power to divine the difference be- 16 Mary Lyon chapel and administration hall MAEY LYON tween the difficult and the impossible, and, knowing that, her faith in the happy outcome of her work was founded on a rock. It took this faith and hope, together with an unfailing charity for the lack of vision in others and an ever-present sense of humor, to carry Mary Lyon through the task to which she now set herself. She was determined to open peo- ple's eyes to the need of giving girls a chance for a training that would fit them for more use- ful living by making them better teachers, wiser home-makers, and, in their own right, happier human beings. She must not only convince the conservative men and women of her day that education could do these things, but she must make that conviction so strong that they would be willing to give of their hard- earned substance to help along the good work. Those were not the days of large fortunes. Miss Lyon could not depend upon winning the interest of a few powerful benefactors. She must enlist the support of the many who would be willing to share their little. She must per- force have the hardihood of the pioneer, no less than the vision of the seer, to enable her 19 HEROINES OF SERVICE to meet the problems, trials, and rebuffs of^the next few years. "I learned twenty years ago not to get out of patience," she once said to some one who marveled at the unwearied good-humor with which she met the most exasperating circum- stances. First enlisting the assistance of a few ear- nest men to serve as trustees and promoters of the cause, she, herself, traveled from town to town, from village to village, and from house to house, telling over and over again the story of the Mount Holyoke to be, and what it was to mean to the daughters of New England. For the site in South Hadley, Massachusetts, had been early selected, and the name of the neigh- boring height, overlooking the Connecticut River, chosen by the girl who was born in the hills and who believed that it was good to climb. "I wander about without a home," she wrote to her mother, "and scarcely know one week where I shall be the next." All of her journeying was by stage, for at that time the only railroad in New England was 20 MARY LYON the one, not yet completed, connecting Boston with Worcester and Lowell. To those who feared that even her robust health and radiant spirit could not long endure the strain of such a life, she said: "Our personal comforts are delightful, but not essential. Mount Holyoke means more than meat and sleep. Had I a thousand lives, I would sacrifice them all in suffering and hardship for its sake." During these years Miss Lyon abundantly proved that the pioneer does not live by bread alone. Only by the vision of what his strug- gles will mean to those who come after to profit by his labors is his zeal fed. It seemed at the time when Mount Holyoke was only a dream of what might be, and in the anxious days of breaking ground which followed, that Miss Lyon's faith that difficulties are only op- portunities in disguise was tried to the utmost. Just when her enthusiasm was arousing in the frugal, thrifty New Englanders a desire to give, out of their slender savings, a great finan- cial panic swept over the country. Miss Lyon's friends shook their heads. "You will have to wait for better times," they 21 HEROINES OF SERVICE said. "It is impossible to go on with the^un- dertaking now." "When a thing ought to be done, it cannot be impossible," replied Miss Lyon. "Now is the only word that belongs to us ; with the after- while we have nothing to do." In that spirit she went on, and in that spirit girls who had been her pupils gave of their little stipends earned by teaching, and the mothers of '"girls gave of the money earned by selling eggs and braiding palm-leaf hats. "Don't think any gift too small," said Miss Lyon. "I want the twenties and the fifties, but the dollars and the half-dollars, with prayer, go a long way." So Mount Holyoke was built on faith and prayer and the gifts of the many who believed that the time cried out for a means of educat- ing girls who longed for a better training. One hard-working farmer with five sons to edu- cate gave a hundred dollars. "I have no daughters of my own," he said, "but I want to help give the daughters of America the chance they should have along with the boys." Two delicate gentlewomen who had lost their little 22 MAEY LYON property in the panic, earned with their own hands the money they had pledged to the col- lege. Even Miss Lyon's splendid optimism had, however, some chill encounters with small- mindedness in people who were not seldom those of large opportunities. Once when she had journeyed a considerable distance to lay her plans before a family of wealth and in- fluence in the community, she returned to her friends with a shade of thought on her cheer- ful brow. "Yes, it is all true, just as I was told, ' ' she said as if to herself. ' ' They live in a costly house, it is full of costly things, they wear costly clothes but oh, they 're little bits of folks!" Miss Lyon, herself, gave to the work not only her entire capital of physical strength and her gifts of heart and mind, but also her small sav- ings, which had been somewhat increased by Mr. White's prudent investments. And for the future she offered her services on the same conditions as those of the missionary the means of simple livelihood and the joy of the work. 23 HEROINES OF SERVICE "Mount Holyoke is designed to cultivate 4foe missionary spirit among its pupils," declared an early circular, "that they may live for God and do something." Always Miss Lyon emphasized the ideal of an education that should be a training for service. To this end she decided upon the ex- pedient of cooperative housework to reduce running expenses, to develop responsibility, and to provide healthful physical exercise. Long before the day of gymnasiums and active sports, this educator recognized the need of balanced development of physical as well as mental habits. "We need to introduce wise and healthy ideals not only into our minds, but into our muscles," she said. "Besides, there is no dis- cipline so valuable as that which comes from fitting our labors into the work of others for a common good." One difficulty after another was met and van- quished. When the digging for the foundation of the first building was actually under way, quicksand was discovered and another location had to be chosen. Then it appeared that the 24 MAKY LYON bricks were faulty, which led to another de- lay. After the work was resumed and all was apparently going well, the walls suddenly col- lapsed. "Then," said the man in charge, "I did dread to see Miss Lyon. Now, thought I, she will be discouraged." As he hurried towards the ruins, however, whom should he meet but Miss Lyon herself, smiling radiantly! "How fortunate it is that it happened while the men were at breakfast!" she exclaimed. "I understand that no one has been injured ! ' ' The corner-stone was laid on a bright October day that seemed to have turned all the gray chill of the dying year into a golden promise of budding life after the time of frost. "The stones and brick and mortar speak a language which vibrates through my soul," said Miss Lyon. "I have indeed lived to see the time when a body of gentlemen have ventured to lay the corner-stone of an edifice which will cost about fifteen thousand dollars and for an institution for women! Surely the Lord hath remembered our low estate. The work will not stop with this foundation. Our enter- 25 HEROINES OF SERVICE prise may have to struggle through embarrass- ments for years, but its influence will be felt." How lovingly she watched the work go on! When the interior was under way, how care- fully she considered each detail of closets, shelves, and general arrangements for comfort and convenience! When the question of equipment became urgent, how she worked to create an interest that should express itself in gifts of bedroom furnishings, curtains, crockery, and kitchen-ware, as well as books, desks, chairs, and laboratory material! All sorts and conditions of contributions and dona- tions were welcomed. One was reminded of the way pioneer Harvard was at first sup- ported by gifts of "a cow or a sheep, corn or salt, a piece of cloth or of silver plate. ' ' Four months before the day set for the opening, not a third of the necessary furnishing had come in. "Everything that is done for us now," cried Miss Lyon, "seems like giving bread to the hungry and cold water to the thirsty ! ' ' On the eighth of November, 1837, the day that Mount Holyoke opened its door, all was 26 MARY LYON excitement in South Hadley. Stages and pri- vate carriages had for two days been arriving with road-weary, but eager, young women. The sound of hammers greeted their ears. It appeared that all the men, young and old, of the countryside had been pressed into service. Some were tacking down carpet or matting, others were carrying trunks, unloading furni- ture, and putting up beds. Miss Lyon seemed to be everywhere, greeting each new-comer with a word that showed that she already knew her as an individual, putting the shy and home- sick girls to work, taking a cup of tea to one who was overtired from her journey, and di- recting the placing of furniture and the un- packing of supplies. It might well have seemed to those first ar- rivals that they must live through a period of preparation before a reluctant beginning of regular work could be achieved, but in the midst of all the noise of house-settling and the fever of uncompleted entrance examinations the open- ing bell sounded on schedule time and classes began at once. What seemed, at first glance, hopeless confusion became ordered and stimu- 27 lating activity through the generalship and in- spiration of one woman whose watchword was : "Do the best you can now. Do not lose one golden opportunity for doing by merely getting ready to do something. Always remember that what ought to be done can be done.*' This spirit of assured power the will to do became the spirit of those who worked with her, and was in time recognized as "the Mount Holyoke spirit." "I can see Miss Lyon now as vividly as if it were only yesterday that I arrived, tired, hungry, and fearful, into the strange new world of the seminary," said a white-haired grand- mother, her spectacles growing misty as she looked back across the sixty-odd years that separated her from the experiences that she was recalling. "Tell me what you remember most about her," urged her vivacious granddaughter, a Mount Holyoke freshman, home for her Christ- mas vacation. "Was she really such a wonder as they all say?" "Many pictures come to me of Miss Lyon that are much more vivid than those of people 28 MAEY LYON I saw yesterday," pondered the grandmother. "But it was, I think, in morning exercises in seminary hall that she impressed us most. Those who listened to her earnest words and looked into her face alight with feeling could not but remember. Her large blue eyes looked down upon us as if she held us all in her heart. What was the secret of her power? My dear, she was power. All that she taught, she was. And so while her words awakened, her example the life-giving touch of her life gave power to do and to endure." The young girl's bright face was turned thoughtfully towards the fire, but the light that shone in her eyes was more than the reflected glow from the cheerful logs. "It is good to think that a woman can live like that in her work," she ventured softly. The grandmother's face showed an answer- ing glow. ' * There are some things that cannot grow old and die," she said. "One of them is a spirit like Mary Lyon's. When they told us that she had died, we knew that only her bodily presence had been removed. She still lived in our midst we heard the ring of her voice in 29 HEROINES OF SERVICE the words we read, in the words our hearts told us she would say ; we even heard the ring of her laugh! And to-day you may he sure that the woman-pioneer who had the faith to plant the first college for women in America, lives by that faith, not only in her own Mount Holyoke, but in the larger lives of all the women who have profited by her labors." 30 "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY: ALICE FREEMAN PALMER Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow forever and forever. TENNYSON. "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY THIS is the story of a, princess of our own time and our own America a princess who, while little more than a girl herself, was chosen to rule a kingdom of girls. It is a little like the story of Tennyson's ''Princess," with her woman's kingdom, and very much like the happy, old-fashioned fairy-tale. We have come to think it is only in fairy- tales that a golden destiny finds out the true, golden heart, and, even though she masquer- ades as a goose-girl, discovers the ''kingly child" and brings her to a waiting throne. We are tempted to believe that the chance of birth and the gifts of wealth are the things that spell opportunity and success. But this princess was born in a little farm-house, to a daily round of hard work and plain living. That it was also a life of high thinking and rich enjoyment of what each day brought, proved her indeed a "kingly child." 33 HEROINES OF SERVICE ' ' Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous!" said the sage of Concord. So it was with little Alice Freeman. As she picked wild strawberries on the hills, and climbed the apple-tree to lie for a blissful minute in a nest of swaying blossoms under the blue sky, she was, as she said, "happy all over." The trappings of r&yalty can add nothing to one who knows how to be royally happy in gingham. But Alice was not always following the pas- ture path to her friendly brook, or running across the fields with the calling wind, or danc- ing with her shadow in the barn-yard, where even the prosy hens stopped pecking corn for a minute to watch. She had work to do for Mother. When she was only four, she could dry the dishes without dropping one ; and when she was six, she could be trusted to keep the three toddlers younger than herself out of mis- chief. "My little daughter is learning to be a real little mother," said Mrs. Freeman, as she went about her work of churning and baking without an anxious thought. 34 Alice Freeman Palmer It was Sister Alice who pointed out the robin's nest, and found funny turtles and baby toads to play with. She took the little brood with her to hunt eggs in the barn and to see the ducks sail around like a fleet of boats on the pond. When Ella and Fred were wakened by a fearsome noise at night, they crept up close to their little mother, who told them a story about the funny screech-owl in its hollow- tree home. "It is the ogre of mice and bats, but not of little boys and girls," she said. "It sounds funny now, Alice," they whis- pered. "It 's all right when we can touch you." When Alice was seven a change came in the home. The father and mother had some seri- ous talks, and then it was decided that Father should go away for a time, for two years, to study to be a doctor. "It is hard to be chained to one kind of life when all the time you are sure that you have powers and possibilities that have never had a chance to come out in the open," she heard her father say one evening. "I have always 37 HEROINES OF SERVICE wanted to be a doctor; I can never be more than a half-hearted farmer." "You must go to Albany now, James," said the dauntless wife. "I can manage the farm until you get through your course at the medi- cal college ; and then, when you are doing work into which you can put your whole heart, a bet- ter time must come for all of us." "How can you possibly get along?" he asked in amazement. ' ' How can I leave you for two years to be a farmer, and father and mother, too!" "There is a little bank here," she said, taking down a jar from a high shelf in the cupboard and jingling its contents merrily. ' ' I have been saving bit by bit for just this sort of thing. And Alice will help me," she added, smiling at the child who had been standing near looking from father to mother in wide-eyed wonder. "You will be the little mother while I take father's place for a time, won't you, Alice?" "It will be cruelly hard on you all," said the father, soberly. ' ' I cannot make it seem right. ' ' "Think how much good you can do after- ward, ' ' urged his wife. ' ' The time will go very 38 "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY quickly when we are all thinking of that. It is not hard to endure for a little for the sake of 'a gude time coming' a better time not only for us, but for many besides. For I know you will be the true sort of doctor, James." Alice never quite knew how they did manage during those two years, but she was quite sure that work done for the sake of a good to come is all joy. "I owe much of what I am to my milkmaid days," she said. She was always sorry for children who do not grow up with the sights and sounds of the coun- try. "One is very near to all the simple, real things of life on a farm," she used to say. "There is a dewy freshness about the early out-of-door experiences, and a warm wholesome- ness about tasks that are a part of the common lot. A country child develops, too, a responsi- bility a power to do and to contrive that the city child, who sees everything come ready to hand from a near-by store, cannot possibly gain. However much some of my friends may deplore my own early struggle with poverty and hard work, I can heartily echo George Eliot 's boast : 39 "But were another childhood-world my share, ^7 I would be born a little sister there." When Alice was ten years old, the family moved from the farm to the village of Windsor, where Dr. Freeman entered upon his life as a doctor, and where Alice 's real education began. From the time she was four she had, for vary- ing periods, sat on a bench in the district school, but for the most part she had taught herself. At Windsor Academy she had the advantage of a school of more than average efficiency. "Words do not tell what this old school and place meant to me as a girl," she said years afterward. "Here we gathered abundant Greek, Latin, French, and mathematics; here we were taught truthfulness, to be upright and honorable ; here we had our first loves, our first ambitions, our first dreams, and some of our first disappointments. We owe a large debt to Windsor Academy for the solid groundwork of education that it laid." More important than the excellent curriculum and wholesome associations, however, was the influence of a friendship with one of the teach- ers, a young Harvard graduate who was sup- 40 "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY porting himself while preparing for the min- istry. He recognized the rare nature and latent powers of the girl of fourteen, and taught her the delights of friendship with Nature and with books, and the joy of a mind trained to see and appreciate. He gave her an understanding of herself, and aroused the ambition, which grew into a fixed resolve, to go to college. But more than all, he taught her the value of personal in- fluence. "It is people that count," she used to say. "The truth and beauty that are locked up in books and in nature, to which only a few have the key, begin really to live when they are made over into human character. Disembodied ideas may mean little or nothing ; it is when they are 'made flesh' that they can speak to our hearts and minds. ' ' As Alice drove about with her father when he went to see his patients and saw how this true "doctor of the old school" was a physician to the mind as well as the body of those who turned to him for help, she came to a further realization of the truth : It is people that count. "It must be very depressing to have to asso- 41 ciate with bodies and their ills all the time,'* she ventured one day when her father seemed more than usually preoccupied. She never for- got the light that shone in his eyes as he turned and looked at her. "We can't begin to minister to the body until we understand that spirit is all," he said. "What we are pleased to call body is but one expression and a most marvelous expression of the hidden life "that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things." It seemed to Alice that this might be a favora- ble time to broach the subject of college. He looked at her in utter amazement; few girls thought of wanting more than a secondary edu- cation in those days, and there were still fewer opportunities for them. "Why, daughter," he exclaimed, "a little more Latin and mathematics won't make you a better home-maker ! Why should you set your heart on this thing?" "I must go, Father," she answered steadily. "It is not a sudden notion; I have realized for 42 "THE PRINCESS'' OF WELLESLEY a long time that I cannot live my life the life that I feel I have it within me to live without this training. I want to be a teacher the best kind of a teacher just as you wanted to be a doctor. ' ' ' "But, my dear child," he protested, much troubled, "it will be as much as we can manage to see one of you through college, and that one should be Fred, who will have a family to look out for one of these days." ' ' If you let me have this chance, Father," said Alice, earnestly, "I '11 promise that you will never regret it. I '11 help to give Fred his chance, and see that the girls have the thing they want as well." In the end Alice had her way. It seemed as if the strength of her single-hearted longing had power to compel a reluctant fate. In June, 1872, when but a little over seventeen, she went to Ann Arbor to take the entrance examinations for the University of Michigan, a careful study of catalogues having convinced her that the standard of work was higher there than in any college then open to women. A disappointment met her at the outset. Her 43 HEROINES OF SERVICE training at Windsor, good as it was, did not prepare her for the university requirements. "Conditions" loomed mountain high, and the examiners recommended that she spend another year in preparation. Her intelligence and char- acter had won the interest of President Angell, however, and he asked that she be granted a six-weeks ' trial. His confidence in her was jus- tified; for she not only proved her ability to keep up with, her class, but steadily persevered in her double task until all conditions were re- moved. The college years were "a glory instead of a grind," in spite of the ever-pressing necessity for strict economy in the use of time and money. Her sense of values u the ability to see large things large and small things small," which has been called the best measure of education, showed a wonderful harmony of powers. While the mind was being stored with knowl- edge and the intellect trained to clear, orderly thinking, there was never a "too-muchness" in this direction that meant a "not-enoughness" in the realm of human relationships. Always she realized that it is people that count, and her 44 "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY supreme test of education as of life was its " consecrated serviceableness. " President Angell in writing of her said: One of her most striking characteristics in college was her warm and demonstrative sympathy with her circle of friends. Her soul seemed bubbling over with joy, which she wished to share with the other girls. While she was therefore in the most friendly relations with all those girls then in college, she was the radiant center of a consider- able group whose tastes were congenial with her own. Without assuming or striving for leadership, she could not but be to a certain degree a leader among these, some of whom have attained positions only less conspicuous for usefulness than her own. Wherever she went, her genial, outgoing spirit seemed to carry with her an atmosphere of cheerfulness and joy. In the middle of her junior year, news came from her father of a more than usual financial stress, owing to a flood along the SusqUehanna, which had swept away his hope of present gain from a promising stretch of woodland. It seemed clear to Alice that the time had come when she must make her way alone. Through the recommendation of President Angell she secured a position as teacher of Latin and Greek in the High School at Ottawa, Illinois, where she taught for five months, receiving enough 45 HEROINES OF SERVICE money to carry her through the remainder of her college course. The omitted junior work was made up partly during the summer vaca- tion and partly in connection with the studies of the senior year. An extract from a letter home will tell how the busy days went: This is the first day of vacation. I have been so busy this year that it seems good to get a change, even though I do keep right on here at work. For some time I have been giving a young man lessons in Greek every Saturday. I have had two junior speeches already, and there are still more. Several girls from Flint tried to have me go home with them for the vacation, but I made up my mind to stay and do what I could for myself and the other peo- ple here. A young Mr. M. is going to recite to me every day in Virgil; so with teaching and all the rest I shaVt have time to be homesick, though it will seem rather lonely when the other girls are gone and I don't hear the college bell for two weeks. Miss Freeman's early teaching showed the vitalizing spirit that marked all of her relations with people. "She had a way of making you feel 'all dipped in sunshine/ " one of her girls said. "Everything she taught seemed a part of herself," another explained. "It wasn't just something in a book that she had to teach and you had to learn. She made every page of our 46 "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY history seem a part of present life and interests. "We saw and felt the things we talked about." The fame of this young teacher's influence traveled all the way from Michigan, where she was principal of the Saginaw High School, to Massachusetts. Mr. Henry Durant, the foun- der of Wellesley, asked her to come to the new college as teacher of mathematics. She de- clined the call, however, and, a year later, a second and more urgent invitation. Her fam- ily had removed to Saginaw, where Dr. Freeman was slowly building up a practice, and it would mean leaving a home that needed her. The one brother was now in the university; Ella was soon to be married; and Stella, the youngest, who was most like Alice in temperament and tastes, was looking forward hopefully to col- lege. But at the time when Dr. Freeman was be- coming established and the financial outlook be- gan to brighten, the darkest days that the family had ever known were upon them. Stella, the chief joy and hope of them all, fell seriously ill. The "little mother" loved this "starlike girl" as her own child, and looked up to her as one 47 HEROINES OF SERVICE who would reach heights her feet could never" climb. When she died it seemed to Alice that she had lost the one chance for a perfectly un- derstanding and inspiring comradeship that life offered. At this time a third call came to Wellesley, as head of the department of his- tory, and hoping that a new place with new problems would give her a fresh hold on joy, she accepted. Into her college work the young woman of twenty-four put all the power and richness of her radiant personality. She found peace and happiness in untiring effort, and her girls found in her the most inspiring teacher they had ever known. She went to the heart of the history she taught, and she went to the hearts of her pupils. "She seemed to care for each of us to find each as interesting and worth while as if there were no other person in the world,'* one of her students said. Mr. Durant had longed to find just such a person to build on the foundation he had laid. It was in her first year that he pointed her out to one of the trustees. 48 "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY "Do you see that little dark-eyed girl? She will be the next president of Wellesley," he said. "Surely she is much too young and inexperi- enced for such a responsibility," protested the other, looking at him in amazement. "As for the first, it is a fault we easily out- grow," said Mr. Durant, dryly, "and as for her inexperience well, I invite you to visit one of her classes." The next year, on the death of Mr. Durant, she was made acting president of the college, and the year following she inherited the title and honors, as well as the responsibilities and opportunities, of the office. The Princess had come into her kingdom. The election caused a great stir among the students, particularly the irrepressible seniors. It was wonderful and most inspiring that their splendid Miss Freeman, who was the youngest member of the faculty, should have won this honor. Why, she was only a girl like them- selves ! The time of strict observances and tire- some regulations of every sort was at an end. Miss Freeman seemed to sense the prevailing 49 HEROINES OF SERVICE mood, and, without waiting for a formal assem- bly, asked the seniors to meet her in her rooms. In they poured, overflowing chairs, tables, and ranging themselves about on the floor in ani- mated, expectant groups. The new head of the college looked at them quietly for a minute be- fore she began to speak. "I have sent for you seniors,'* she said at last seriously, "to ask your advice. You may have heard that I have been called to the position of acting president of your college. I am, of course, too young; and the duties are, as you know, too heavy for the strongest to carry alone. If I must manage alone, there is only one course to decline. It has, however, occurred to me that my seniors might be willing to help by looking after the order of the college and leav- ing me free for administration. Shall I accept I Shall we work things out together?" The hearty response made it clear that the princess was to rule not only by "divine right," but also by the glad "consent of the governed." Perhaps it was her youth and charm and the romance of her brilliant success that won for her the affectionate title of "The Princess"; 50 "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY perhaps it was her undisputed sway in her king- dom of girls. It was said that her radiant, "outgoing spirit" was felt in the atmosphere of the place and in all the graduates. Her spirit became the Wellesley spirit. "What did she do besides turning all of you into an adoring band of Freeman-followers ? " a "Wellesley woman was asked. The reply came without a moment's hesita- tion : "She had the life-giving power of a true creator, one who can entertain a vision of the ideal, and then work patiently bit by bit to * carve it in the marble real.' She built the Wellesley we all know and love, making it prac- tical, constructive, fine, generous, human, spir- itual." For six years the Princess of Wellesley ruled her kingdom wisely. She raised the standard of work, enlisted the interest and support of those in a position to help, added to the build- ings and equipment, and won the enthusiastic cooperation of students, faculty, and public. Then, one day, she voluntarily stepped down from her throne, leaving others to go on with the work she had begun. She married Profes- 51 HEROINES OF SERVICE sor George Herbert Palmer of Harvard, and^ (quite in the manner of the fairy-tale) " lived happily ever after." "What a disappointment!" some of her friends said. "That a woman of such unusual powers and gifts should deliberately leave a place of large usefulness and influence to shut herself up in the concerns of a single home!" * ' There is nothing better than the making of a true home,' 1 ? said Alice Freeman Palmer. "I shall not be shut away from the concerns of others, but more truly a part of them. 'For love is fellow-service,' I believe." The home near Harvard Yard was soon felt to be the most free and perfect expression of her generous nature. Its happiness made all life seem happier. Shy undergraduates and absorbed students who had withdrawn over- much within themselves and their pet problems found there a thaw after their "winter of dis- content." Wellesley girls even in those days before automobiles did not feel fifteen miles too great a distance to go for a cup of tea and a half-hour by the fire. Many were surprised that Mrs. Palmer never 52 College Hall, destroyed by fire in 1914 Tower Court, which stands on the site of College Hall "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY seemed worn by the unstinted giving of herself to the demands of others on her time and sym- pathy. The reason was that their interests were her interests. Her spirit was indeed "outgoing"; there was no wall hedging in a certain number of things and people as hers, with the rest of the world outside. As we have seen, people counted with her supremely; and the ideas which moved her were those which she found embodied in the joys and sorrows of hu- man hearts. Mrs. Palmer wrote of her days at this time : I don't know what will happen if life keeps on growing so much better and brighter each year. How does your cup manage to hold so much? Mine is running over, and I keep getting larger cups; but I can't contain all my blessings and gladness. We are both so well and busy that the days are never half long enough. Life held, indeed, a full measure of oppor- tunities for service. Wellesley claimed her as a member of its executive committee, and other colleges sought her counsel. When Chicago University was founded, she was induced to serve as its Dean of Women until the oppor- tunities for girls there were wisely established. 55 HEROINES OF SERVICE She worked energetically raising funds for Rad- cliffe and her own Wellesley. Throughout the country her wisdom as an educational expert was recognized, and her advice sought in mat- ters of organization and administration. For several years, as a member of the Massachu- setts State Board of Education, she worked early and late to improve the efficiency and in- fluence of the normal schools. She was a public servant who brought into all her contact with groups and masses of people the simple direct- ness and intimate charm that marked her touch with individuals. "How is it that you are able to do so much more than other people!" asked a tired, nervous woman, who stopped Mrs. Palmer for a word at the close of one of her lectures. 11 Because," she answered, with the sudden gleam of a smile, "I haven't any nerves nor any conscience, and my husband says I have n't any backbone." It was true that she never worried. She had early learned to live one day at a time, without ' ' looking before and after. ' ' And nobody knew better than Mrs. Palmer the renewing power of 56 "THE PRINCESS" OF WELLESLEY joy. She could romp with some of her very small friends in the half -hour before an impor- tant meeting ; go for a long walk or ride along country lanes when a vexing problem confronted her; or spend a quiet evening by the fire read- ing aloud from one of her favorite poets at the end of a busy day. For fifteen years Mrs. Palmer lived this life of joyful, untiring service. Then, at the time of her greatest power and usefulness, she died. The news came as a personal loss to thousands. Just as Wellesley had mourned her removal to Cambridge, so a larger world mourned her earthly passing. But her friends soon found that it was impossible to grieve or to feel for a moment that she was dead. The echoes of her life were living echoes in the world of those who knew her. There are many memorials speaking in dif- ferent places of her work. In the chapel at Wellesley, where it seems to gather at every hour a golden glory of light, is the lovely trans- parent marble by Daniel Chester French, eter- nally bearing witness to the meaning of her in- fluence with her girls. In the tower at Chicago 57 HEROINES OF SERVICE the chimes "make music, joyfully to recalF T her labors there. But more lasting than marble or bronze is the living memorial in the hearts and minds "made better by her presence." For it is, indeed, people that count, and in the richer lives of many the enkindling spirit of Alice Freeman Palmer still lives. OUR LADY OF THE RED CROSS: CLARA BARTON Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me. "The Vision of Sir Launfal." LOWELL. OUR LADY OF THE RED CROSS ' A CHRISTMAS baby! Now isn't that the